Carl Hutzler’s Blog

(see down below for Al’s recommendations)

1. Rylan started buying compact florescent bulbs. We use them as the old tungsten bulbs burn out. They are really nice. The only downsides are that they take 20 seconds to “warm up” to their full brightness and I don’t think you can use them on dimmers.

And these downsides are not terrible. The warm up phase is nice when waking up the kids in the morning….its not immediately bright when you switch on the recessed lighting in their room. And the dimmer thing is no big deal. We just keep tungstens in the lights that we dim. They tend to be lights we use less frequently anyway.

2. We don’t have any outdoor lights to speak of.

3. I have a heat pump and everything I understand says that a programmable thermostat is not recommended for a heat pump system.

4. I changed my furnace (blower) air filter from one of those electrostatic ones to just a huge filter (20 x 24 x 4″). Not only does it last for a whole year! but it also is more efficient from an air flow perspective. If you have one of those electrostatic air filters, you might look into it.

5. I guess I should get a blanket for my hot water heater. Home Depot, here we come :-)

Five things you can buy

1. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs

These energy-efficient bulbs cost less than $4 and are produced by major corporations like GE. If every household in America switched five regular light bulbs for five fluorescent bulbs, it would be the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the highways for a full year.

2. Outdoor solar lighting

These yard or patio lights cost less than $20, and they don’t burn any electricity or produce any CO2.

3. Programmable thermostats

Though these thermostats cost from $50 to $100, they can actually cut your heating and cooling costs. Set the setting so it’s a little bit cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer when you’re not in the house. A difference of 2 degrees can reduce a home’s CO2 emissions by up to 9 percent over the course of a year.

4. Air filters

Changing the air filters in your heating and cooling systems regularly can knock 2 percent off of your CO2 output each year.

5. Electric water heater blanket

Water heaters use a lot of energy and generate a lot of CO2. A blanket costs less than $18 and can cut your home’s CO2 emissions by almost 4½ percent.