Do you need a green lawn?

Do you really need to water your lawn? In Halifax, we are very accustomed to seeing rainstorms or rain showers after days of dryness. We often see people running outside to water their lawns during these dry days only to see that the rains come several days later. It's a waste of water and it uses up a precious resource.

We just water are flowers (using baby bath water) and wait for the rain to come water the lawn. We don't really mind a yellow lawn because it never stays yellow for long.

Of course, you can xeriscape and avoid all of this!

The Half Rule

This is something that is very interesting and could potentially alter your habits.

The Half Rule is essentially a rule were a mental game - depending on how you see it- whereby you try to cut back to 1/2 of what you just consumed or did.

That is....

- Could I have washed clothes on half that amount of detergent?
- Could I've only eaten half of that?
- Can I shower for half as long?
- Can I use half as much hairspray?

Try to challenge yourself on that.

Kill A Watt-updates

Television - uses 44W on standby! 200W when powered on.

If you leave it on all year....

44/1000*.115*365*24= $44/year

Our computers and server had wattages of between 130 and 103W when running, and around 5-12W on standby. We replaced both of their power supplies with ultra-efficient 80Plus ones, and are now running between 93 and 69W respectively. The server is on all year, 24x7 and we will save approximately 30W - around $30/year. The power supply costed around $50, so in a year and a half, it will have paid for itself. That is good return on investment, especially since the power supply will be much more reliable.

Everything else was fairly standard in terms of energy consumption. The microwave used some phantom powerand has now been put on a power bar.

So, it is definitely very interesting to see how much goes to waste inside your home when you have things plugged in and think that they are not using any energy whatsoever. Go to the library and get yourself one of these energy measuring devices because it will save yourself and your family a lot of money.

Phantom Power + Kill A Watt Meter - free from Library!

Check this out:

http://catalogue.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12023D08DB437.6847&profile=hpl&uri=link=3100006~!1526125~!3100001~!3100043&aspect=subtab431&menu=search&ri=3&source=~!horizon&term=Energy+saving+meter+Compteur+pour+%C3%A9conomies+d%27%C3%A9nergie.&index=ALLTITL

This is from Conserve Nova Scotia. You can get this power meter (Kill-A-Watt) from the library for free. It'll tell you how much energy is running through those appliances even though they're turned off!

Try it! We'll publish our results in a later blog posting, probably.