Brit Invention Saves You Money

You might be unfamiliar with how refrigerators work, I know I was. Apparently, there is a little sensor in your fridge that measures the temperatures of the air as it circulates inside. Funny thing is, air heats up faster than the object stored in your ice box so the machine is working over time to cool just the air when your food is remaining at the same temperature.

Enter British inventors. The British have invented a small wax cube that fits over the fridge air sensor and mimics the temperature of food rather than air. Because your fridge accounts for 1/5 of your total energy bill, this little piece of wax could save you a chunk of change.

In the London, the device was tested on the Riverbank Park Plaza hotel's 140 refrigerators and freezers. Energy use decreased by 30%, saving 17,000 pounds or about $34,000 in a year. Bugger!

Hopefully the precious little cube will hit the US soon. In the mean time, its estimated that the UK can save 2 million tons (or in Brit speak "tonnes") in carbon dioxide emissions per year using it.

Go here for more...

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2036183,00.html

Algae Blooms Kill California Animals

Sad news on a Friday, and I'm sorry. Apparently algae blooms off the coast of California are killing birds, sea lions and dolphins who are washing up in San Diego and San Francisco.

Algae blooms are the result of two things. One, abundance of nutrients (called nutrient loading) in a body of water. And two, warm water temperatures. The ocean is unusually warm and the run-off of fertilizers, pesticides, and waste has created a perfect storm for the blooms.

What is bad for humans is the fact that fish consume toxic algae then pass it off to us when we consume the fish. The sea lions and pelicans dieing are an indication that the fish they are eating are tainted. A "canary in a coal mine" situation, if you will.

We can protect ourselves, the ocean, and the animals by cutting back on fertilizers which get washed into the ocean. We can also shop at local farmers markets which play host to smaller farms who are less prone to using tons of fertilizer to maximize output.

Read more here...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18347719/

Make Love, Not Global Greenhouse Emissions

Turns out living alone is kind of bad for the environment (what isn't these days?). All you people occupying a home alone, lighting up your house and keeping it comfortable, are using more power per person than a family of four. This according to a Canadian study.

Whats a single earth loving person to do? Get hitched! If you are single and looking for love in all the wrong co-ops & farmers' markets maybe its time to turn to the internet.

Here are some great green dating sites...

http://greensingles.com/
http://green-passions.com/
http://www.greendrinks.org/

And if passion for the environment turns to passion for eachother, Treehugger.com has some tips on greening your sex life here...

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/how-to-green-your-sex-life.php

EPA Disobeying Supreme Court?

Everybody heard about the Supreme Court decision that the EPA not only has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, but they better have a darned good excuse when they don't actively regulate them. I think most people understand that disobeying the Supreme Court is a big no-no. We're talking about a court with the power to ship you out of the country if you don't behave.

Apparently the EPA is not home to "most people." They are proposing a new rule for power plants that would allow those plants to expand their operations without first adding additional pollution controls. This would result in greater release of greenhouse gases and soot that makes our air dirty and our children sick. Why would the EPA let power plants do such a thing when they're supposed to be increasing control over global warming gases not reducing it?

The EPA claims its a case of oranges and apples. They say the Supreme Court decision doesn't impact this new rule. I say this is fishy and regardless of whether or not the decision effects this new rule, the EPA needs to take a completely new approach to their regulations and stop thinking with a pre-global warming mentality.

Read all about it here...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18331591/

Plant a Billion Trees

During 2007, the United Nations wants the worldwide population to plant a total of a billion trees. A BILLION! That is a lot of trees. They are urging this in an effort to fight global climate change and to replace the many, many trees removed every year for development and lumber.

The cool thing is that you can actually pledge online the number of trees you plan on planting for the effort. If you thought the billion tree target was a little ridiculous, they already have pledges of 808,733,559. All you need to do is commit to planting 191,266,441 trees. I'll do you the favor of pledging to plant 2 myself.

By the way, most cities offer free trees if you will plant them. Call up your city and ask if they have such a program.

Go here to make your pledge http://environment.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=environment&cdn=newsissues&tm=23&f=10&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/

Your Plasma TV Is Costing You More Moola

The smart folks at Cnet.com measured power usage by all those fancy new flat screen TV's and found some unsettling news, they suck up the power. Now of course this doesn't mean you should toss your favorite gadget in the house.

Cnet assembled these smart tips on how to conserve power while keeping your home technologically advanced...

Turn the TV off when it's not being used
Sure, this one's obvious, but it's easy to get into the habit of leaving the TV on as "background" when you're not really watching it. And while TVs still consume power in standby mode, it's a tiny fraction of what they draw when they're actually on. Old habits die hard, but you'll be saving yourself some bucks if you remember this tip.

Turn down the LCD's backlight
Many LCDs give you the ability to control the intensity of the backlight in the TV. By turning down the backlight, you'll lower power consumption, but also make the TV less bright. While retail stores love to turn the backlights up all the way for their displays, we find that we get the best image quality when we turn down the backlight significantly--sometimes even all the way off.

Turn on the power-saver mode
Many TVs these days come with a power-saver mode that's designed to cut down the power consumption. Performance of this mode varies from model to model, with the effect sometimes being drastic and other times providing only a slight savings. The only downside is that the power-saver mode usually makes the TV less bright, but we've found that sometimes this has a beneficial effect on the image quality, especially with the room lights turned off, in which case it's a win-win situation.

Reduce light output with other settings
Many people buy a TV, turn it on, and never think to change the picture settings. Not only is that bad for the picture quality, it's bad for power consumption. Most TVs are very bright by default, and that leads to using more juice. One of the first things a professional calibrator will usually do is turn down the light output--which is traditionally controlled primarily by "contrast" or "picture" controls--along with several other adjustments that will maximize the performance of your TV.

So what if you want some of the benefits of a calibration but don't want to pay the dough? Don't worry, CNET has you covered. All of our recent TV reviews are published with the settings our reviewers found appropriate for a completely darkened room--you can access them by clicking on "Tips & Tricks" at the top of a TV review (here's an example of what they look like). Of course these settings aren't optimized for your specific home theater equipment as a professional calibration would be, but they come closer than the default settings for most people.

How much savings can you get by reducing light output? The Imaging Science Foundation, an organization that provides professional calibration services, estimates that their calibrations can save 30 to 50 percent of your set's current energy consumption. On the Panasonic TH-58PX600U that we tested before and after our own calibration, we found the power consumption drop from 442 watts pre-calibration to 318 watts afterward, a 28 percent drop.

Control room lighting
Many of these tips are going to make the TV less bright, but that can be compensated by controlling the light in your home theater room. While this may be a little overboard just for power consumption, limiting the light in your home theater also goes a long way toward creating the "theater" experience, as well as getting the most out of your TV.

And beyond TV concerns, good-quality blackout shades offer thermal benefits that keep other energy costs low; they keep heat in during the winter and keep it out during the summer.

Buy a smaller screen
If you're looking to buy a new TV, you can limit your power consumption by buying a smaller set. This doesn't always exactly hold--for example, rear-projection sets are often larger and draw less power than plasma TVs--but once you pick your display technology, going smaller will almost always use less juice. As always, you can compensate for smaller screen size, to a point, by sitting closer to the screen. Check out our rough screen size vs. seating distance guidelines for more info.

Watch TV together
Having multiple TVs in a house is more of a norm than a luxury these days, but that also means your power consumption is going to increase as well. You can cut that power consumption by watching with your family or housemates. You might need to make a few compromises on what you watch, but sometimes it's more fun to watch with friends and family.

Watch less TV
Instead of sitting down for another dose of reality TV, you could opt for reality instead. Not only might you get some exercise, but you'll be cutting your energy bill.