Category Archives: Eco Friendly Home

Now That’s a Cool Refrigerator!

It’s not often you can get me excited about an appliance. They’re nice and useful, generally speaking, but not exciting. But when I saw the Sub-Zero PRO-48 over on Hippyshopper, I had to take a look. Any refrigerator that is rated as using less electricity than a 100 watt lightbulb is pretty interesting in my book.

I must say I like many of the design features. LEDs make a lot of sense for lighting. And it manages to have those little luxuries like a built in water filter, ice maker, two compressors and three evaporators. And I like how they have the produce drawers separate from the rest of the refrigerator. That actually makes sense to me that you can have different foods stored separately like that. I wonder how much that does for efficiency?

It’s also quite simply huge. 884 liters capacity.

I will admit I’m not a big fan of the stainless steel look, though. It just looks cold and commercial to me. I like my appliances to look like they’re a part of my kitchen, not something that belongs in a professional kitchen.

We won’t discuss the price of this beast, of course. Suffice it to say that it goes far beyond most people’s budget… more than some cars, in fact.

Technorati Tags: , ,

PBS Planning Earth Friendly Programming for Earth Day

I read this over on Green Options and thought I would share it with my fellow parents. My daughter loves watching PBS Kids, so we’ll probably catch a few of these shows.

The lineup isn’t just children’s programming, of course, but that’s the part that interests me most. With a 4 year old and a 2 year old, children’s programming is a big part of what appears on our television. And of course the chance for the kids to get environmentally responsible ideas is a good thing always.

This all starts late in March and runs through April.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Do You Have Enough Ceiling Fans in Your Home?

As you probably know, air conditioners are real energy hogs when it comes to cooling your home. And with summer coming up fast, now is a good time to get some ceiling fans installed if you don’t have enough of them yet.

Farreys.com asked me to come over and take a look at their ceiling fan offers. That’s an easy thing to do, because I love ceiling fans. Farreys has a nice selection of ceiling fan specials for those who want a nice looking ceiling fan, something better than the base model from Home Depot, yet not break the bank.

I find my ceiling fan effective enough that even where I live, in a part of San Diego county that regularly gets over 100 degrees during the summer, I hardly ever need to turn on the air conditioner. And it’s only in one room. I’d love to have more, but we rent and so the one is it. Keeping the blinds closed and as many lights off as possible during the day, combined with just allowing myself to adapt to warmer temperatures, does the rest. Continue reading →

Disposal of Fluourescent Bulbs

I’ve been considering going to compact fluorescent bulbs for a while, but the disposal issue has bothered me for a while. They have mercury in them, so they are more hazardous to just throw out. But I didn’t know how to handle it.

But there’s a story on one of my local news station’s website about how we’re supposed to handle them. I actually hadn’t been aware that in San Diego it is against the law to throw out fluorescent bulbs. For city residents, the landfill has a hazardous material disposal site where you can make a Saturday appointment to get rid of your bulbs.

But I’m not within San Diego limits. Fortunately, it turns out that Ikea does fluorescent bulb recycling too. Now this is not exactly convenient to me, as they’re at least a half hour drive away if traffic is good. But I certainly like that they offer this service.

I’d love to see other retail stores offer this kind of service. Walmart, Target and Home Depot immediately come to mind as places that sell the bulbs. Be very handy if they helped with the disposal too. Continue reading →