SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Rent your movies from home and save energy

Posted on March 3, 2009
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week | Leave a Comment

219070257_6cc5b4a18bBetween the recent Oscars, the mighty winter storm blowing through the eastern part of the country, and also simply everyone’s love for cinema, I thought it would be worth sharing an Energy Smart tip this week about enjoying movies at home.

Being able to rent movies without having to go to the video store is definitely no big secret. Pointing and clicking the remote to access a new release, or simply downloading a random classic film online (legally) is something many of us like to take advantage of.

In addition to being able to enjoy a good pop corn flick without ever having to leave your living room to rent it, downloading or renting movies on demand is also the Energy Smart way to home theatre entertainment.

Think about it–they typically cost about the same to rent from home as they do from the store, and you’ll be saving the energy and money you’d use in gas (not to mention the time spent meandering around the video store).

At the very cool, new social networking Web site, ClimateCulture.com, you can punch in how often you rent movies, how far the store is, etc. and find out exactly how much money you’ll save, and how much CO2 you’ll prevent from polluting the air.

Check it out. And be sure to also click over to the SmartPower Blog for more stories, tips, and news blurbs about the world of clean energy and energy efficiency.

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Why light an empty room?

Posted on February 25, 2009
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week | Leave a Comment

mr_d48fa37294c394by Brian Keane

As our good friend Elizabeth notes in the latest SmartPower Minute, we can save money and energy, and reduce air pollution by simply remembering to turn off lights when we leave a room.

I know what you may be thinking—‘Yeah, yeah, SmartPower, that’s the same thing my mom and dad told me my whole childhood. ‘

Well, I have those same, um, fond memories too. But we all know that many of us still have a tendency to leave lights on in rooms and areas of the house that are not used or occupied.  Of course, lights offer aesthetic and security value in addition to simply allowing us to get around an area easier at night.

But think about how often you may leave the basement or upstairs bedroom lights on during dinnertime. And consider how many times you may also leave lights on in the bathroom or kitchen, the garage or the back patio, simply out of habit.

According to the Energy Smart social networking site, ClimateCulture.com, someone can save $18 a year simply by turning off three lights in the house for a couple hours a day.  That also reduces your home’s CO2 pollution by 155 lbs. a year.

So Let’s Get Energy Smart and start turning off the lights when we leave the room.  (Motion sensors like the one in the picture can do the work for us.) Like all of our SmartTips, flipping a switch to stop waste helps us save money, while also being part of the solution to combat global climate change.

Brian Keane is the President of SmartPower.

Cross-posted at Shine from Yahoo.

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: When you buy a computer, buy a laptop

Posted on February 19, 2009
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week | Leave a Comment

laptopby Brian Keane

There are plenty of obvious benefits to purchasing a laptop computer over a desktop unit. Typically, laptops are usually a lot cheaper (depending on what makes and models you’re comparing) and you can take them anywhere except on a snorkeling adventure.

But you should also know, as our good friend Elizabeth points out in the latest SmartPower Minute, that purchasing a laptop is also the Energy Smart choice to make for your home.

According to the very cool, and Energy Smart, social networking Web site ClimateCulture.com, desktop computers generally use 80% percent more energy than a laptop. That’s an enormous difference in energy use. So, let’s say you you’re on your computer five hours a day (some of you may use yours way more, and others way less, for sure). With that amount of use, a laptop will save you over $25 a year more than a desktop in energy costs.

Also, a laptop user will be responsible for saving nearly 480 lbs. of CO2 pollution from going into the air each year, compared to a desktop user.  Imagine the millions and millions of pounds of pollution we could save by making the choice to buy a laptop. So remember that there is a genuine value in selecting a laptop over a desktop – you will reduce the amount of CO2 released into the air, while also saving some real money.

Brian Keane is the President of SmartPower.

Cross-posted at Shine from Yahoo.

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Let’s get young people Energy Smart

Posted on February 12, 2009
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week | Leave a Comment

mr_fd5c39ec9801d6by Brian Keane

SmartPower is launching an all-new Web site to help inspire young people to be smarter about the energy they use—LetGetEnergySmart.com!

Our good friend Elizabeth will tell you more about it in the latest SmartPower Minute, too.

Whether you are the parent of high school or college student, or a young student yourself, you know that today’s generation of teenagers and college students use more electronics and energy than any in history.
And who can blame them.  There is just so much cool and convenient technology available. Even, I have a Wii, an iPhone and all sorts of other gadgets—and it’s been a couple moons since I’ve been in a dorm room (I mean . . . not too many).

When you go to LetsGetEnergySmart.com, you’ll get connected to excellent stuff that can help you or someone you know find different, unique ways to conserve energy and be more energy efficient.

For starters, you will be connected to the social networking Web site ClimateCulture.com.  On Climate Culture you will find a unique virtual world that you can trick out with solar panels, windmills and other clean energy stuff as you commit to taking small steps to reduce your real world energy use.  And you’ll be able to connect with others, who are joining by the thousands, the same way you can on Facebook or MySpace.

LetsGetEnergySmart.com also connects you to the America’s Greenest Campus contest, where you’ll learn how you can win big money for your school or Alma Mater to go towards its campus environmental efforts.

Something else important is that you’ll be able to learn about the SmartPower $10,000 Energy Smart Ad Challenge.  Basically, we’re giving away $10K to who ever can create the best 30-second ad that will inspire other young people to be more Energy Smart.

So, click over to LetsGetEnergySmart.com and find out about all the different ways you can get involved in the Energy Smart movement, save energy, save and even win some money!

Brian Keane is the President of SmartPower.

Cross-posted at Shine from Yahoo.

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Cook it under pressure

Posted on January 28, 2009
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week | Leave a Comment

crockpotby Brian Keane

How many of you reading this blog have an electric pressure cooker or some other countertop cooking device stuffed away in the recesses of your kitchen cabinets?

They seem like the kind of appliances we get for the holidays, or pick up at the store on a random whim and then hardly ever use. Am I right?

Well, check it out; when you use an electric pressure cooker, crock pot or electric steamer, you’re actually being Energy Smart. That’s right. It turns out that these devices save you more money and create less pollution than just using the stove top.

According to the Web site ClimateCulture.com—where you can create your own virtual world, and join an online Facebook-like community to help track the real-world actions you take to save energy—the potential for savings from these appliances is big time.

For instance, using an electric pressure cooker to do more of your cooking can save you nearly $100 a year, while reducing your CO2 emissions by 600 lbs! Also, by breaking out that steamer you thought you’d never use, not only will you cook your veggies in a way that keeps more of their nutritional value, but you’ll save roughly $20 a year more than you would by cooking them on the stove top. The same savings are possible when you use a crock pot.

So, it turns out that some of those items you recognize from infomercials and then see later when you clean the cupboards are actually practical appliances we can use to prepare food in a way that’s Energy Smart. Who knew?

Let’s Get Energy Smart!
Brian Keane is the President of SmartPower.

Cross-posted at Shine from Yahoo.

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Support America by being Energy Smart

Posted on January 21, 2009
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week | Leave a Comment

flag 1by Brian Keane

You know that being Energy Smart saves you money and helps the environment—we reduce the amount of energy we purchase, which lessens the amount of fossil fuels that have to be burned.

And while being smarter about the energy we use helps our wallets and the planet, it also simply helps our country.  (In the latest SmartPower Minute video blog, our friend Elizabeth even talks about the great ways this historic inauguration week was Energy Smart.)

Between our heavily stressed electric grid that brings power into our homes, the devastating ways we are now forced to find coal and the amount of oil we import from foreign countries, it’s easy to see that using less energy is an important, everyday way to contribute to a stronger nation.

Whether you do things in the home that are more energy efficient (using Energy Star appliances, programmable thermostats, etc.) or simply avoid waste by conserving energy (remembering to turn off lights, unplug phone chargers, etc.) you are helping to ease our country’s energy demand.

It’s smart, it’s helpful and it’s patriotic.

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Don’t get fooled again

Posted on January 14, 2009
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week | Leave a Comment

mission accomplished 1by Brian Keane

A recent story in Parade magazine began with the uplifting–but curious–headline “Green Goes Mainstreamâ€?.

The article points out several ways that energy sustainability grew in the U.S. throughout 2008, and how consumers are coming around to being Energy Smart—from more shoppers carrying reusable grocery bags to more drivers than ever sitting behind the wheel of hybrid.

Like our friend Elizabeth talks about in the latest SmartPower Minute, it is definitely newsworthy to highlight the ways Americans are becoming smarter about the energy we use. However, it is also valuable to use some caution about saying Green is now mainstream.  As someone who spends every day marketing clean energy, I feel like if I were to tell folks that the U.S. has “Gone Green�, it would be a lot like standing under a banner that said “mission accomplished� when the mission just started.

We’ve come a long way, but we have so much more to do before our country can say we are generating and using energy in a way that is good for our economy and our society—our homes and our planet.

So this week’s SmartTip is simply to stay dedicated to being smarter about the energy we use.

Check out our SmartTips from last year, and make the easy move to incorporate these simple actions into your daily life.  Taking these thoughtful steps will not only save you money, but will also allow you to do your part to stop wasting energy and save the environment.

Just think, when one of us remembers to unplug our cell phone charger, we save nearly 20 pounds of carbon a year from polluting the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.

If everyone in New York City (had a cell phone and) unplugged the same way it would save 165,000,000 lbs.  What about if everyone in Texas unplugged? 470 million lbs.

You get the idea.  Happy New Year! And . . .

Let’s Get Energy Smart!

Brian Keane is the President of SmartPower.

Cross-posted at Shine from Yahoo.

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Energy Smart Resolution #1—Cut back on your TV consumption

Posted on January 7, 2009
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

remoteby Brian Keane

Happy New Year SmartTip readers!

Well, right now the gyms across America are filling up as most of us are committing to that new workout regimen that we’re really going to stick to this year. But as we embark on our diets to shed some of our holiday indulgences, let’s also take a note from Elizabeth in the new SmartPower Minute and commit to an energy diet around the house.

To be sure, there are plenty of Energy Smart actions we can each take that would fall into the “self improvement� category.  Of course, I’m not talking about jogging to work every day or anything unrealistic and ridiculous.

But think, for instance, about how often you leave the TV on while you are not even watching a program.  It’s quite common to leave the television on when messing around the house doing other stuff.  One of my colleagues even told me recently that his dad leaves the TV on for his dog while he’s out of the house.

Now, I’m not going to be a hypocrite and tell you not to watch TV. However, I do know that the website ClimateCulture.com provides figures that show cutting your TV time by an hour a day can save you $10 a year, while reducing your annual carbon emissions by 70 pounds.

And that’s not a bad reward for simply letting the tube stay off!

Here’s to an Energy Smart 2009!

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Looking back on an Energy Smart 2008!

Posted on December 31, 2008
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

smartpowerlogoby Brian Keane

We hope Shine readers are going to look back on 2008 as the year they started to think more about the energy they use around the home.

So many of you contributed to the important conversation on this blog about the ways we can save energy through simple, easy, every day actions.  And more and more individuals across the country and throughout the world are now understanding how we can save money and reduce pollution by getting Energy Smart.

Knowing that this will be our last SmartTip of 2008, we thought it would be worthwhile to highlight the 2008 SmartTips that generated the most feedback, as well as the newest SmartPower Minute.

SmartPower definitely took note that the tip most people responded to was on using power strips around the home. Using a power strip is such a significant, easy and important way to reduce our home energy consumption—and it was cool to see that a lot of Shine readers had some good thoughts about that.

There was also a great response to our post on how putting a full load of dishes in the dishwasher will use less energy than hand washing that same load. (I like to think that this tip won us a fair amount of fans. I know I smiled from ear to ear when I learned about it.)

Shine readers certainly had a lot to say about our post on the energy we can save from not losing the dryer sheets, as well as trying to always use cold water to wash our laundry.

Other posts discussed walking or biking with your kids to school (maybe my favorite), taking shorter (and smarter) showers and making sure turn the coffee maker on.

Each of these SmartTips provided us one more way to save money, save energy and help the planet.

Let’s look to 2009 as an even greater opportunity for each of us to be smarter about the energy we use.

Let’s Get Energy Smart!

SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Pack that oven full

Posted on December 24, 2008
Filed Under SmartTips of the Week | 1 Comment

oven

by Brian Keane

There’s a good chance that wherever you’re celebrating the holidays, there will probably be a massive cooking operation going on. (Which is so awesome . . .)

This holiday season, though, let’s all get Energy Smart by keeping in mind how much energy we can save by maximizing the oven’s energy.

What do I mean by “maximizing� your oven’s energy? Optimize your oven space and stuff it full so you can cook more than one dish at a time—just like Elizabeth talks about in the latest SmartPower Minute.

The website ClimateCulture.com—a fun and incredibly informative sight—reports that a household can easily save $40 a year by doubling up on the amount of food cooked in the oven at a time.  (Of course, this can really only happen when the foods you’re preparing need to be cooked at the same temperature.)

This is a win-win-win situation.  Your meal is ready faster, your friends and family are fed and festive, and you get to flex some Energy Smart holiday muscle by being more energy efficient in the home.

Happy Holidays from SmartPower!

Let’s Get Energy Smart!

Cross-posted at Shine from Yahoo.

Brian Keane is the President of SmartPower.

keep looking »

Recently


Categories


Archives