Carbon Footprint

[thechick]

All the air travel I have been doing this year has got me thinking about the size of my carbon footprint. There are websites where one can pay a non-profit organization to do things like support solar and wind based energy plants or plant trees for you. I'd prefer to do more on my own though. With monsoon season here in NM I have been thinking

Comments

[tiamat_dragon]

I lived once with a family that used rain water to water plants and even to flush their toilet. I can't remember how they did it.

It's kinda gross, but in the morning when I do my tinkle. If Wally is awake and needs to tinkle too, I go first and then he tinkles and then flushes the toilet. You can't do that the other way due to splash back.

Dishes. I get the scrubbie wet and usually someone has put water in one of the dishes and I use that as the water to scrub the dishes before putting in dishwasher. Running dishwasher as full as possible helps.

For showers if you have to do something that takes a while like shaving legs or long hair, turn the water off and then turn it back on to finish the rinsing. Buy a water saving shower head. I have also plugged up the bath during shower to use for leg shaving and splashed the leftover water to rinse the legs. Also using a wet towel outside bathing time works.

The TV tells me that there are government incentives to put up solar panels that may even be free in some areas.

Cars. Once Brian's monies is enough to pay for his car repair, we are going to move the truck to a only sometimes vehicle. Brian who has a longer commute will use my very fuel efficient Neon (35mpg freeway) and Wally will use Brian's less fuel efficient car (much better than truck) for his short commute. For short distances walking is a probability. I take transit when my seizures allow me to do so safely.

[thechick]

When I was a kid there was the gross motto of "If its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down."

Solar panels are something I am going to look into when Chuck and I buy a house. The technology for them is getting better and more efficient every year. Hopefully by the time we buy a house it will be easily affordable to use solar power.

[elegantelbow]

There's a solar panel plan, now, that let's you finance your panels, and then pay them off with your PNM savings + any money you earn from PNM.

Most people don't talk about this -- but solar panels are *far* more efficient with heating hot water than with turning sun into electricity. So you might consider putting in under-floor radiant heating and/or a booster for your water heater.

Not that you asked my opinion. ;)