Our home uses tank water (which collects run-off from our roof) for the toilets and the washing machine. We have no dryer or microwave (which wouldn't have occurred to me as 'green', but someone said it above me!) I've planted a veggie garden, and we compost al our scraps. We turn our tv, dvd player and PS2 off at the powerpoint when we're not using them, rather than leaving them on standby. We isolate the lights in our living space (one big room is our lounge, dining and kitchen... we can choose just to have the dining section lit - if we're watching tv, we just have a lamp on). Even though it's getting cooler, we've yet to use the heating - we have a bunch of polar-fleece "Nana rugs" for our knees/shoulders. Our hot water and cooktop are natural gas, not electric. We pay an extra $2/week to get "green" electricity -- for every kilowatt of electricity we use, our company promises to purchase one kilowatt of power from renewable sources (there's a solar farm in town).
On the downside... I drive almost 80km to work each day. I can't take public transport (though History Boy could; he's actually going to try it tomorrow). I have a new-ish car, but I want to get one that's more fuel-economical. We're planning on selling HB's old car, and getting him a motorcycle. I'd love solar panels on our roof. I'm planning on planting more in our yard to create shade for next summer - we also want a shadecloth, so we won't need to use the evaporative cooler as much.
On the downside... I drive almost 80km to work each day. I can't take public transport (though History Boy could; he's actually going to try it tomorrow). I have a new-ish car, but I want to get one that's more fuel-economical. We're planning on selling HB's old car, and getting him a motorcycle.
I'd love solar panels on our roof.
I'm planning on planting more in our yard to create shade for next summer - we also want a shadecloth, so we won't need to use the evaporative cooler as much.
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