As we become more and more conscious of the effects that our lifestyles have on the environment, we need to consider ways that we can be eco-responsible in all aspects of our lives, including home décor. Even small changes in paint choice and flooring can have a large impact. Here are five tips you can use to make your home not only beautiful, but also environmentally friendly. 1. Axe the Age-Old Appliances. This is not just about having the hottest, shiny new thing. Older appliances often use more energy than necessary. Make sure that all of your appliances are Energy Star-rated. Replaced appliances can often be recycled so be sure to check for local options. 2. Treat Your Windows Well. Select curtains that not only complement your color scheme, but that also have thermal lining. Thermal-lined curtains can significantly lower your heating and cooling costs. 3. Paint with Purpose. Paint can completely change the look and mood of a room. When selecting the shades that you will use to create the right look for your room, choose non-VOC options. VOCs are volatile organic compounds and create the fumes you typically smell from paint. 4. LED the Way. When it comes to eco-friendly lighting, LED (light emitting diode) is the way to go. LED bulbs consume less energy and can last for up to 20 years. You can purchase LED lamps or just install LED bulbs in the lamps you already have. 5. Reclaim, Repurpose, Reuse. You don’t always have to buy brand new furniture to spruce up your place. Thrift stores are a treasure trove of great furniture finds for a fraction of the cost. You can also ask friends and relatives for any pieces that are in good condition, but they no longer need or want. Also consider updating furniture that you have by painting or reupholstering to give it a new look. By making a few conscious design choices, your home can be both design forward and eco-friendly. Go forth and decorate! Tags: Electricity Bill Household Applicances, home decor, LED
Thursday, August 11, 2011
5 Tips on Creating an Eco-Friendly Home
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
All-electric, hybrid, and diesel all-in-one!
We just posted some great videos highlighting green cars from the Washington DC Auto Show (Watch SobukaTV), and we found one more cool car worth mentioning, the amazing Volvo V60! Most car manufacturers pick a specific efficient technology and design the car around it, but the engineers at Volvo decided to merge three different technologies into one! The V60′s front wheels are are powered by the five-cylinder 2.4 liter D5 turbo-diesel engine (215 horsepower and 320 foot-pounds of torque). The rear wheels are powered by a 70 horsepower electric motor that gets its juice from a 12 kilo-watt-hour lithium ion battery pack. The car comes with a six-speed automatic transmission. Volvo estimates the car will be in European showrooms by 2012, and it seems like it will be a while until we get it here in the US. With Europe’s diesel prices at approximately $7.80/gallon compared to the $3.80/gallon in the US, you can’t be mad at them for that… but we need such cars here too! (viaTreehugger, wired, and volvo) Tags: electric, green cars, green tech, hybrid, plug-inX V60, volvo
Monday, August 8, 2011
Saving Money With Public Transportation
For the past two and a half years, John has been commuting back and forth from Washington, DC to Baltimore, MD, a 100 mile round trip. Until one day home, John got into a car accident. (Don’t worry he was not hurt.)
After the accident, he was trying to figure out how much he could save with public transportation, a much cleaner alternative than driving.
So one day he drafted the following questions along with his responses to analyze the cost of public transportation vs driving. The follow is his analysis:
1.) What time does my job start and end?
John’s response: 8am to 4:30 pm.
2.) Are there bus routes, rail, or combo-metro routes leading from my home to work?
John’s response: Yes. I can take the DC metro, bus F4, from Prince George’s Plaza Station to New Carrollton Station (MD). Then from New Carrollton, I can take the Marc Train to Baltimore Penn Station.
3.) Is the cost of driving a new car effective anyway?
Cost of Driving:
- Cost of comprehensive insurance per month: $200.00 (before the accident)
- Cost of fuel per week given 100/mile day commute: $40.00 (2001 Toyota Corolla
)
- Cost of monthly parking pass: $110.00
- Other factors for John to consider:
- Purchase a minimal, new reliable car: $vary
- Maintenance and service on new car: $vary
Total monthly cost to work by car, not including vehicle purchase or M/S: $390.00
Cost of Public Transportation:
- Monthly transit pass (Bus + Rail + Marc included): $250.00
- Other factors to consider:
- ZipCar: Rental for $7.00 an hour for after work activities.
Total monthly cost for John to take public transportation to work: $250.00
This is a difference of $140.00 that John would save if he rode public transportation.
Have you carefully looked at your own commute from a financial perspective? How much would you be saving or spending?
Tags: DC Metro, MARC, New Carrollton, Prince George's Plaza, SmartTrip, ZipCar
A Simple Way to Go Solar.
Several months ago, we wrote a blog highlighting the solar lease as a way for people to get a solar installation without incurring any upfront costs. Today we are introducing you to the solar Power Purchase Agreement, or sPPA: another viable alternative for getting solar panels without any upfront costs.
Ok, you do want them solar panels on your home or office building but you don’t like the upfront cost. You also don’t want to lease them like we mentioned above. That’s where the sPPA option comes in.
With this alternative, you let the solar company put panels at your site, but you do not pay for the installation. You simply pay for the electricity that these panels generate.
The Benefits
Because you don’t technically own the panels, you save a boat-load of cash by not paying for the installation or maintenance. The cost of the electricity from these panels is usually the same amount or lower than what you were already paying PEPCO or BG&E, or whatever utility company you have. Your contract with the solar company will state what the agreed rate per kilowatt-hour is. This rate will usually go up by 1% to 5% per year, but it is designed to remain below the typical annual rate increases from your utility company. Your contract with the solar company usually lasts about 6 years, and at the end of the contract, you can agree to another contract, buy the solar panels, or get them removed.
Here’s an example. Imagine you signed a sPPA contract 6 years ago, in 2004, for solar panels that generate 20% of your home’s electricity (you still pay the regular utility company for the remaining 80%). Let’s assume your household uses an average of 1000 kW-hours of electricity per month, and if we use the 2004 average US national rate of 8.95 cents/kW-hour, your total electric bill would be $89.50 per month. In January 2005, the average national electricity rate went up to 9.45 cents/kW-hour, but your sPPA rate goes up by 1% according to your contract, to 9.04 cents/kW-hour. If we do the math, you now pay $75.60 for 80% of your electricity (800 kW-hours) to your utility, and $18.08 for the remaining 20% (200 kW-hours) to the solar company. That’s a total of $93.68 for January 2005.
Now in 2010, reaching the end of your 6-year contract, and how much have you saved so far? If you never got solar panels, then you spent a total of $8,854.80. However with the sPPA model, you spent a total of $8,633.31. Your total savings over the the last 6 years are $221.49. Wait, did you just say that’s not a big deal? Let’s give you a couple more reasons:
- the utility’s electricity rate (red line) jumps up in an unpredictable fashion, while the sPPA rate (green line) is predictable because your contract tells you exactly what you’ll be paying over the 6 years of solar power. Knowing your electricity cost in advance is a huge benefit for planning and budgeting.
- over the 6-year period, you prevented your utility company from generating 14,400 kW-hours of unclean electricity, because you had your own clean version to use. That’s the equivalent of 11.7 metric tons of CO2 emissions, or in plain English: you stopped 2 cars from emitting pollutants for a year.
- Let’s not forget the “I got solar panels on my roof” statement you can use freely at every cocktail party; that’s some major cool points right there…
Just remember this: the whole thing cost you nothing to setup. You simply chose a different path to get your electricity and become a good citizen of the environment.
The “Bad”
There’s nothing bad about going green, hence the quotation marks. However here are the changes that you might have to deal with by going solar with a PPA model:
- you will not cash-in any of the government tax credits or state rebates for using solar, because you don’t own the panels
- you will not be able to receive cash for any solar Renewable Energy Certificates (sRECs), again because you don’t own the panels
- if you are short-term leasing your place, the lease may prevent you form getting a PPA because you need at least 6 years for the contract. In addition, your landlord may not want you to make changes to the property, so your solar panels may not be installed in the ideal location, if any at all
- you may save money by buying the solar panels outright, especially if you consider the government-backed incentives
- your property taxes may go higher if your property gets reassessed after the solar panel install
- taxes and other surcharges by your utility company may take up the amount of money saved, so you may not save anything financially
Ok, now that you have a picture of the good and the “bad,” please remember that you are doing this not just to save money, but to help the environment. What’s next? Why not explore the different solar installation types? And as always, let us know if you need FREE quotes for a solar installation from our list of wonderful contractors.
Tags: power purchase agreement, PPA, solar
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Several Sweet Gifts
What do vegetable and soy inks, recycled and bamboo papers, fair trade chocolate, and an organic wine have in common? A great gift of course! For the eco-conscious couple that thinks about today’s actions for a better tomorrow [for your kids, and kids' kids..] or for the rest that wants a well-thought-out gift idea, here’s a short list. Moral sugar tooth Flowers and emotions spilled on paper He: “I got the freshest flowers for you babe!” So yea, …maybe you still need a bouquet of flowers.. anyway here’s a list of other eco-friendly cards. For the wine snob [wannabe] The grub and the venue We leave that up to you, but we do have one recommendation… how about you stay in and cook something? Tags: bamboo paper, green gift guide, organic chocolate, organic wine, recycled paper, soy ink,vegetable ink
She: “Yay! you’re the best! where are they?”
He: “They’re in the card, how cool is that?! …you still have to grow them.”
She: “…”
He: “fresh flowers babe, it can’t get any fresher than that.. you’ll have them for months!”
Recycling Envelopes – Contest Winner
We would like to congratulate David Thompson from Washington, DC, winner of Sobuka’s Green Photo of the Month contest, with a $50 prize and again it was SUPER EASY… even a child could do it. Let me tell you just how EASY it was, so our winner David went to his local post office to handle some business and purchase stamps when he noticed there was a box of FREE RECYCLING ENVELOPES used for recycling electronic waste (e-waste) such as inkjet cartridges, cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras and other small electronics. He pulled his phone out of its case and went SNAAAAAAP!…actually his camera phone was on silent and his camera flash was off so he didn’t hear the SNAAAAAAP! sound. Afterwards, he emailed his green photo to Sobuka and his photo was the best out of all the other submissions which made him our WINNER. YAAYYYYYYYY! E-waste is literally a growing problem and we must help reduce this problem at all costs. In the U.S., we generated an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of e-waste in 2006 alone. However, this number will continue to grow as new electronics are introduced to the market and consumers continue to upgrade to the next best thing. Do us and the environment a favor and look around your house for all your old electronics (cell phones, PDA’s, etc) and RECYCLE THEM for FREE using the recycling envelops found at your local post office. For more information about recycling e-waste and recycling in general check out the following links: Free Recycling Envelopes from USPS Thanks again to all the participants! For your chance to WIN take part in our next contest. Contest Rules: Submit one picture that you took of something green (environmentally friendly technology, service, process, etc.). Remember to tell us where it was taken, and why you think it’s green related. Mail your photo to contest [at] sobuka [dot] com. Happy shootin!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
There’s a Groupon for you – GreenDeals.org
In case you haven’t heard, Groupon, a web-based coupons seller for various local businesses, is making a killing with its business model. So much so in fact, that itdeclined a $6B offer from Google! Its amazing success in this market has left the doors wide open for plenty of other competitors with a similar model, thus giving customers like you and I more choices for discounted coupon deals to enjoy. The success of the Groupons of the world does show that customers are willing to wait for discount bargains on items that they may have overlooked in the past. From our experiences at sobuka.com, financial concerns are stated as the biggest barrier to entry when it comes to go green. If green related deals are packaged and presented successfully, there is no reason why GreenDeals.org can’t break through the barrier and move more customers to eco-friendly alternatives while shopping. Tags: green america, green coupons, Green Shopping, greendeals.org, groupon