Yahoo has a couple videos giving laundry and kitchen advice about saving money and being green. When you choose the washing cycles for your washing machine, the type of water you choose can make a difference in energy efficiency. If you use the cold/cold setting, you can save up to 90% of the energy used to wash your clothes as opposed to using the hot/cold setting. If you use the warm/cold setting, you still save 50%. Of course you should usually save up for a load but also not overload the washer and don’t forget to clean the lint filter.
As for drying your clothes, you can save up to $10 a month by line drying your clothes instead of using the drying machine. Majority of households in Asia actually don’t own drying machines because everyone line drys their clothes. This can save space as living spaces in Asia are limited. It can also be due to costs as it saves electricity and actually buying a dryer. If you can do it for free, why pay? Hang drying your clothes can also be better for your clothes as it won’t shrink them and will allow the colors to stay more brighter.
Some tips for the kitchen can also help reduce electricity costs. Always run your dishwasher fully loaded. Did you know that using the dishwasher can actually use less water than handwashing your dishes? Dishwashers use about 4-6 gallons of water and between 1-2 kWh of electricity. A study from four years ago from the University of Bonn found that the average hand washer used about 27 gallons of water. Of course it can all vary depending on how you wash your dishes. Here is a followup study done in 2007. The best thing about the dishwasher is that you can fill it up with dishes and start it when its full and can save you a lot more time than hand washing your dishes after every meal.
This isnt a new video, but it is a good and detailed video describing the details of the Aptera. Aside from being a very fuel efficient cheap car, it has some cool technology such as using video feeds instead of rear view mirrors and a touch screen navigation/media system. Since it is a three wheel vehicle, it can travel in the HOV carpool lane which makes it an awesome commuter car. I am very tempted to get one, but there still isn’t much detail about when production is actually starting. It is scheduled to start anytime now but to actually get one could take up to a year depending on how many people are on the reservation list.
The Senate voted on a bill by Senator Barbara Boxer to overturn EPA’s decision on blocking California and 13 other states from requiring automakers to cut emissions by 30% in new cars and trucks by 2016. The bill passed 10 to 9 with Sen Tom Carper, a Democrat voted no while a Republican, John Warner sided with the rest of the Democrats and voted yes. The original bill required passenger vehicles under 3,750 pounds to average 43.7 mpg by 2016 and trucks by 26.6 mpg. Under the current cabinet, it will not make any difference since President Bush would veto it but this may make a difference for the next cabinet. All three current Presidential candidates, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain support California’s efforts so that is good news. With a Democratic President, we will probably see more improvements, but as of now, it does not look good. If Obama is the Democratic candidate, he will not be able to win over all of America and McCain will be the next President of the United States.
Riverwired has a pretty interesting top 10 list of green products. The products are not in any particular order and I don’t think I would agree with the list being the top 10 green products as it does not even give any reasons why these products are chosen. It seems like they are just sponsors of the website. The only product I like is the Reware Solar Backpack. For example, the Solio Charger should definitely be on the list of top 10 green products in my opinion. There are a lot of green wineries, products, and reusable bags so not having a reason why these specific products are on the list makes the list not very reliable.
Reware Solar Backpack
Vlatec CFL light bulb/air freshener
Baggu Reusable Shopping Bags
Calfee Designs Bamboo Bicycle
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Living
Wine Trio From The Organic Wine Company
Beko Energy-Saving Washing Machine
Natalie Portman’s Te Casan Footwear
Organic Soy Briefs
Elephant Dung Stationery
The BMW X6 is coming out this year but the Hybrid version will be coming out next year which I would love to have. Well, i don’t mind having any X6 actually because a mix of the X5 SUV and a Coupe looks pretty nice to me. The Sport Activity Coupe launches in 2009 with a 4.4L turbocharged V-8 thhat uses a two mode hybrid system. BMW chose to use the hybrid technology on a heavy powerful vehicle so that the fuel savings is much larger than applying it to a smaller vehicle. The Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade all share the same technology which was developed by the Global Hybrid Cooperation. The ActiveHybrid technology will have a 20% reduction in fuel consumption. The current BMW X6 V-6 model gets an average of about 17 mpg and the V-8 gets about 15 mpg so the hybrid version should get about 18 mpg. That isnt very fuel efficient compared to pure Hybrids but the X6 is still pretty sweet if you want a car for its safety, performance, and power.
