Top 7 Ways to Conserve Power & Water | Green Living

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Hi. Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about the top ways to conserve water, energy, and gas. Whenever we talk about green living, we always talk about how to use resources in a really smart, efficient way. So one of the things that you can do that's really easy and important is when you're going to buy an appliance, look for Energy Star rated appliances.

This is a federally mandated program that lets you know how much energy an appliance is going to use. And you can easily compare, is this refrigerator more efficient than this refrigerator. And it will even give you a breakdown of how much it will cost to run that washer-dryer or washing machine appliance. Especially refrigerators, because refrigerators are on 100 percent of the time. So you can save a lot of money by buying and energy efficient appliance. Secondly, buy energy efficient lighting and light bulbs. We go to great detail on another video about how much money you can save and how much energy you can save using LED or CFL light bulbs over incandescent bulbs.

Third, conserve water. When you're taking a shower, consider getting some sort of timer. There are these cute things called Shower Coaches that make sure that you only take five-minute showers. Or getting something like a shower head with what's called a navy button. It's a little on-off switch. So that way when you're lathering up, you can turn water off. Another way you can conserve water is by capturing any of your fluids that are safe and using it in your garden.

So for instance, there's gray water and there's black water. Gray water is from washing your hands, taking a shower. It's the water from you washer. You can easily use that for your plants, and then you're giving that water a second life rather than it just going down the drain. In your kitchen, a great way to save energy is to do what I call boil and sit. Basically, a log of things that require boiling don't have to be boiled the entire time. So when you're cooking pasta, you can actually boil it for a little bit of time, and then turn off the flame, cover it, and it will cook through that way. We have another video that goes into greater detail about that. Smart strips are one of my favorite ways to conserve energy.

When you plug in a smart strip, it will cut the phantom load of your house, which can accumulate as much as 13 percent of your household's energy bill. So a smart strip is a super-easy way to turn off your appliances quickly and to cut phantom loads. Finally, my favorite tip in terms of conserving energy resources, probably one of the most controversial as well, is to drive 55. Most cars are calibrated to burn fuel most efficiently at 55 miles an hour. And what you'll find by doing a little testing is that you can save as much as 20 to 50 percent off your gas bill by driving 55. So think about it.

You can cut your gas usage, your carbon footprint, your gas bill by 20 to 50 percent simply by driving 55. There's really no faster, easier, more cost-effective way to improve the environment, improve your wallet, and reduce your use of fossil fuels. So consider driving 55. I know it might seem slow, but actually I find it very relaxing. I've had people tell me that they don't have road rage as much when they drive 55, and that's definitely a good thing. So tips on conserving energy. Thanks.