During a recent house move, I came across two outstanding products that will greatly conserve energy and reduce your electricity bill immediately, The first product is the NUVO H2O MANOR Whole House Water Softener and the second product is the Utilitec R19 420 Lumen 40 Watt Equivalent LED Light Bulb (Sold exclusively by Lowes.)
Living in a part of the country where the water is extremely hard takes its toll on copper plumbing, water heaters, dishwashers and washing machines. It makes it that much harder to wash clothes and even getting a soapy suds out of bar and liquid soaps is nearly impossible with hard calcified water. The folks at NUVO invented a whole house water filtering system that does not require electricity, salt or the addition of chemicals, It uses a cartridge that strips out all of the calcification minerals out of the hard water by chemically interacting with beads in the filter. The NUVO replacement filter costs about $80.00 and lasts about 6-9 months. The NUVO Manor model we purchased cost about $800.00 including 2 filters and the plumbing labor cost to install the system was about $300.00. We saw immediate results after this filter was installed. In fact, the water turned green for a while as the filtered water was dissolving the calcification scales built up in the internal plumbing.The whole filtration system and cartridge is very small and compact and can fit in tight areas in a house or garage. It measures bout 9 inches in diameter and is a bout 30 inches long. It has a bypass setting to allow you to change the filter without spilling water. This is a very well though out, well designed water filtering system that has been in use for decades at commercial restaurants and hotels so the technology is proven and reliable.
Buy the NUVO H2O Water Filtration System at Amazon
Check out the NUVO whole house water filter system at:
http://www.nuvoh2o.com/?source=gg-branded&gclid=CKmTiYvjgKkCFQM6gwodalz_Sw
It really works as advertised and I give this home
product two thumbs up! Way Up!
LED Lightbulbs Are Affordable Now
The new house we moved in to has about 115 standard R19 Light bulb sockets and every single existing bulb was a 65 Watt incandescent. Yikes, that's about 6500 watts of electricity consumed if all of those lights were turned on. Instead of installing compact fluorescent bulbs, I decided to go with LED bulbs primarily because they consume only 7 watts of electricity to produce 40 watts equivalent of light with 420 lumens.We're looking at a total of about 800 watts total electricity consumption versus 6500 which is a huge savings. LED bulbs are much cooler and run at about 80 degrees. CFL bulbs hit 140 degrees and incandescents go up beyond 200 degrees. The current knock on compact fluorescent swirl bulbs is that they contain mercury and if they break, they release mercury into the air. There is also talk that they are linked to cancer but I have yet to see the actual scientific evidence or report to confirm this. Compact fluorescent bulbs cannot be dimmed and the color temperature is usually a cool color so it is not great for reading unless you buy a cfl bulb that is warm white.These Utilitech R19 Bulbs fit in the normal (Screw-in) socket used by standard light bulbs and those used by spotlights and most recessed lighting cans. The color temperature is about 27000 and although they are not as bright as an incandescent 60 watt bulb, they are pretty close. The other added bonus is that they are dimmable and come with an industrial strength heat sink to keep the heat down so the bulbs will last 3-6 times longer than CFL bulbs. Best of all I caught them on sale at my local Lowes Hardware superstore for only $9.97 per bulb. The normal price is $18.99 per bulb. In addition to installing these LED bulbs, I also installed Leviton PR180 Occupancy Motion Sensor Light Switches for the garage and all of the bathrooms and closets. This will also help reduce the electricity consumption as my kids almost always forget to turn off the lights in the house.At around $15.00 a switch, this is also an excellent way to cut your electricity bill and also to reduce the amount of heat generated in your home in the summer time.
Unless you are a skilled electrician, I would advise against installing these switches as a do it yourself project. A licensed electrician could install four of theses switches in an hour. Electricians usually charge $125-150.00 and hour for labor. I installed them myself because I did a lot of electrical work when I was working my way through college many years ago. Upgrading the LED lightbulbs is a no-brainer do it your self operation,. Just unscrew the old bulbs and install the the new LED bulbs and you're good to go.
With these two aforementioned green products, you can save a lot of money easily and effortlessly. Almost makes going green fun as you are saving money and the environment by reducing your carbon footprint. If a lot of people switch over to LED bulbs, I believe it will help us to reduce overall energy consumption and even dependence on foreign oil.
Money Talks Bull$%&@ Walks or The Proof is In the Monthly PG&E Energy Bill:
Prior to moving into our 3700 square foot house and in ground swimming pool, ( family of 4 ) the electricity bill on average for the last year was about $379.00 per month. The first electric bill after I made all of the aforementioned Green electrical-related upgrades was $160.00 for the month of June and the most recent bill was $159.00 for the month of July.
Living in a part of the country where the water is extremely hard takes its toll on copper plumbing, water heaters, dishwashers and washing machines. It makes it that much harder to wash clothes and even getting a soapy suds out of bar and liquid soaps is nearly impossible with hard calcified water. The folks at NUVO invented a whole house water filtering system that does not require electricity, salt or the addition of chemicals, It uses a cartridge that strips out all of the calcification minerals out of the hard water by chemically interacting with beads in the filter. The NUVO replacement filter costs about $80.00 and lasts about 6-9 months. The NUVO Manor model we purchased cost about $800.00 including 2 filters and the plumbing labor cost to install the system was about $300.00. We saw immediate results after this filter was installed. In fact, the water turned green for a while as the filtered water was dissolving the calcification scales built up in the internal plumbing.The whole filtration system and cartridge is very small and compact and can fit in tight areas in a house or garage. It measures bout 9 inches in diameter and is a bout 30 inches long. It has a bypass setting to allow you to change the filter without spilling water. This is a very well though out, well designed water filtering system that has been in use for decades at commercial restaurants and hotels so the technology is proven and reliable.
Buy the NUVO H2O Water Filtration System at Amazon
Check out the NUVO whole house water filter system at:
http://www.nuvoh2o.com/?source=gg-branded&gclid=CKmTiYvjgKkCFQM6gwodalz_Sw
It really works as advertised and I give this home
product two thumbs up! Way Up!
LED Lightbulbs Are Affordable Now
The new house we moved in to has about 115 standard R19 Light bulb sockets and every single existing bulb was a 65 Watt incandescent. Yikes, that's about 6500 watts of electricity consumed if all of those lights were turned on. Instead of installing compact fluorescent bulbs, I decided to go with LED bulbs primarily because they consume only 7 watts of electricity to produce 40 watts equivalent of light with 420 lumens.We're looking at a total of about 800 watts total electricity consumption versus 6500 which is a huge savings. LED bulbs are much cooler and run at about 80 degrees. CFL bulbs hit 140 degrees and incandescents go up beyond 200 degrees. The current knock on compact fluorescent swirl bulbs is that they contain mercury and if they break, they release mercury into the air. There is also talk that they are linked to cancer but I have yet to see the actual scientific evidence or report to confirm this. Compact fluorescent bulbs cannot be dimmed and the color temperature is usually a cool color so it is not great for reading unless you buy a cfl bulb that is warm white.These Utilitech R19 Bulbs fit in the normal (Screw-in) socket used by standard light bulbs and those used by spotlights and most recessed lighting cans. The color temperature is about 27000 and although they are not as bright as an incandescent 60 watt bulb, they are pretty close. The other added bonus is that they are dimmable and come with an industrial strength heat sink to keep the heat down so the bulbs will last 3-6 times longer than CFL bulbs. Best of all I caught them on sale at my local Lowes Hardware superstore for only $9.97 per bulb. The normal price is $18.99 per bulb. In addition to installing these LED bulbs, I also installed Leviton PR180 Occupancy Motion Sensor Light Switches for the garage and all of the bathrooms and closets. This will also help reduce the electricity consumption as my kids almost always forget to turn off the lights in the house.At around $15.00 a switch, this is also an excellent way to cut your electricity bill and also to reduce the amount of heat generated in your home in the summer time.
Unless you are a skilled electrician, I would advise against installing these switches as a do it yourself project. A licensed electrician could install four of theses switches in an hour. Electricians usually charge $125-150.00 and hour for labor. I installed them myself because I did a lot of electrical work when I was working my way through college many years ago. Upgrading the LED lightbulbs is a no-brainer do it your self operation,. Just unscrew the old bulbs and install the the new LED bulbs and you're good to go.
Here's a Youtube video from Ecogeek that compares LED bulbs
with incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs
With these two aforementioned green products, you can save a lot of money easily and effortlessly. Almost makes going green fun as you are saving money and the environment by reducing your carbon footprint. If a lot of people switch over to LED bulbs, I believe it will help us to reduce overall energy consumption and even dependence on foreign oil.
Money Talks Bull$%&@ Walks or The Proof is In the Monthly PG&E Energy Bill:
Prior to moving into our 3700 square foot house and in ground swimming pool, ( family of 4 ) the electricity bill on average for the last year was about $379.00 per month. The first electric bill after I made all of the aforementioned Green electrical-related upgrades was $160.00 for the month of June and the most recent bill was $159.00 for the month of July.
