Everyone it seems are looking for ways to save money these days. With the winter months coming up, we need to look for ways to effectively heat up our homes. As I mentioned in my previous post, Getting Ready for Winter, we will be installing a cast iron non-catalytic wood stove. This will go in our existing fire place and will save us $ in heating oil. You can also save on energy costs by installing Energy Star energy efficient lighting fixtures in your house. Using appliances that has an energy star rating will also save you $. I've been using a washer and dryer that is older than my daughter. Our next project will be to replace that with an energy efficient unit. Everything will cost money at first but it will save you more in the long run.
The other day, we went to purchase a wood burning stove. With the rising cost of heating these past few years, we decided that we need an alternative heat source other than what we currently have. We considered a pellet stove but the cost of the pellets is also high so we zeroed in on a wood burning stove. It will be installed at the end of October. They said that business skyrocketed these past few months and they have been very busy installing these equipments every week. This wood stove will go into the existing fireplace. We have to file a city permit for this to be installed in our house. Our next door neighbor have been using this kind of stove for 2 years now and they said that it saved them money on heating oil. For the fuel, we have a heavily wooded lot and there are many fallen trees on it. I hope that this will at least help lower our heating cost this winter.
I remember seeing a piece on Good Morning America years ago about new energy-saving light bulb called Compact Fluorescent light bulb or CFL. The savings a household can get just by changing the incandescent light bulbs into the new CFL Light Bulbs is enormous. Not only that, these CFL light bulbs last longer that the old light bulbs. Upon hearing these advantages, we started using CFL light bulbs around the house. Yes, it cost more but you will get the savings in the long run. Many families like mine are more aware of the impact we have on the environment. We try to do our part by using earth-friendly products, recycling as much as we can and buying products that use less packaging. Stores started to sell eco-friendly products but on a limited scale. I found this online store called www.ecogeekliving.com All their products are earth-friendly and they have a large selection of energy efficient products. You can browse their website and find great gifts and gadgets that are all eco-friendly and unique.
