Common sense things like, turning the heat down on the home heater if you are going to be cooking a large pot of liquid makes sense. If you have ever noticed, no matter how cool you make it in the home while you are cooking something that is boiling a lot of water you cannot get it cool enough. That is because it is not hot in the home, it is humid.

Cool air does not alter humidity, the best thing here is to open windows and allow humidity to escape. So don’t blast that AC when you feel the temperature rising while you are cooking that potato soup, it’s a waste and won’t matter. Here is something most people wouldn’t think of, make it a house rule NOT to wear shoes in the home, no matter what.

Take them off at the door, if you have a large family this is going to save a lot of energy because your carpets won’t get as dirty so you won’t need to vacuum as often, vacuum’s use a lot of energy to run. If you have fish tanks, turn the lights off on the tanks during the daytime. Most tanks have small heaters that heat the water, the light is fluorescent and is for nothing more than mood lighting.

The sun shining into the home will be enough to light the tanks up as well. When it comes to water use we could all stand to use a little less, here are some ideas to do just that:

• Teach kids to turn the water off when brushing teeth instead of just letting it run the whole time they are standing there.
• Set a limit on how long showers should take in the home, everyone can get in, get clean and get out in at least 15 minutes.
• Take showers instead of baths, filling a bath tub is a huge waste of water and energy.
• Wash dishes in the sink instead of using the dish washer, there is no argument dish washers use a whole lot more water than if you washed the dishes in the sink. Technology might seem better but it’s really not.
• Don’t water gardens or outdoor plants or lawns in the day, always water early in the morning or in the evening when the sun is not so hot. If you water in the heat of the day, most of the water is evaporated by the sun and becomes a waste.

Thank you to all the loyal readers and subscribers during the publishing of the “living green series”. If you did not catch this series, there are links to all of the parts in each of the articles. And if you have not subscribed above please do so and not worry about missing the next series!