Having fewer cars isn't necessarily better. When we had one car Alicia had to drive in with the family, then drive home to run errands and do things at home, then back to MIT to pick up the family, netting 2 trips back and forth to MIT, plus errands. ? With two cars Jon and the kids drove into MIT at the start of the day, and back home at the end, while Alicia did errands locally from home. This netted 1 trip back and forth to MIT, plus errands.? In this case two cars were more efficient than one.
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Everything that has a remote uses some amount of power when not on. Newer appliances use a lot less than old ones.? Our cable box was using 30 watts all the time, whether in use or not.? We plugged it into a power strip with the DVD player and VCR
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We tried our dishwasher with heated dry turned off and we were very surprised to find out ceramic dishes and glasses just as dry as when it was on,? and our plastic containers were no wetter than usual. We run the dishwasher as soon as it is full, then before we go to work or to bed, we open it up so the plastic containers (we use a lot!) will dry off before we get around to emptying it.
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Use google to learn things, compare results from a few sites to feel confident about facts.? For example, I searched on "How to recycle styrofoam"? and reviewed several pages until I was confident I had a correct answer. Try it.
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Children are never too young (or too old) to learn to turn out the lights. ? We've explained to our children many times why it's important to save energy, and they have gotten great about not only turning out lights they don't need, but coming to us to ask us to turn off other things when they're done, like the CD player and the TV.
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It's better to let the house get really cold during the day and warm it up for when you get home, because then the furnace runs steadily when it comes on, rather than cycling on and off while you are away. ? It's much more efficient to run it steadily.
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You can compost hair and dryer lint.? Pretty much anything organic that is not protein or grease can be composted in a typical outside compost bin.