apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Adopt a "make do or do without" habit - asking myself if I really need that new whatever it is, or can something else be repurposed?

Sign up for wind energy through the electric company.

Replace lightbulbs with CFLs (mixed results with that, unfortunately).

eat less red meat...

By using a fan, I can crank up the window A/C thermostat to 82F. Since we have a small apt, I turn the A/C up to 88 or so during the day, then it only takes about 15 min to cool back down again. I also keep the curtains closed during the day (or at least the dark green sheer curtains) to keep out the warming sunlight, which keeps our apt much cooler. I shut off the bedrooms when not using them, so the A/C only cools the rooms we're in.

Does anyone know if it's really worth the energy savings to unplug the appliances you use every day?

"eat less red meat..."

And eggs, dairy, corn, wheat, and soy. They are all massive cash crops with a huge environmental toll. These are things that should be consumed in moderation at most, and always organic.

Nour, I've been trying to find that out myself, but the information out there is a bit fuzzy. So far, my understanding is that it's worth it for the ones that have a stand-by mode (like TVs and stereos), and less worth it for things like simple toasters and kettles.

At the moment, my laptop, external hard-drive and phone/pda chargers are all on one extension plug, so I just switch it off at the wall when I go to bed or leave the house. The tv/stereo/dvd/game console have a similar arrangement, but the wall switch is much more difficult to reach - so I tend to only remember it if I'm going to be away for a few days.