Retrofit car with LED headlights
When it’s time to replace the headlights in your car, why not give it a green upgrade with your lighting choice? Cars typically come with energy-hogging halogen bulbs for illumination, which draw power from your car’s battery. New LED headlights — which are ultrabright and last an extremely long time, just like LED light bulbs for home lamps — use less energy. On average, LEDs use just one-third of the energy demanded by halogen bulbs. While most cars are designed to accept halogen bulbs, LED kits are available to easily retrofit your car’s headlights for the new technology.
BANANA EXFOLIATOR
Have some overripe bananas? When bananas are beyond the point of being edible, don’t toss them into the compost. Instead, mash them up, add a few tablespoons of sugar with a little bit of olive oil,v and mix. Rub the mixture all over your body to exfoliate dead skin and moisturize; the bananas and olive oil are
incredibly beneficial in quenching dry skin, and the sugar aids exfoliation. Rinse away in the shower to reveal soft, radiant skin.
CUP O’ LEAKS
Wonder if your faucets at home are slowly leaking water when you’re away? One of the simplest ways to check is to leave a coffee cup under the faucet when you’re gone. When you get home, you can see how much water has dripped into the cup. No water, no leak! Why a cup? Because you can use that measurement and the amount of time it took to fill up to calculate how much H2O your quietly leaking faucet is wasting daily, weekly, etc. Use the internet to look up simple DIY fixes that can help you stop leaks, saving water and money.
EFFICIENT COOKING
According to the World Wildlife Fund, one of the simplest ways to save energy and reduce carbon emissions is to think small when cooking a meal at home. When you turn on an electric oven, an hour of baking or roasting produces almost 3 pounds of CO2 emissions. When you downgrade to a small countertop toaster oven, that number is cut in half, to 1.3 pounds of emissions. Even better? Reheating last night’s meal in the microwave releases a tiny 0.5 pound of CO2 emissions.
FRIDGE DOOR NO-NOS
Yes, it really matters for the bottom line when you open and close a refrigerator at home. Lingering in front of an open refrigerator to decide what to eat or drink wastes energy. A refrigerator accounts for about one-sixth of your home’s total energy use, and idling with the door open can waste as much as $60 every year. The solution is easy: Don’t open the fridge and stare. When it’s time to buy a new fridge, invest in an energy-efficient model with a secondary opening door; the smaller door helps you grab frequently used items without opening the entire refrigerator.
GRILL V. STOVE
On incredibly hot days, it’s imperative to do everything possible to keep things cool inside without using energy-guzzling air conditioners. One of the easiest ways to keep things cool is to turn appliances off in the kitchen. Using ovens and ranges in the kitchen can raise the indoor air temperature as much as 10 degrees. The easiest solution? Fire up the backyard grill and cook outdoors. You can also replace heat-generating incandescent light bulbs with cool LED ones inside; they give a bright light output without creating any heat.
NO IDLING
If you’re sitting in your car on a hot day (perhaps waiting for someone), don’t leave your engine running with the air conditioning on. Idling with the AC blowing can damage your car’s system because the internal condenser has a hard time cooling down. Actually driving is less demanding on the compressor because the increased airflow through the grill helps to keep the system cool. Sitting still means there’s no airflow, causing the condenser to be overworked, which will decrease its efficiency over time.