Are you Going Green or Wasting Energy? Do you even know?

This post is going to address recycling, the ecosystem, saving energy, and associated "green" topics. Before I get started, I'd like to direct your attention to some of my previous posts of similar nature.

• Florida's Vanishing Wetlands
• Florida's Aquifers (Vanishing Wetlands part 2)
• Protecting Florida's Wetlands

Side note and Segue: As of today, June 14, 2008, I have 115 Active Rain subscribers to my blog, in addition to my clients and future customers who may not be subscribed through Active Rain, but are reading my posts through their computers' bookmarks/favorites...although I only get an average of about 4-10 comments per post, unless it was featured... But I'll get to the point =)

As my regular readers know, I blog about MANY different topics. But what is probably the most important topic I have blogged about is Florida's ecosystem and the associated problems. (And of course, my clients' listings that need to be sold. That's extremely important!) But today I'm going to briefly touch on a subject that is rapidly growing in interest, and that is, "Going Green". I'm afraid that many people have heard the term thrown around quite a bit, but don't really know what it means. Well, the bottom line is, our planet is increasingly entering a more desperate status, and we all need to do our part to preserve it. So how do we do that? Keep reading.

Most of us have been recycling for years. But did you know that there are still parts of the country that have no means to recycle? I'm sorry, but that is completely unacceptable. Recycling is the most basic thing we can all do to keep our planet "green" and healthy.

I recently heard some amazing statistics on the subject of recycling. Did you know...

1. Every time you recycle ONE aluminum can, you save enough energy to run a TV or computer for 3 hours!
2. For every 4 foot stack of newspapers you recycle, you save a 40 foot fir tree.
3. By paying your bills online, you can help to save over 1.6 billion TONS of solid waste every year!

Do you find these statistics as amazing as I do? I think these numbers are almost unbelievable! But moving on... last month, our clothese dryer finally went to the home appliances graveyard. As usual with these types of things, it was unexpected. We had to make some quick decisions! I wanted to make sure we were doing our part to do more to go green, but we didn't have time to do any research. Thankfully, we found a helpful salesman at the Home Depot who was quite knowledgeable about his products. So we are now the proud owners of an high efficiency LG front-loading, Tromm washing machine (we went ahead and replaced the washing machine too), and an LG front-loading XL Load Capacity with NeveRust Stainless Steel Drum. Having our last washer and dryer for 10 years has given us an unbelievalbe comparison of how much quieter the new machines are! And our new LG washer and dryer more than comply with the new Federal Energy Efficiency Requirements. I could go on for quite a while, raving about my new washer and dryer, but I'll nip it in the bud right here and address my last points.

I don't sleep well, and have lately taken up walking in the middle of the night. As soon as I started my late night walking, I noticed how many home owners had left on their outdoor, decorative lighting. My first late-night walk was around midnight. I thought surely, these people weren't leaving their outdoor lighting on all night, but I figured they might be on timers that had not yet turned off. But my late night walking has continued. I have now walked at 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. (My husband says I'm a vampire.) Those same homes have still had their decorative lighting on. Considering I never run into anyone else out at these times, I think it's safe to assume that these decorative lights are not impressing anyone. And I don't work for Florida Power and Light, but exterior lighting that stays on all night, every night, MUST have an impact on the home owner's electric bills. Is it possible that this many people have not heard about "going green"? Or do they just not care? These are probably the same people that never change the temperature of their AC or heat, even when nobody's home. They must be leaving one heck of a carbon footprint!

If you've read or skimmed this post without knowing what the heck I'm talking about, try following the embedded links to learn more about going green, energy efficiency, carbon footprints, recycling, problems with our ecosystem, and what you can do to help save our planet.

Take this quiz to determine your carbon footprint.

If you're interested in buying real estate in the Daytona Beach area and want to buy a home that has been built with all the considerations of "going green", read my post about the beautiful community of Chelsea Place, located in fabulous Ormond Beach, just north of Daytona.

www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateSales.com

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