This is a guest post by Chris Johnson.

Thanks to the rising costs of almost anything and the bad state of the economy in general, more and more people are finding it tough to pay their bills. That’s to say nothing of being able to save money for a “rainy day”. Seniors are especially susceptible to those issues because most senior citizens are on a fixed income. Let’s face some facts. Costs are going up. However, the fixed income that seniors are receiving is not. So, whether you are a senior citizen yourself or you are just caring for one, you need to take action. Luckily, there are plenty of things that you can do to cut down your energy bills.

In Winter Months:

In the winter months, your primary objective should be to keep the house draft-free. Your heating system is going to be working hard as it is. You don’t need to make its job more difficult. Some simple ideas include:

• Check to see that your heating system is functioning properly before winter hits.
• Change air filters when they need to be changed.
• Caulk around all of your doors and windows.
• Purchase Energy Star windows, storm doors and storm windows.

Storm windows can actually reduce your energy/heat loss by up to half. That can make a huge dent in your energy bills and keep your heating units from having to work extra hard. So, that is definitely an important step in making your home energy efficient.

The thermostat is also important. Make sure that you get a programmable thermostat. These days, you can even set your thermostat to lower the temperature at times when you aren’t home. Also, be sure that your thermostat is not located near any heating ducts, doors, windows or appliances. Otherwise, heat or drafts could influence when the thermostat triggers.

Water Heating Tips:

Another area where you can save in the winter months is water heating. Your water does not always have to be hot. You can use cold water for things like dishes and laundry. You can also get a cover of sorts, which some people refer to as a “jacket” for your hot water heater. That will keep it insulated and make it more energy efficient.

In Summer Months:

In the summer months, your primary concern is keeping your house cool. There are a number of ways to do that.

First of all, you need to make sure that your air conditioning ducts are in working order and your filters are changed regularly. Any leaks or clogged filters could add to your energy consumption by 20% or more.

It’s also important to remember that you don’t need to cool your house when you aren’t home. So, always put your thermostat up to a high number, such as 85, when you go out. Then, when you come home, put it back to a temperature you feel comfortable with.

You also need to be careful of how you cook in the summertime. Any cooking at all can really heat your house up, but obviously you do have to eat. So, one option is to simply grill outside. An outdoor barbecue can be fun for the whole family and much more energy efficient than using your oven.

Finally, another good option, if you happen to own a toaster oven, is to use it more often in the summer. A toaster oven can do a lot of things that a regular oven can do, but in under half the time and with a lot less energy spent. Also, it is much easier to clean your toaster oven than to try to clean your regular oven.

Author Bio:

Chris Johnson is an avid energy conservationist and writer. He is also the publisher of Toasterovenguide.com, which is a website devoted to helping consumers save energy, especially using small kitchen appliances, such as toaster ovens. Toasterovenguide.com allows consumers to compare prices and features on anything from the best toaster ovens like Delonghi toaster ovens to Black and Decker toaster oven models. Chris’s mission is to help consumers make great choices and save both energy and money. In his spare time Chris enjoys spending quality time with his family and finding new ways to preserve the planet for his children and future generations.

Post from: Senior Money Memos

Senior Savings Tips – Cut Back On Energy And Save Money

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This is a guest post by Lloyd Burrell of officedeskreviews.com, an office desk website that knows the value of going green.

One of the joys of maturity is being able to spend more time in the garden, right? No occupation is as delightful as the culture of the Earth, agreed? So much for the stereotypes.

But what if you’re a senior with blue on your fingers from using your pen instead of green from caressing the plants? In these difficult economic times many seniors find themselves sitting behind a desk in a home office simply because they do not have the financial means to do otherwise, whereas for others they spend their days sat in their office through choice. For some it may be a place to get away from a nagging spouse!

Whatever your reasons are for spending time in your home office it is important that you consider your working office space to be part of the Earth. Living plants are vital to the health and wellbeing and survival of our earth.  Making sure your office is alive and green can do much to improve your personal well-being. Here are some tips and some points to consider….

Light and Food For Your Office Plants

What lighting do you have in your office? Do you have any windows where plants could be placed? Is there an area where special plant growing bulbs could be installed?

There are many species of plants out there and shade loving ones that usually grow in the wild under a rainforest canopy, will do well. There has to be some light, though, whether real or manmade.

How much space do you have where plants could sit fairly undisturbed? Who will water the plants (be sure not to over water) and fertilize them and sing to them? Plants respond to sounds. Scientists have determined that classical music works best. This also applies to humans (except teenagers). If you don’t have the time or inclination, there are plant services that will take care of the work for you.

Specific Plants for Certain Purposes

• Oxygen Provider — A broadleaf plant like Areca Palm or Dracaena. These types of plants can also remove chemicals from the air.
• Room Brighteners — Plants with flowers or variegated leaves. These usually need more light than darker green leaved plants.
• Budgets — The rarer the plant or the more maintenance it needs, the more costly it will be.
• Knowledge of Plants — How much do you know? Research a few plants and what they will look like when grown. Buy a ficus and it will become a tree. You don’t want your office space taken over, just enhanced.
• Exotics and Their Purpose — Plants exist, because they just are. But, what about gorgeous orchids or Bonsai trees? If you think that their needs are too complicated, then try a sturdy Philodendron or Pothos, even a Creeping Charlie.

If you feel the need to obtain some expert advice then the local home improvement or hardware store experts can help. You can even try nurseries. They’re good with plants. Buying plants with a specific purpose in mind, can get complicated, but it needn’t be overblown.

Here are a few more things to look for:

• Buy healthy looking plants from a local farmer’s market or nursery. You can usually tell if the plant is healthy, merely by looking at it. Another indication is that there may be brown leaves on it, which show either poor nutrition, or lack of water or light, or even that the plant is on its way out.
• If you buy a few plants online, then look for a guarantee in case the plants are dead when they arrive. Plants sent by mail are usually in their infancy, so to speak. They will need time to grow. This could be an advantage as it would give them time to acclimatize to your office
• The two best plants for cleaning your air of chemical pollutants are Peace Lily and Areca Palm. This could really help if your office and flooring and paint on the walls are full of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds).
• Rubber Plants, Ficus trees, English Ivy and Boston Ferns, Spider Plants and Moth Orchids are a few most recommended air cleaners. They also look pretty. Ficus trees shed their leaves every now and then (just a few) so don’t be alarmed. It’s only if you arrive back at the office the next day and suddenly all of the leaves have fallen off, that you need to worry.

Office Plants Need Special Consideration

If office space is tight but your office furniture is a large computer desk, then place a potted plant in one corner. A proper desk lamp could provide enough light.

Because plants need water to survive, you have to provide a strong and waterproof tray under them so that your furniture and carpets and flooring are protected. If the pot that the plant is in doesn’t have any holes in the bottom, then make one or two. Undrained plants can soon rot and they are very smelly. That defeats the purpose of cleaning your air, doesn’t it? Make sure that the plant tray is deep enough and that water doesn’t sit in the bottom. That can also be extremely odorous.

Above all else, have fun with plants. Despite their apparent lack of responsiveness, they really do interact in many ways with the people they live amongst. Treat them right, and they will return the favour. It’s never too late to get some green on your fingers!

About the Author

Former accountant and auditor in the city of London, Lloyd Burrell is the publisher of OfficeDeskReviews.com where he reviews a variety of desks ranging from office reception desks to more sophisticated executive office desk furniture. He may have let some plants die in his past due to lack of care but because of his two children and his cat, Lloyd has grown to become much more aware of his environment, both in the office and out in the world. He knows that plants feed us and inspire us but now he also knows how they can help shape our future earth.

After all, they are the "green" in greening. Lloyd likes to play the guitar in his spare time. His houseplants seem to appreciate the music, and can be seen now and then, moving their leaves to the soft guitar chords — but only when they think no one is looking or is it possible that that breeze coming in through the window is the cause?

Post from: Senior Money Memos

Tips on Making Your Senior Home Office Alive And Green

Technorati Tags: green, light, plant, shade, watering

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Apparently Uncle Sam wants to sell you a car. Given auto sales are at crisis levels, Washington is working on ideas to get Americans buying cars again.

The proposal receiving the most interest would give rebates to Americans with old cars to help them buy new ones, in other words “cash for clunkers.”

Under a bill introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D.-Calif., owners of older cars would get vouchers worth thousands of dollars toward the purchase of newer, more fuel-efficient vehicle. For the costumer to get that cash, the car dealer would have to certify that the trade-in was getting scrapped and not resold. The car’s vehicle identification number (VIN) would be tracked to make sure it never shows up on a vehicle registration again.

Crushing the old car has two benefits. First, it ensures that the consumer’s purchase of a more efficient vehicle actually has a net environmental benefit. Second, it prevents a glut of used cars on the market, which would reduce trade-in values for new car buyers, which would cut into the sales incentive effect.

Many like Tyler Hamilton find the “Cash for Clunkers” program is a good, sensible idea.  However it’s not new and several States have been offering cash for clunkers.

This approach was running in BC as far back as 1996.

The first Canadian vehicle scrappage program aimed at retiring old, “live” (licensed, insured, and in running condition) vehicles was the Scrap-It program, launched in lower mainland British Columbia in 1996. Since then, other initiatives run by not-for-profit organizations have been introduced across Canada.

An example of the current program from Kelowna, Canada is the Scrap It Program

The Scrap-It Program is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality by getting older vehicles off the road.  The Program offers qualifying vehicle owners incentives to scrap their older vehicle. The incentive values are based on the greenhouse gas reduction that occurs when an old vehicle is scrapped and an incentive is used as a replacement.  Incentives offered at $2000 or more are offered for the incentives with the highest greenhouse benefit. These incentives include very low emission vehicles, transit passes, or the transit pass / bicycle combination.

The BC initiative has several prominent provincial sponsors.

If you know of earlier Cash For Clunkers programs, why not mention them in the Comments.

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Cash For Clunkers From Uncle Sam

Technorati Tags: automobile, clean air, rebate

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Barak Obama can be an inspiration to us all at many levels.  That applies even if our main concerns may be economic.  If anyone has major economic concerns at the moment, then that man is clearly Barak Obama.

It is therefore great to see that the Obama Inauguration Will Highlight Dramatic ‘Green Energy’ Agenda

President-Elect Barack Obama will take office January 20th with the strongest commitment to renewable energy of any President in history. Obama’s widely anticipated inauguration speech is expected to highlight bold new national policies to speed America’s transition to a renewable energy economy.

Three major planks here are:

• Construction of a high-voltage “interstate highway” system
• A national policy mandating America’s electric utilities to buy a percentage of their electricity from renewable sources
• Aggressive near-term targets to reduce America’s dependence upon imported oil

Wind and solar energy companies, with a year of record growth in 2008, will gain new momentum through the first 100 days as the new Obama administration implements its green agenda.

Barak Obama has assembled a strong Green team according to Daily Planet Media as it mentioned on the 8th January:

The Obama green team is headed by Professor Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is the new Energy Secretary and a strong advocate for America urgently moving towards carbon-free energy. Physicist Professor John Holdren at Harvard University will be President Obama’s top scientific advisor while professor Jane Lubchenco – a leading expert on the effects of global warming on oceans – will be the first woman administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Carole Browner who headed the Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton, and known for her more radical views, will lead a White House energy and climate unit. The newly appointed Labor Secretary congresswoman Hilda Solis, a strong advocate for green employment, will be a key person for planning and implementing a clean energy economy.

However despite the hopes there are skeptics:

Some analysts questioned Obama’s ability to boost spending on higher-cost renewable fuels during a recession.

“It will be more difficult to meet the alternative fuel goals if oil prices keep falling and we are in a recession,” said Phil Flynn, oil analyst with Alaron Trading in Chicago.

It will take political finesse to implement the plan, said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citigroup in New York.

“All of the details of whatever policy he wants will be heavily negotiated in the legislative arena,” Evans said.

Although there can be knee-jerk reactions when one hears the word green, that attitude can hopefully change.  Sometimes the green solution can be a positive boost to the economy. That is as true at the national level where Barak Obama must decide as it can be at the domestic level where each of us should step lightly on the earth.

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To Boldly Go … Green

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, energy resources, Global warming

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