The Truth About Bottled Water
There’s arguably no better business than the bottled water business in the United States. It’s basically just manufacturing bottles, filling and marketing them. There’s no recipe or major product development required and it’s a rapidly growing industry. Bottled water sales climbed nearly 20 percent a quarter between 1993 and 2005, according to a recent article in the New York Times. They’re still growing in the high single digits every quarter.
Six Great DIY Home Weatherization Tips
It’s the end of summer and the air is still warm. It may be hard to think about the incoming winter weather when Colorado residents can still go hiking in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, but now is the time to start weatherizing your home. Putting in the time for energy-efficient weatherization improvements now can save your family time and money once the cold weather begins. Here are six great tips for home weatherization improvements you can make on your own that won’t break the bank.
Shocking Energy Conservation Stats
Energy conservation is a hot topic these days. There are environmental and monetary benefits to using less energy. Having an energy-efficient home can make a huge difference for Colorado consumers. Here are some amazing statistics that will shine a light on energy conservation and savings.
Change The World
Remember how you felt in elementary school when you first learned about civil rights, global warming or genocide in Rwanda and you launched a full-blown campaign on all fronts of your life – at home, on the playground and on the phone with your grandparents?
You knew then that you could make a difference. You were just a little kid, but you were going to change the world.
Somehow, as we get older and bigger, the world is the only thing that seems to grow larger instead of smaller and its vastness makes us forget that we have the power to change it.
Five Energy-Efficiency Innovations Making Big Waves
If you were going to build an energy-efficient house from scratch these days, you could get your utility bill pretty close to nothing if you were willing and able to invest in some amazingly innovative technologies designed to conserve energy.
But since most people aren’t building brand-new houses, the Energy Resource Center selected a handful of cutting-edge and innovative items you can use to retrofit your current Colorado home and save energy.
Some of these are little things you can afford or they’re the kind of thing the ERC will upgrade for free for income-qualified residents in the five southern Colorado counties we serve. Others on this list are just really cool and if you can afford the upgrade, it will probably pay for itself.
Colorado DIY Furnace Maintenance
If your furnace isn’t working correctly, it can make for a cold Colorado winter. A thorough furnace inspection is best left to a professional if you’re not familiar with furnaces and all that could be causing a malfunction. There are a lot of basic furnace maintenance tricks and tasks most renters and homeowners can and should do on a regular basis that could dramatically improve the performance of your home heating system.
Thanks to Tax Credits, Conserving Energy Makes Extra Cents
Finding sensible low-cost ways to cut back on your energy use can help you save hundreds on your annual utility bills. But some of those bigger investments that will help you save even more might not be as hard to afford as you think. The federal government offers several tax credits to encourage Americans to buy energy-saving and producing appliances. The Energy Resource Center wants to help you understand what improvements come with tax rebates.
DIY Window Weatherization
Drafty windows can be a major source of heat loss during cold Colorado winters. The Energy Resource Center fields a lot of calls from homeowners and renters hoping for help replacing hopelessly old and drafty windows. Unfortunately, new windows are rarely a justifiable investment for our nonprofit organization.
Does Daylight Savings Time Conserve Energy?
As we prepare to “fall back,” turning our clocks back to standard time this November, many Coloradans will ask about why we use daylight savings time. It can be confusing and if you’re not paying attention, changing the clocks by an hour every spring and fall can make a mess of your day. But daylight savings time is believed to save the nation about 1 percent of its average energy use every day.
Watch Out for Energy Vampires this Halloween Season
You might expect to see a big impact on your electricity bill when you become more conscientious about turning appliances off when they’re not in use.…