Dishwasher

I haven’t done a post like this for awhile but I couldn’t not share this once I found it. I just cut and paste it from Marye Audet here. So give her all your love over this one.

Ingredients

Your environmentally friendly dishwasher detergent is going to have four main ingredients.

Washing Soda—This stuff has been around forever. It is a natural substance, made from salt and limestone. Scientifically it is known as sodium carbonate. It cuts grease on anything and can be used for many (if not most) of the cleaning projects in your home. If you can’t find it at your grocers you can find it on Amazon and other places online.

Borax—Borax occurs naturally in the environment and can be mined as well as created in a lab. It is toxic in concentrated amounts, and you should keep it out of the reach of children. You can find it by the laundry detergent.

Kosher Salt—Kosher salt is a pure salt. It it what my recipe calls for, I am not sure why.

Citric acid—You can buy food grade citric acid.

Recipe

1 cup Washing soda

1 cup Borax

½ cup salt

½ cup citric acid

Mix together and store tightly covered. Use one tablespoon per load. Add vinegar to the rinse dispenser for the best results.

Cleaning

Just found another great website telling you how to clean without yucky chemicals and for sooooo cheap!

Get the low down on using oil, vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda and tea tree oil from the guys at Friends of the Earth.

Or if you would rather use those things to make a nice salad dressing, here’s a recipe:

French Dressing

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice or vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• dash cayenne

Preparation:

Whisk together all ingredients in a mixing bowl or shake in a jar. Makes about 2 cups of French dressing.

Cleaning 2

One thing I forgot to mention last time, in the post about cleaning, is the magic of MICROFIBRE!

Microfibre cleaning cloths are, like, a miracle. They clean without chemicals, remove germs and can be washed and reused.

From Wikipedia: “Microfiber’s impact, besides being labor saving and cost saving, is the technology’s environmental friendliness. Microfiber textiles designed for cleaning are precision tools that allow cleaning on a microscopic scale.

Thus, according to tests, using microfiber materials to clean a surface leads to reducing the number of bacteria by 99% whereas a conventional cleaning material reduces this number only by 33%.

In addition, microfiber cleaning tools have the ability to absorb fat and grease and their electrostatic properties have a high dust-attracting power, hence making unnecessary many cleaning products.”

Unfortunately . . . “Microfibers are not made from a renewable resource and they are not biodegradable.”

But . . . “they are designed for repeated use, unlike many disposable cleaning materials such as paper towels. In many household cleaning applications (washing floors, furniture, etc.) using microfiber tools disposes of the need to use detergents and cleaning solutions, bringing potentially significant environmental and economic benefits.“

Wikipedia – Microfiber

Yay! Great for people with allergies or sensitivities to chemicals too. Actually great for anyone who is concerned about constant use of chemicals in their house. This really is an awesome technology that the cleaner companies don’t want you to know about, cos you won’t need their products anymore!

Cleaning

Cleaning! Yusss.

Ok, first tip. Your mum told me to say this. Keep your microwave clean – it works better and cuts down on energy use. Plus, my parents never cleaned theirs, they just kept buying new ones…why? Cos the dirt meant they kept CATCHING FIRE and TURNING THEMSELVES ON. Eeeeeeek!

So come on guys, be microwave wise.

Ok, but seriously, cleaning is expensive, there is this whole freaky industry trying to brainwash us into being paranoid about germs and then selling us toxic chemicals at insane prices. There are a number of green products that really do work and are made of natural stuff.

Simple Green – not super cheap, but its pretty well priced, and the savings kick in, because you only need this one product . . . for like everything. Its awesome. Check the site: Simple Green

B.E.E – these products are cool, they aren’t exactly cheaper than the regular stuff, but because they are concentrated, you save, and at least it won’t cost you MORE. Go on, make the switch. Check their nifty packaging and business ethics here: B.E.E.

For the super thrifty, and not lazy, did you know you can make most cleaning products out of stuff like baking soda and vinegar. Not just for your Nana, you can do it too! Check these tips and search out your own: Home Tips

And lastly, my absolute favourite tip is about glass cleaner. NEVER EVER WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THAT NASTY BLUE STREAKY CRAP AGAIN! Professional window washers just use a squirt of dishwashing liquid in a bucket of warm water. That’s all! It works better and its dirt cheap.

Happy cleaning, Happy Earth

Scarfie RideShare

This next tip is for everyone. It’s about transport.

If you are already cycling, skating, busing or walking to uni, good on ya. But don’t you hate it when it’s cold? Raining? Bus is early/late/full? Just hate it?

If you’re driving, don’t feel guilty, that’s not what we are about here, but don’t you hate driving around looking for a park! I don’t know about you, but I’ve driven to uni before, circled 20 minutes, and gone home again cos I couldn’t find a park.

Answer? Scarfie RideShare. What’s that? You sign up and catch a ride with your mates or with randoms, and get special parking close to uni. Or else you drive and take people in your car. You’re maybe thinking that’s all a bit naff. You’re probably thinking who the heck says naff anymore? But why not check it out? Even if you only use it on cold rainy days, that’s a big bonus. Especially if you’re so broke that your shoes leak. And people who are driving already, you’ve really got nothing to lose. You can hit your passengers up for gas money AND you get priority parks at uni. Sweet. Oh yeah, and you’re helping the planet.

Here’s the link :
Scarfie RideShare

Saving Power

Last week I gave you the math about the energy (and money) your computer uses. I think you get the idea – a few cents an hour adds up pretty quick. I’m not gonna do the math for you this time, but consider this:

Cold Wash = 4 cents a load

Hot Wash = upwards of 36 cents a load

Dryer = 32 cents an hour

Washing Line = FREE!

Towel rail heater = from $1.20 to $2.40 a week

Thanks Contact Energy for those stats, check out the rest here:

Contact Energy

So why have I been going on about saving power for the last few weeks? As far as saving the planet goes, I guess it’s pretty basic, generating power wreaks havoc on the environment, whether by flooding valleys, making artificial lakes, destroying habitats, creating an eyesore. . . Even just the construction of a new power plant makes a mess, when roads are built and trucks create noise and pollution. By reducing the energy we use, we can reign in the mega impact, and search for better ways to meet demand in the future.

Check out these links to see some mega destruction caused by power plants:

DAMN! 3 Gorges

Coal vs. Wind

Computers

Contact Energy puts the cost of running a computer at about 4c/hour (as far as I know that’s active usage, so it’s less when it’s sitting around). Doesn’t sound like a heck of a lot, but if you have 4 or 5 computers going in your flat for 3 hours each day you’re looking at 45 – 60 cents a day, $3 – 4 a week, $12 – $16 a month.  And that’s just for the computers, never mind the stereos, Playstations, tvs etc. So you can see how this adds up pretty quick. If you are a flat full of nerdy gamers, or hard out study bunnies, or avid facebookers, you’re in trouble!

The Cornell University student sustainabilty website advises that by activating your  computer’s power management “sleep” or “quiet” mode, you can save up to $75 on electricity each year.  Now that’s in USA terms, and I don’t know how their electricity plans stack up compared to ours, but it gives you a rough idea. And remember, screensavers do not save power!

Some other computer tips:

If you’re going to be away from your desk for more than 15 minutes, turn off your computer monitor (or shut your laptop) – monitors use well over half of the total energy used to run a computer.

Laptop computers use up to 90% less energy than desktop computers, so they are definately the preferred option. If you have both, opt for the laptop whenever possible.

Instead of having the stereo on when you are using your computer, use your mp3 player or plug your headphones into your computer.

Insulation

Last time, I was talking about hot water cylinders. . . *Update* – a plumber came and measured the water temperature at our tap and it was 89 degrees! Quite a lot more than the legal limit of 55 degrees.

Continuing on that theme, if you can, get your landlord to wrap the cylinder and pipes with insulation. This saves heaps of power, and therefore money! And while we are talking about conning our landlords into stuff, get them to check out this Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) link. These schemes are designed to retrofit all the freezing cold houses to make them livable: Energywise Funding

And flatties have a look at this one for a really simple explanation and advice on how to get your landlord keen: Energy Efficiency Community Network

Presbyterian Support published a report into Dunedin housing in 2004. They reported the mean age of Dunedin houses at 53 years (Auckland = 40 years), making them the oldest in the country. A staggering 86%  of houses in Dunners were built before 1977 when insulation became mandatory. 86%! Almost half of our frosty dwellings, 45%, were built before 1941! That’s, like, WWII guys. Another terrifying account from that report is of student properties with indoor temperatures colder than inside the fridge!

The report makes for horrifying reading. See the full report here: Old, Cold and Costly

What to do? See if your landlord is willing to retrofit the flat. Check out our Insane Fact later on that gives you all the dets about heating – the stats in that will give you some good back up when you approach your landlord. Also, keep all these things in mind when you are looking for your next flat; make sure you ask if it has insulation or if the landlord is willing to install it.  If everyone is giving this message, they’ll figure it out soon enough. Dunedin is FREEEEZING and this is one area we really need to get 21^st century about, saving money, saving our health and saving the planet!

Hot Water

So while I continue my fascist regime of monitoring switches, I am also tackling the biggest power waster in the house: the hot water cylinder. We only have two tap temperatures at our flat: tepid and scalding hot. The water from the hot tap has steam coming off it, and I have literally burnt myself several times. The cold water is still warm. We are pretty certain this explains THE POWER BILL (see #1). Hot water makes up about 30-50% of your power bill. Think about your last power bill – that’s probably a sh*t load!

The Building Code specifies cylinder water must be at least 60 degrees to prevent growth of legionella bacteria, and no hotter than 55 degrees at the tap.

So after investigating the cylinder and being pretty confused, we phoned our landlord. He advised us to wind it back to 55 degrees. Apart from the fact that that’s too low, unfortunately ours is already set at 55 degrees and there is obviously a bigger problem. So we are getting it fixed.

So what can you do? Make sure your water’s set to 60 degrees, if it is or you have other problems or suspicions, call your freakin’ landlord and make them work for their income. It’s just too expensive not to.

Electricity

This is the first in a series of tips about saving money AND the planet. Cos let’s face it, there’s nothing that gives you motivation quite so much as a little extra cash. I am being spurred on by my wish the save money, after receiving THE POWER BILL. This unholiest of documents arrived the other day and after regaining consciousness, I set about improving the power use in the flat.

Step 1: Turning sh*t off, such as the microwave, the telly, the DVD player, cellphone chargers that aren’t charging anything etc. That stuff uses power. Think how warm a cellphone or laptop charger is, that heat is just wasted power. It’s energy transfer, physics baby.

In fact, it is estimated 95% of the energy consumed by cell phone chargers happens when they are left plugged in.

So I went on a dictatorial mish round the flat, searching for things using power and shutting them off. I also changed out the multibox that the TV, Playstation, DVD, and MySky was plugged into. Why? Cos the cordless phone is plugged in there too, so that switch had to be on all the time. It now has a multibox with individual switches for everything, so we can turn it all off at night, but keep the phone on.

Yay! These small changes can add up to a lot, save power, save money, save the planet!

For more info on this and other stuff, check what the government has to say here