Allison Hyde
I ride my bike about 140 miles a week. 12.5 miles each way to work in Lafayette and back, plus trips across town to visit friends and trips around the corner to do my grocery shopping and all my errands.
I don't own a car. I love all the money I save on gas, insurance, car payments, and a gym membership. Not only does all the biking do great things for my pocket book and save energy, but my appetite loves it as well! When the weather doesn't allow biking I take the RTD.
Even though I live in a rental, this fall I invested the money to winterize my rental house. I wrapped the water heater, put in new weather stripping and outlet and light switch insulation. We keep our house between 60 and 65 degrees using our wood stove and I replaced lots of lights with CFLs. At least I can take the CFLs with me when I move. I love that the city of Boulder has such a dedication to climate issues!
Linda Cornett
Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten serious about making my old house (built in 1920s) as efficient as I can. So far I have:
- Bought a new, high efficiency furnace and on-demand water heater
- had insulation added in the attic
- bought a new, more efficient refrigerator
- bought a Prius (two, actually, since 2001),
- replaced old exterior doors with more efficient new doors,
- Stopped using my dishwasher
- Had an energy audit
- Plugged my computer, printer, TV and peripherals into power strips that I turn off at night
- Bought a high efficiency clothes washer
- Stopped using my clothes dryer
Richard and Kyra Shimizu
We are very concerned about the global warming situation. We have taken the following actions to reduce greenhouse gases:
- Last week we purchased a Honda Civic Hybrid. Our first gas tank is currently getting 41 MPG which is an improvement of about 15 MPG over our previous car -- a Honda Accord. My wife and I have fun watching the trip odometer and comparing who is getting better gas mileage.
- Our thermostat sets back to 57F at night. It is actually easier to sleep with a cooler house and the daytime setting at 62F feels just fine with a sweatshirt on.
- I open up the shades when he sun is shining on the windows which provides passive solar heating.
- Through recycling and composting we have reduced our weekly trash to one medium garbage bag. The compost goes into the vegetable garden where we enjoy great tasting organically grown produce that requires no transportation during the summer and fall.
- We only use reusable bags at the grocery store eliminating hundreds of plastic bags a year.
- We have replaced all of our higher use lights with compact florescent bulbs. Someday all of our bulbs will be energy efficient.
- My wife has become a vegetarian. While my kids and I still eat some meat, we have reduced the amount at least in half. One of the benefits is that my cholesterol is now in the normal range where historically it has been high. We save money on food as well.
- We hang up our clean laundry on a drying rack. We tumble the clothes in the dryer for about 5 minutes when it is done to make them look better, but this save a fair amount of electricity and gas.
- We do not have an air conditioner in the house. We open windows when the air is cooler and use fans to help us be more comfortable. We also cycle all of the shades closed when the sun is shining on the windows to reduce the heating of the house. The Colorado summers really are fairly mild and almost always the evenings provide sufficient cooling to be very comfortable. During the hottest times we sleep in the basement which always remains in the 70s or cooler.
Ellen Orleans
Since I've already done many obvious things, such as purchasing a front-loading washer, using a shower timer, line-drying most of my clothes, and riding the bus to work most days, I wasn't sure what to try next.
So I did something simple: turning down the hot water heater. I don't know what the savings will be, but since I don't see any discernable difference (especially since I'm not using the water-based heat as much as the weather grows warmer), I may try turning it down one more notch. Meanwhile, I need to install the rest of my CF light bulbs.
Here are a couple of other small things I've been doing:
- I hold a reading series in my community house and when I supply directions, I make a conscious effort to list the buses that serve my neighborhood.
- For work events not served by RTD, I've begun to ask about carpooling to meetings.
- I've hooked up my television, VCR and DVD played to a power strip and after watching a DVD or video, I flip off the powerstrip. Since I don't record anything from my television, it doesn't matter if the clock is correct or not. This cuts down on phantom drainage.
