...use it! My clever boyfriend visited again this weekend and pointed out another wasteful habit of mine - sometimes I cook without using lids on my pots!
If you want a scientific explanation, complete with derivatives and Newton's law of cooling, check out this website, which shows you how you can calculate the efficiency of boiling water.
For the rest of us, we can safely assume that an uncovered pot takes longer to boil, thus requires more energy, since the contents of the pot is losing thermal energy to the surrounding air. An easy way to increase cooking efficiency is to simply use tight fitting lids and to fit the pot to the appropriate sized burner!
This is an easy tip to save you cooking time, money and energy all while helping you to reduce your carbon footprint! But- make sure that you keep a careful eye on the pot, as it will boil over more quickly!
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Day 65: The Road to Sustainability: Don't Drive Aggressively
Did you know that the jerk who just did a burn-out, sped to the next red light only to slam on the breaks is not only being a nuisance, but also wasting a bunch of fuel, and not to mention wearing out his vehicle faster?
Studies have shown that quick acceleration, speeding, hard breaking and other aggressive driving habits combined can increase your fuel consumption by 25%
Driving smoothly is not only safer and better for the collective mental health of the driving population, but can reduce your carbon footprint!
So, plan ahead to make sure you don't need to speed to get where you need to go, and be a courteous and calm driver! Not only will it save your money and stress, but it will help reduce your emissions.
(300 more days to go!)
Studies have shown that quick acceleration, speeding, hard breaking and other aggressive driving habits combined can increase your fuel consumption by 25%
Driving smoothly is not only safer and better for the collective mental health of the driving population, but can reduce your carbon footprint!
So, plan ahead to make sure you don't need to speed to get where you need to go, and be a courteous and calm driver! Not only will it save your money and stress, but it will help reduce your emissions.
(300 more days to go!)
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Day 64: What Wriggles In the Night?
I do a lot of cooking from scratch, so inevitably I have a lot of food scraps like peels, egg shells and stems. When I lived at home in Alberta, we always composted these scraps or fed them to pigs or chickens. However, in the city having pigs, chickens or even an outdoor compost heap isn't an option.
Last year at Queen's I was privileged to be the Residence Advisor on the "Green Floor" where we had our very own vermicompster - courtesy of an absolutely amazing group of people who worked hard to have the trial project run in residences. It was a great success, and you can see the results from the one year pilot project here where we diverted about 44 kg of waste from landfills and could have done way more had we had a bigger composter.
Vermicomposters are great -they can be kept indoors and are almost completely odorless. The one we had in rez was housed in a beautiful wooden box that looked a bit like a chest of drawers. Vermicomposting, for those of you who don't know, is the process of having worms (usually red-wrigglers) process our organic waste and turn in in great fertilizer for our plants! You can't put as much stuff in it as you would an ordinary compost heap, but we don't all have room for a compost heap. If properly maintained, there will be no oder or fruit flies, and in the end you will have some great soil for your plants!
Many cities have composting programs as well, but I think that if you can have a worm box or a compost-heap out back that is even better because Green-Bin collection programs needs fossil fuels to transport the waste and in the end you don't get to use the soil for your garden and plants!
My housemate right now has a wormbox for our apartment, and it is a great way to cut down on our waste. Remember, organic waste trapped in a plastic garbage bag cannot decompose properly and will release a lot of methane gas!
There are a lot of resources out on the web to help you with creating your own composting solution, whether it be vermicomposting, a compost heap or participating in a Green-Bin collection program. As for me, I think I will go feed the worms and not the landfill.
Last year at Queen's I was privileged to be the Residence Advisor on the "Green Floor" where we had our very own vermicompster - courtesy of an absolutely amazing group of people who worked hard to have the trial project run in residences. It was a great success, and you can see the results from the one year pilot project here where we diverted about 44 kg of waste from landfills and could have done way more had we had a bigger composter.
Vermicomposters are great -they can be kept indoors and are almost completely odorless. The one we had in rez was housed in a beautiful wooden box that looked a bit like a chest of drawers. Vermicomposting, for those of you who don't know, is the process of having worms (usually red-wrigglers) process our organic waste and turn in in great fertilizer for our plants! You can't put as much stuff in it as you would an ordinary compost heap, but we don't all have room for a compost heap. If properly maintained, there will be no oder or fruit flies, and in the end you will have some great soil for your plants!
Many cities have composting programs as well, but I think that if you can have a worm box or a compost-heap out back that is even better because Green-Bin collection programs needs fossil fuels to transport the waste and in the end you don't get to use the soil for your garden and plants!
My housemate right now has a wormbox for our apartment, and it is a great way to cut down on our waste. Remember, organic waste trapped in a plastic garbage bag cannot decompose properly and will release a lot of methane gas!
There are a lot of resources out on the web to help you with creating your own composting solution, whether it be vermicomposting, a compost heap or participating in a Green-Bin collection program. As for me, I think I will go feed the worms and not the landfill.
Day 63: Be Cool, Stay Hot! The Road to Sustainability
So, here is another driving tip. Those of you who have ever gone on a road-trip with me probably already know this one- use your air conditioner sparingly!
The air conditioner puts an extra load on the engine and can actually increase your vehicle's fuel consumption by up to 20 percent! Instead, use your vehicle's flow-through ventilation at faster highway speeds (since open windows create drag and thus reducing aerodynamics of the car) or open a window for slower driving.
It's a good way to keep cool without contributing to global warming!
The air conditioner puts an extra load on the engine and can actually increase your vehicle's fuel consumption by up to 20 percent! Instead, use your vehicle's flow-through ventilation at faster highway speeds (since open windows create drag and thus reducing aerodynamics of the car) or open a window for slower driving.
It's a good way to keep cool without contributing to global warming!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Day 62: Save a Tree!
So, as much as I have '"hated on'' recycling in the past and have been preaching reducing waste as our primary goal (remember, reduce comes first, then reuse, and then recycle! They are in an order for a reason!) recycling is an important part of our waste management. On Day 25 of the challenge I said I would use both sides of the paper - well, I am coming to the point that a lot of my paper is very well used on both sides - next step is to recycle it!
Some fun facts about paper recycling:
-40% of waste in the US is paper - but only 25-30% of that gets recycled!
-Americans throw away the equivalent of 30 millions trees each year in newsprint alone.
So once your paper has been well loved, ensure that it goes to a better place! Also, buy recycled paper!
These are things that I already do, and I find they give me peace of mind and save me some coin!
Some fun facts about paper recycling:
-40% of waste in the US is paper - but only 25-30% of that gets recycled!
-Americans throw away the equivalent of 30 millions trees each year in newsprint alone.
So once your paper has been well loved, ensure that it goes to a better place! Also, buy recycled paper!
These are things that I already do, and I find they give me peace of mind and save me some coin!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Day 61: The Road to Sustainability - "Performance, that's the name of the game..."
So, the lesson to be learned from the above video is to pump up your tires to maximize performance! There was even an article on this topic in the Vancouver's free newspaper, Metro, today!
Barack Obama also has a little something to say about the topic:
According to Natural Resources Canada (thanks for the link Ed!) properly inflated tires not only make your ride safer, but also saves you money on gas and thus reducing your emissions. The proper level for your tires can be found in the owner's manual or near the driver's door (contact your dealer or local shop if you're lost!)
Once again, burning fossil fuels and driving is will never be sustainable, but due to our vast country sometimes it is unavoidable. So, try to limit your driving time and when you do drive be sure that you inflate your tires to the proper pressure, don't idle and drive the speed limit!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Day 60: The Road to Sustainability -"Derive" More Efficiently!
Two months down, 10 to go!
So I got a bit carried away with my physics assignment ...hence the Engineering/Math Humor title... and it is 11:50pm and I still have not posted for today! So - another driving tip!
Drive the speed limit! We all have places to go, but apparently speeds more that 95 to 100 km/h (thats about 60 mph) cost about an additional 7 cents per litre (or about 24 cents per gallon)! What this means is that for every liter of fuel you burn, you burn an additional 7 cents worth from another litre... so say gas is $1.20/liter, what you would normally cover with that amount costs you $1.27 if you are speeding! This adds up pretty quickly in regards to both the impact on the environment and your wallet! Also, it will narrow your chances of getting a speeding ticket -even more savings!
So I got a bit carried away with my physics assignment ...hence the Engineering/Math Humor title... and it is 11:50pm and I still have not posted for today! So - another driving tip!
Drive the speed limit! We all have places to go, but apparently speeds more that 95 to 100 km/h (thats about 60 mph) cost about an additional 7 cents per litre (or about 24 cents per gallon)! What this means is that for every liter of fuel you burn, you burn an additional 7 cents worth from another litre... so say gas is $1.20/liter, what you would normally cover with that amount costs you $1.27 if you are speeding! This adds up pretty quickly in regards to both the impact on the environment and your wallet! Also, it will narrow your chances of getting a speeding ticket -even more savings!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)