Welcome to the IDT Energy Blog

We all have the same thought at some point — Eco-friendly is nice, but can we REALLY live in a truly energy saving, eco-friendly, recyclable home?

 CNN has this video on a woman in Oregon who built her own home:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2007/07/17/sharify.tiny.house.affl

Now, you should feel the need to question — great, so what?

Answer:  If she can do it for 85 square feet you can for even bigger.

Solar Electricity — It really works:   Try it for yourself. 

Plan and buy here:

http://www.idtenergystore.com/Outdoor-Solar-Panels/c52/index.html

Energy saving lighting, buy here:

http://www.idtenergystore.com/Light-Bulbs/c50/index.html

Tips for saving money and energy when it comes to lighting:

1. Use compact fluorescent bulbs, which use only a fourth of the amount of electricity as regular bulbs. You can save 10 dollars or more per bulb in long-term electricity costs.

2. Let the light shine through - dirty lights and fixtures can hamper efficiency by as much as 20%.

3. Darken your doorstep – say goodbye to outdoor decorative lights. You’ll feel good knowing that by turning off eight gas lamps that had been burning year round, you can save as much natural gas as it takes to heat an average-size home during an entire winter.

4. Want to reduce the 11% of your electricity bill that goes towards lighting? Use timers to monitor your lighting use and only use bright lights where and when you need them.

Check out Jetson Green for tips on how to make sure you are getting the most, environmentally speaking, from your landscaping efforts: http://jetsongreen.typepad.com/jetson_green/2007/03/green_building_.html. 

Some highlights:

1. The writer is a big fan of composting, pointing out “You can use organic waste from your home to return needed nutrients to the soil. Things like fruit peels, grass clipping, leaves, etc. are great materials to recycle and mix into garden soil. Composting has many benefits, including: (1) Reducing municipal waste, (2) Improving soil moisture retention, (3) Boosting plants’ immune systems, and (4) Reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.”

The IDT Energy Store happens to carry a garden composter – details here: http://www.idtenergystore.com/product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=56&osCsid=f69cc1c4404f543251ab1c850f19da61. 

2. Use solar powered landscaping lights.

3. Buy an energy efficient lawn mover.

Plus other concrete suggestions for keeping your lawn green. 

This story on a champion leaf raking grandmother may encourage you to abandon your power leaf blower completely: http://www.burbia.com/node/574

For those of you who consult Consumer Report before you buy your breakfast cereal, you can’t miss this exclusive excerpt from Consumer Reports’ ”Complete Guide to Reducing Energy Costs”: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/appliances/news/september-2006/20-free-ways-to-save-energy-9-06/overview/20-free-ways-to-save-energy_ov.htm. 

The tips cover both suggestions that don’t cost any money as well as ideas which require an initial payout of some sort. 

Hysterical! Some people have too much time and money on their hands, as evidenced by the wacky iPod accessories/add-ons that are out there. Is there really a large market for the $40 iFish, that amplifies your iPod and flops around on the floor in time to the music? And how exactly does the iPod dock for the bathroom that also dispenses toilet paper work? 

This energy saver for the iPod sounds neat: “Ah, but that $100 sun-powered battery charger from Solio.com — that’s a winner. When you want to be off the grid but remain in tune, the charger gives you one hour of play time for each hour it soaks in the sun. It also provides eight to 10 hours of battery storage on top of your regular charge.” 

Full story here: http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=566119&Category=LIFE&LinkFrom=RSS

http://www.freshstartblog.com/blog/?p=20 Personal Finance Blog offers tips on how to make your home energy efficient. Obviously focus here is on saving money. 

What tops the list and makes it into the opening paragraph? “Get a home energy audit once every other year.” 

Attention New Yorkers: Trust IDT Energy’s experience and technology for your home energy audit. Go to http://www.idtenergy.com/homeaudit/ for more information. If you live in England, home energy audits won’t be optional – check out this article about how homeowners who do not comply with new green legislation will be penalized. Beware of eco-snoops. 

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23388855-details/Warning+to+homeowners+as+the+green+vision+is+unveiled/article.do 

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=38&story_id=32882 No not from the phones being thrown on their heads from twenty story high windows – Germans fear “Elektrosmog.” In fact, “A whopping 55 per cent said they believe cell phones emit harmful levels of electromagnetic and low-level microwave radiation…just 38 per cent believe Germany faces any imminent terrorist threat.”  We all know the age old debate (ok, years old) about how much we should be doing to minimize the effects of climate change. What are the Germans doing to combat their fear of Elektosmog? Surprisingly, not very much: “Ironically, the survey findings coincide with figures from the telecommunications industry showing that there are now more than 90 million mobiles in Germany, compared to 82 million human beings.A quarter of those human beings - presumably infants and inmates and invalids - still have no mobile. That means the vast majority of Germans have at least one mobile phone if not two or more.” Evidently, extended cell phone use can do something which makes cell membranes explode, but no one seems that worried.

With Bill McKibben’s “Step it Up” program getting airplay from the New York Times, this groundswell movement is set to explode (full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/science/14mckibben.html?n=Top%2fNews%2fScience%2fTopics%2fGlobal%20Warming). What to expect across the country on April 14th? Some examples:“Skiers in Wyoming plan to descend a shrinking glacier. New Yorkers plan to form an unbroken human line (dress code: blue shirts) along what might be the new southern shoreline of Manhattan. A group of Dominican sisters and a Wisconsin environmental group are organizing a conference on Sisinawa Mound overlooking the Mississippi River.” 

Step It Up Rally Bar Mitzvahs are also on the agenda. Here is an angle that I have not heard addressed before: 

“Van Jones, director the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, Calif., is one of relatively few black community organizers to find common cause with those calling for drastic cuts in emissions from the country’s tailpipes and smokestacks. Such changes could make poor peoples’ electrical bills go up. But Mr. Jones says climate change will hit the poor first and harder than any increase in their electricity.”  Calling Al Gore “climate change’s American Idol“ made me laugh. Watch this space for Step It Up coverage. 

If you have been following this blog (I know there are some silent fans out there) you know that going green to make money is one of my favorite trends – sorry purists. Check out this ZNet article on eco-friendly technology: http://www.zdnetasia.com/blog/btw/0,39056810,61996400,00.htm 

“You could see going green as part of corporate social responsibility, or even a political move like those made in the United States. But, it can also be motivated by very selfish reasons, especially since choosing eco-friendly technology means IT cost savings, says Robert Worrall, CIO of Sun Microsystems, in a recent interview.”  There you have it – there are big bucks to be made in green fields. The restaurant industry is also jumping on the bandwagon: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7872679&ft=1&f=1006 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/08/tech/main2547648.shtml CBS News explores the top ten green cities in America, according to Country Home magazine.  

Parameters examined included air and watershed quality, mass transit use, power use and number of organic producers and farmers’ markets.  Burlington, Vermont tops the list. Be honest – what is more exciting, their green effort or Ben & Jerry’s? “Among its green assets: v      A compost facility that collects food scraps from restaurants, supermarkets and food manufacturers and sells the compost to farmers, gardeners and landscapers. v      The Burlington metropolitan area’s 16 farmers’ markets, five organic producers and three food co-ops. v      Although mass transit use isn’t big, car pools are — 12.3 percent of Burlington-area commuters use them, according to Bert Sperling, a research consultant who worked on the rankings for Country Home. v      About 5.6 percent of the work force walks to work, and 4.6 percent work at home…”