If you’re anything like me, you often look at solar panels, tankless water heaters, and other home greenification products with a mix of admiration and sadness. The admiration is obviously in response to the marketplace including more and more earth-friendly items all the time, but the sadness sets in when I realize I can’t afford any of that stuff. Going green is great, but it’s often expensive up front. Of course, solar panels and tankless water heaters pay for themselves over time, but the up-front cost is still prohibitive for many people.

But what if there was a way you could green up your home now and pay for it later? If you live in a community with a Property Assessed Clean Energy, there is. PACE programs allow homeowners to borrow money for efficiency upgrades, then pay it back over a span of up to 20 years. You repay the loan by adding a little extra onto your property tax bill. Read more…

It’s easy to line-dry your laundry in the summertime. If you’ve got an outdoor living space with a clothesline, and it’s sunny, warm and a little breezy outside, forget about it. Your laundry will be dry in way less time than it would take in the dryer.

But what do you do during the winter? If it’s cold and gray outside, your clothes will take forever and a day to dry. You could set up a clothesline inside, but there is another solution that is easier than stringing twine all over the place. That solution, my friends, is the drying rack. Read more…

Answer: No. Not yet, anyway.

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time on The Greenists!

No, no, stick around. I’m only kidding. We’ve been hearing a lot about this idea of clean coal lately, with President Obama making it a key part of his energy strategy, and I’ve been seeing commercials for it all over the place. So I decided to do a little research and see if there’s any merit to this. Read more…

Even though Massachusetts public schools are on February break this week, another teacher friend and I were discussing our respective Green Teams and just how into it the kids are. So many kids want to take responsibility for their own planet that it warms even my jaded little teacher heart. At the beginning of this year, for example, the Green Team installed three different recycling bins in the cafeteria for cans and plastic bottles, one for each grade (sixth, seventh, and eighth). Each week, the grade that recycles the most cans gets to play music during their lunch period and students get to enter to be the DJ for their lunch period. They call it Tunes at Noon and it’s been a huge success.

Just this week I heard about another program that not only lets the kids have that feeling of responsibility, but also makes money for the school. NSTAR Energy has been promoting their Change A Light, Change The World Fundraiser, and it couldn’t be easier. NSTAR provides energy-efficient bulbs at no cost, and students sell them as a fundraiser. Not only does the school get 100% of the proceeds, but students are also convincing people to switch to energy-efficient bulbs.

According to the NSTAR website, “The program includes of a kick-off event, educating students on energy-saving light bulbs and energy conservation. The event will also provide the students with an overview of the fundraising program, as well as explain the benefits of saving energy and how the money earned can benefit your school. The students are then encouraged to spread the word on energy conservation and sell the energy-efficient light bulbs provided by NSTAR.” I think the program sounds pretty amazing, especially for school districts that are less affluent and have less access to education on energy efficiency.

Next week I plan on emailing NSTAR’s contact person to find out more about this program and see if my school’s Green Team would be interested in participating. For right now though, I think I’ll just enjoy my week-long vacation from the darling kidlets.

If I had a house and a lot of extra money (ah, it’s fun to dream), I’d totally put solar panels on my roof. I dream of having a place that relies exclusively on renewable energy. Wouldn’t it be great to be off the grid?

Unfortunately, even for people who do own houses and have some disposable income, solar panels are an expensive undertaking. I’m talking tens of thousands of dollars to get all that high-tech equipment installed on your roof. Sure, it’ll eventually pay for itself because you won’t be paying a power bill anymore, but the upfront cost is still prohibitive for most people.

But that’s slowly starting to change. Read more…

As you know, tax season is upon us. I used to love doing my taxes, back when things were simpler and I got a refund check in the mail. It was like Christmas! Now, thanks to my multiple freelance writing/editing jobs that make me pay Uncle Sam in one lump sum, I now lose a lot of money at tax time, which makes it … well, like Christmas.

But that’s not the point of this post. The point is to inform you about how being green, once again, can help add a little padding to your wallet — this time in the form of tax credits. Read more…

… but the incandescent light bulb you invented only has a couple more years on the market.

We all know that from an environmental standpoint, CFLs are far better than incandescents — they’re way more efficient, they last longer, and they have a cool swirly design (which I happen to like, though I know a lot of people don’t.) They’re still more expensive up front than incandescents, but naturally they’re cheaper in the long run, since they save so much more energy.

If you still prefer incandescents, then enjoy them while you can — starting in 2012, you’ll start seeing fewer and fewer of them on the shelves until eventually they won’t be an option for you anymore. This isn’t just a case of new technology naturally replacing the old; it’s the result of federal legislation passed in 2007 that requires companies to phase out production of incandescents. By 2014, they’ll be banned for most uses.

Read more…

After a night of heavy snowfall in our neighborhood, the air smells like gasoline.  Nourishing Words reported that according to the EPA, running a snow blower for an hour can equal the emissions of an average car driving 70 miles.  There are electric and new lower emission snow blowers on the market, but snow blowers are expensive, and replacing something that still works just because the emissions rate is high isn’t an option for many homeowners. Read more…

Even though I no longer own my own home anymore, I love thumbing through the Home Depot specials in the Sunday paper and online, and on Sunday I found a very awesome green offer from the HD.

From now through Sunday, if you take up to five new or used strands of incandescent Christmas lights to the Home Depot (yes, there’s no denying that the Christmas retail season is upon us), you can get $3 off the purchase of a strand of LED lights. LED lights use 80% less energy than the standard lights and last up to 10 times longer, which means they’re a far better way to put some twinkle into your holiday season. They also get the Energy Star seal of approval. They also tend to be a little sturdier than the old-school strands. Read more…

Photo credit: www.inhabit.com

You may have read in the news recently about the Solar Decathlon, an event sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The festivities are just wrapping up now, with Team Germany claiming the crown.

Read more…