It’s Earth Day’s 50th anniversary today, and what a strange time this is. No matter what’s going on, we must all make a commitment to leave the Earth in a better place than how we inherited it. We’ve generally gotten better over the years, but we could always do more. While there’s admirable and awesome things you can do like commit to zero waste, for a lot of us that’s more than we can handle right now. What’s easier to tackle, and should be done now, are these five items you can add/replace in your home to help the planet while saving you money at the same time. A win-win situation is the best you can ask for.
Add a smart sprinkler system by Rachio
How about saving up to 30-50% off your monthly water bill? All you need to install is the third generation flagship smart sprinkler controller from Rachio. It’s 229 at Amazon, so it’s not cheap, but it will pay for itself over time by predicting weather and stopping your automatic watering when it’s going to rain and when it’s actually raining. The Rachio 3 is designed to be a DIY self install system, which my father can attest to since he installed his own Rachio system as well.
With the Rachio app he can program when he wants to water his lawn, and he can even optimize the amount of water to use based on the type of grass and soil. Depending on where you live, saving 30-50% on your water bill can add up quite quickly. I’m in San Diego where water is pricey so an addition like the Rachio 3 is a no brainer.
save money and keep cool with the ECOBEE SMART THERMOSTAT
With temperatures finally heating up, now is the time to update your thermostat to an Ecobee smart thermostat with voice control. The ecobee can allow you to save up to 23% on your heating and cooling by optimizing based on occupancy and temperature. What I particularly like about the ecobee is the ability to monitor temperature throughout your entire home using smart sensors for different zones in your house. That way when you sleep, you can set the temperature to monitor your bedroom, rather than the location of where you main thermostat is located.
Also a cheap and effective low-tech option to reduce the heat in your home is to insulate your windows with a kit from 3M. It’s useful for the windows that get an excessive amount of sun in your home.
track your energy usage with a KASA POWER STRIP
Kasa’s smart power strip is what you would expect from any power strip: a six-port multi socket power strip and it also comes with USB charging ports as well. It protects your devices from power shorts or surges, but also adds smart capabilities that most other power strips don’t.
You can download an accompanying app for Android or iOS devices, control the use of each individual plug from anywhere, set schedules, and even track the energy consumption of any device plugged into it. You can identify power heavy items and shut them down. Lastly, you can even monitor those energy vampires which drain energy even when you think they’re off. Not only will this help the planet by saving electricity, but you’ll also cut back on your power bill.
LED LIGHT BULBS
While the light bulb has been around for quite some time, a lot of you still have incandescent bulbs which use a lot of power. A simple swap of those old style bulbs to new LED light can save you up to 85% on your energy bill. Not only will you save power, but you’ll change your lights far less frequently since the average bulb lasts over a decade. While we’ve heard duration promises like this for fluorescent lights, LED light actually deliver on that promise. They’re even cooler when they’re on so they don’t add any extra heat to your home. You can pay just over $1 per bulb if you buy them from Amazon.
RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES
There are dozens of devices in your home that use disposable batteries. Remote controls, flashlights, toys, smoke alarms and far more. Why not switch over to rechargeable batteries to help prevent toxic waste from hitting the dumps while also saving you some change on buying large packs of batteries. You can get a whole starter kit from Eneloop, one of the best performing brands in batteries, for $50 on Amazon.