More on Being Green

Recently I decided to look into what else we could do as a family to continue greening up our lives and being more eco-friendly. We've been doing what we can as far as recycling and conserving energy goes. In fact, we've only turned on the A/C four days this year so far. And while we lay in bed at night feeling the cool breeze blowing through the house we're serenaded by the chorus of central air units outside. I truly cannot imagine what some of those energy bills are like. Ours just keep getting lower and lower as we remember to do simple things like turn off the lights more often or hang the laundry instead of using the dryer.

Did you know that you can tell your energy company how to spend your dollars that you pay to them? This is our latest attempt to think green. I recently went onto our power company's website and told them that we want to receive 25% of our energy from renewable sources. You can do this in increments all the way up to 100%. It does make the energy cost a little more, but as an example, our energy bill this month came out to $120 for the last month. By telling them that I want 25% of our energy from renewable sources our bill went up to $122. That's not a huge difference, and I don't feel quite as bad about having to run the dryer on a rainy day. According to the website, requesting a 100% change in our energy would result in about a $12 difference in our bill. That's still not a horrible thought- but since we're in saving mode right now, I felt at least 25% was better than none.

If you're interested in finding out how your energy dollars are being spent, contact your local energy company. It's my understanding that most companies are offering similar programs, and if they don't you can let them know that you want them to in the future. It can't hurt, and you'll be doing your part to go green.