You may have noticed a new trend lately in going green, but this choice doesn’t have to put you in the poor house. It can even be as easy as putting a $2.99 aerator to your faucet. Remember, it’s easy to make more expensive mistakes if you don’t spend some time on research in the beginning. Many manufacturers currently advertise their product as “earth friendly” or “green” but there are no government standards in place to define what makes an item eco-friendly or not.
Follow these 5 tips to assist you on your journey to create a kitchen that will save you money, give you a fresh new look, & save the world all at once:
1. Buy a low-flow water faucet/aerator
• Why: A shiny new faucet is a simple upgrade, but kitchen faucets can vary from 1.5 – 4 gallons per minute in the amount of water that come from them. Low-flow bathroom faucets with the Environmental Protection Agency’s new WaterSense label are about 30 percent more efficient than older models.
• Simple Eco Upgrade: Until the government comes up with some industry standard for low-flow kitchen faucets, for $3 to $11 you can make most new or existing taps more efficient simply by attaching an aerator. These devices save water, and lower utility bills as well, because less hot water is used. Because of this, low-flow aerators will typically pay you back in about 90 days.
• Cons: With lower flow, it might take a bit longer to fill that 2 gallon pot for spaghetti night.
• Suggested Purchase: Look for a gallon per minute rating of less than 2 gallons per minute or GPM (some are as high as 4 GPM). Luckily, many Kohler faucets typically offer an aerator option that can reduce the GPM rate by roughly 25 percent. Remember, adjustable aerators can also be found for your faucet. Keep the aerator on the slow setting when using the kitchen faucet for average use and set it to fast flow to fill up big pots with water quickly. Another green choice is a hands-free faucet, like the Danze Parma D421058, $480 or other low-flow Danze faucets.
• Keep in Mind: When you find a faucet that fits your budget and style, make sure it has a lifetime warranty that covers stains and water-wasting leaks. Also, some kitchen aerators will allow you to flip between two flow rates without affecting the water temperature
2. Switch to low wattage lighting
• Why: Modern kitchens can use up to 2,000 watts for lighting (especially track lighting) because standard incandescent, halogen, and xenon lights are energy vacuums. All that burning heat from your inefficient lights might motivate you to turn down the A/C to keep the room cool.
• Simple Eco Upgrade: Switch to cool-burning compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) in your fixtures, and also consider adding some LED or fluorescent under cabinet task lighting. This simple DIY fix costs about $199 for 5 fluorescent fixtures.
• Cons: A handful of CFLs and LEDs cast a bluish or other odd color light. Before you buy, double check the return policy to see if you can return it even if you don’t like the way the light looks with your décor. On second thought, try the light in the store or tip an associate for their personal recommendation.
• Suggested Purchase: Strips are the most common type of task lighting, round “hockey puck” lights are best for casting pools of light onto a counter and linear lights are best if you need more versatile fixtures. Both round “puck” lights and linear lights can be included with LEDs.
• Keep in Mind: If your cabinets don’t have a built-in valence to hide task lighting, either add one or choose a fixture with a sleek housing that’s not as noticeable.
3. Install a ceiling fan
• Why: Kitchens get hot, and if you use an air conditioner to cool things off, it will gobble up a lot of energy and money.
• Simple Eco Upgrade: A ceiling fan in the kitchen will use only a fraction of the electricity that an A/C would.
• Cons: Aesthetics, few people have ceiling fans in kitchens for a reason, it doesn’t usually look good.
• Suggested Purchase: There are a number of great models from Hampton Bay, Harbor Breeze, and Hunter, and most circulate air about the same. So rather than shop for a particular brand, go for a style the lady likes and you find on clearance and remember that lighting affects energy use.
• Keep in Mind: You might be able to find CFLs designed for ceiling fans that can replace the original bulbs and save energy. You need to keep in mind current CFL’s don’t operate correctly with fans that have light dimmers.
4. Refurbish with second hand materials
• Why: A new countertop or cabinet face can change the whole look of your kitchen, but producing them keeps coal power plants polluting the air and some “earth friendly” materials aren’t as green as they might seem.
• Simple Eco Upgrade: Before you buy new, see if you can find used materials.
• Suggested Purchase: Salvage shops are stocked with new or lightly used stone countertops, hardwood flooring, decorative lumber, and kitchen cabinets, so they’re a great place to look for bargains. Even better, Habitat for Humanity sells used and surplus building materials at outlets called ReStores.
• Keep in Mind: If you will buy brand new, at least search for greener cabinets and other products made from sustainable lumber and materials.
5. Trade in/Sell the biggest energy hogs
• Why: The appliances in your kitchen that take the most energy to operate are refrigerators and dishwashers. The older these appliances are, the less energy efficient they are and the more costly they are to run.
• Simple Eco Upgrade: Only open the doors when you know what you want. Don’t waste energy by “browsing” with an open fridge. And we know, it’s not typically cost effective to replace older working appliances with newer effiecient ones. Search for models that are quieter and need less energy when you decide to update. Yes, energy efficient models cost more BUT, you’ll recover the investment as your utility bills decrease.
• Suggested Purchase: Look for appliances that are Energy Star qualified. These ENERGY STAR approved refrigerators need only half as much energy as models manufactured before 1993. Also ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerator models use high efficiency compressors, improved insulation, and more precise temperature and defrost mechanisms to improve energy efficiency. ENERGY STAR qualified dishwashers keep more than $30 a year in your pocket from saved utility costs if you replace an dold one manufactured before 1994. These also use significantly less H20 than conventional models. This can help extend the life of your septic tank.
• Keep in Mind: You don’t have to get rid of all the old appliances at once. Start with the least efficient ones. If repairs would cost more than 50% of a brand new appliance, simply replace them with a new one.
If this is all seems complicated some online retailers make it easier for you such as Designer Plumbing Outlet with the help of Site Search technology by SLI Systems. When looking for kitchen items on their e-commerce store you can easily refine your search by “Eco-Friendly” results. This helps makes the search easier and makes going green even simpler when buying new."
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