04/22/09
DOWN TO EARTH - Making your home more eco-friendly can be a challenge. A new kit by a California company is designed to take some of the guesswork out of the process. It's called the Eco Start-Up Kit by Eco Hatchery. It costs $97.50 and can be ordered online.
The kit's packaging is even green. It's made of wood shavings that can be reused as packing or later as decoration for potted plants or added to compost.
While the extensive kit makes "going green" easier, it still requires quite a bit of time. A guide book shows you what to do and how long each task should take. It is also complimented by online tools to track your progress.
Once it's time to get started, be prepared for some dirty jobs. Your refrigerator is a huge energy hog but can be significantly more efficient with some cleaning and tuning. A coil brush helps with that process and can improve your refrigerator's efficiency by 30%. Save even more by keeping your appliance at an optimum temperature with the help of a specially designed thermometer.
Another big way to save money, reduce waste, and avoid exposure to certain chemicals is to kick the plastic bottled water habit. Many refrigerators and some sinks come with filtered water which numerous studies show produce water as good or even better than bottled water. The stainless steel bottle that comes with the kit makes it easy to take this water with you on the go.
Eco-hatchery does offer smaller kits for $50 and $60 and has some free online tools you can use on its website. You may want to look at what these kits include so you don't end up paying for items you don't need. If nothing else, Eco-hatchery gives you some good ideas for getting started.
