Tax Deductions for Energy Savers

Saving money and helping the environment sound like the actions of a responsible person. If you are concerned about the environment and looking to lower your tax bill, the IRS offers several options in energy-saving tax credits. Certain home improvements and vehicles are covered by the credit. If this piques your interest, there is a lot of information to learn regarding the requirements.

Many types of home improvement items can be considered for the energy-saving tax credit. The credit related to improving a home’s exterior, or shell, includes adding insulation to walls and ceilings. If you need to upgrade your home’s windows, skylights or exterior doors are covered by the credit. This specifically includes storm windows and doors and films that insulate the window. Sealing cracks in your home’s shell or heating ducts are also part of the credit. To qualify for the credit, the improvements have to meet certain energy efficiency requirements and be certified by the product manufacturer. If requirements are met, you can receive up to $500 on these improvements.

The power to reduce the demand of the world’s energy lies in the hands of the user. By doing your part to help reduce the demand, can help conserve raw materials like coal and gas. Doing your part can also contribute toward reducing the greenhouse emissions and the threat of global warming, not to mention saving on the utility bills.

Reduce lighting energy use by replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact or standard fluorescent lamps. Switch off the lights when not required. Use of CFLs and LEDs or light emitting diodes is recommended as they produce 75 percent less heat, cutting on home cooling costs. LEDs offer better light and use lesser energy than CFLs.

Energy saver lamps are bulbs that give more light, but consume much less energy as compared to incandescent lamps. They are slightly more expensive than the incandescent lamps.

Osram lamps last up to 15 to 20 times longer than conventional light bulbs. They reduce power costs, and therefore pay for themselves in the long run. For example, one Osram Miniball 20-watt bulb replaces about 15 bulbs of 100-watt power.

With global warming and environmental pollution constantly in the spotlight, people are becoming more conscious of the amount and types of energy they burn. While some energy-efficient products are costly, others can lower energy use and reduce harmful emissions with little cost. Even small changes if done by many people can add up to considerable, effective energy conservation.

Posted in Eco Friendly Home | Leave a comment

Different Ways to Use Green Christmas Garland

Christmas tinsel garland can make the holidays sparkle. Strung on a tree, green garland catches the twinkling lights and can make a sparse evergreen look fuller. Green is one of the most popular decorating colors for the holiday season. Inexpensive garland will make your home look beautiful while keeping your decorating bill under budget. Add some touches of green garland to your decorating scheme this year.

Wrap a strand of battery-powered Christmas lights around a few feet of green Christmas garland. Tie them together with some floral wire, cinching your strand at the top, bottom and in the middle. Coil the lighted garland into a large hurricane vase. Fluff out the garland. Place the tinsel-filled vase on your Christmas dinner table or on an entryway table where everyone can enjoy it all season long. Make several of these and place one in your bedroom and guestroom to make the whole house cheery. Use multi-colored or green miniature lights.

Choose retro Christmas decorations when you want to get back to your roots or give your home an old-fashioned feel. There are lots of ways you can decorate your home in retro style, simply by using retro colors or certain types of decor. Retro Christmas decorations can give your home more of a fun feel than typical modern decor.

Silver tinsel trees were all the rage in the 1960s, once artificial trees had become popular. Choose a silver tree and pair it with modern lights and ornaments for a cool juxtaposition of retro and modern decor. Alternatively, choose a silver tree and decorate it with antique ornaments, large, colorful lights and other vintage Christmas decorations.

If you’re decorating for the holidays and have lots of space to work with, this can be a benefit as well as a challenge. Christmas decoration for a large place can be elegant and understated, or whimsical and eye-catching depending on the event you’re hosting, or the type of spacious area you’re adorning.

If you have to buy lots of decor for the area, sticking to one color scheme may make it easier to shop for holiday accents, but will also give the room a sophisticated feel.

 

Posted in Eco Friendly Home | Leave a comment

How to Make Green Halloween Decorations

Stores are filled with mass-produced Halloween decorations that cost a fortune and may not even survive the season. Why spend a lot of money on plastic junk when you can use stuff you have lying around the house to make your own creepy concoctions? Go green this Halloween by skipping the shopping spree; have a fun-filled weekend craftactular instead.

Raid the garbage and recycling bins. What did you find? Tin cans, glass jars, plastic containers and toilet-paper rolls? Perfect. Now let’s see what Halloween goodies you can create out of these items.

Turn the tin cans into luminaries (a fancy word for candle holders) with a little paint and a hammer and nail. Use the hammer and nail to punch holes in the can. They can be random or in spooky Halloween designs like pumpkins, ghosts and cats. If that’s too hard, just punch holes around the top and bottom in a row all the way around the can, and then a few in the middle. This helps the candlelight shine through. Paint fun Halloween colors and designs on the cans with acrylic paint. Add some candles or flameless LED lights.

Halloween decorations are typically fun and just a little scary. You will see jack-o-lanterns, witches and ghosts displayed throughout neighborhoods. An alternative to these characters and their haunted settings is is to create arrangements with natural materials. Beautiful Halloween displays can be crafted from seasonal potted plants, gourds, pumpkins, berries and colorful leaves, making the entrance to your home feel warm and inviting.

An old-fashioned wheelbarrow can provide you with a wonderful setting for your Halloween display. Place boxes inside the wheelbarrow to boost the arrangement you will place on top of them. Cover the boxes with sheet moss and brightly colored leaves. Arrange pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn in a pleasing design on top of the leaves. Add branches of bittersweet vines to create trailing lines from the wheelbarrow.

Your birdbath is a charming decorative element in your garden during the warm months. For other seasons, it can be used to display beautiful arrangements. To create a natural decoration for Halloween, line the top with sheet moss and fill it with miniature gourds of various colors and shapes. You could also choose to arrange ears of Indian corn in the birdbath and tuck the dried husks among them. Another option is to place a pot of mums in the center and surround it with a mixture of gourds, seed pods and autumn leaves.

For the crafter with the green thumb who shuns everything plastic and artificial, Halloween can present a fun challenge. It’s a time when decorations turn scary and even the natural is made to look unnatural. Start collecting nature’s bounty to make Halloween crafts that are satisfying and fun. Your creations will make unusual and delightful contributions to the holiday’s ambiance.

Pumpkins and gourds are a favorite Halloween item. Whether making the traditional jack-o-lantern or a pumpkin topiary, crafters will find these items almost a must-have when decorating for Halloween. Consider painting designs onto pumpkins and stacking them up to make a centerpiece. Gourds come in many different sizes and can be adapted to a variety of characters by carving or adding such embellishments as twigs for arms or leaves for clothing. Take an especially large pumpkin, and carve it into a haunted house filled with ghosts and ghouls made from smaller gourds.

Harvest the last of your fall flowers, along with cattails, colorful autumn leaves and wildflower sprays. Dry them so they will last, and then turn them into Halloween centerpieces for your table. You can also take a hurricane lamp, put an orange or black candle in the middle and then surround it with Indian corn, cranberries or cattails.

Posted in Eco Friendly Products | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fall Door Decorating Ideas

Whether you’re decorating the door of a home, classroom or place of business, use fall-themed accents to give the entryway a festive touch. Fall door decorations not only embellish the door and show your holiday spirit, but also allow your family or students to express their creativity and celebrate the season.

Take a tip from the House and Home magazine website, and create a wreath to display on your door. Buy a Styrofoam ring at a craft or flower shop, and attach silk leaves, plastic fall fruits and vegetables or pine cones to the ring with straight pins or a hot glue gun. When you’re satisfied with the look, thread one end of a 12-inch-long piece of ribbon through the center of the wreath, tie the ends of the ribbon in a knot and hang the seasonal decoration on your door.

If you’re creating wreaths for the door of a school classroom, let the children glue leaf-shaped die cuts sold at scrap booking or craft stores to a “ring” created by cutting the center out of a white paper plate. Provide glitter glue, markers and self-adhesive foam shapes that the students can use to embellish the wreaths.

Finding some fun ways to incorporate fall decorations for classroom doors will get children excited for the great year of learning ahead. Choosing to decorate with items the students help create will start the school year off right. Keep things fresh by changing out these decorating ideas for each new season.

Celebrate the seasonal holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. No matter what age your students are, a project can be found to fit. Have the younger kids color pictures, have the older ones write essays or make drawings, tailoring the ideas to the skill level and maturity of your class. Don’t forget to have the kids sign their work. If you have a large class, fill up both sides of the door or rotate the artwork according to which holidays each student chooses.

Many teachers choose projects that celebrate the fall harvest. Once again, individual artwork can be assigned–or to show students that harvesting is all about teamwork, have the whole class produce a large piece of art. On a sheet of paper or paper board that covers the entire door, have the class collaborate on drawing fall decorations. Some can draw vegetables and fruit, while others can add quotes or captions that pertain to the joy of this time of year.

Your classroom door will be the first thing your students see when they return from summer vacation for the new school year. By taking the time to craft a creative, funky portal, you can welcome them back to school in style.

An autumn theme reminds your students that summer is over and they are making a fresh start. Search office supply or stationery stores for decorative paper leaves to tape to the outside of the door, and write each student’s name on a leaf. If you cannot find ready-made leaves, create a stencil with a piece of cardboard and cut leaves out of red- and orange-colored paper. At the top of the door, affix cut-out letters (which you also can also find at office supply and stationery stores) that spell out a fun message like “Falling into 4th Grade.”

Assign a student teacher or one of your more reliable students to take photographs during the first week of school. If you do not own a digital camera, check with your school librarian or computer teacher–they are likely to have one for you to borrow. Once you have a bevy of great photos, order the best ones from a website such as snapfish.com and tape them to the outside and inside of your classroom door. Your students will get a kick out of seeing themselves in print, and by the end of the year, you all will be able to look at the photos and marvel at how much you have changed and grown as a class.

Posted in Eco Friendly Products | Leave a comment

How to Make Fall Table Centerpieces

Table centerpieces are an integral part of the decor for a special meal. In the fall, centerpieces adorn many Thanksgiving dinner tables. Take advantage of the abundant fall harvest season to incorporate the warm reds, browns, yellows and oranges into your table’s autumn decor. Fall table centerpieces can be made with a variety of seasonal items and assembled to suit the style and formality of your occasion.

Select a seasonal container for your piece. Line a wicker basket with a fall-color cloth. Use a hollowed-out pumpkin or gourd as a fall container. A large pumpkin can hold an array of fall-themed items, while small gourds or miniature pumpkins can be used to hold tapered candles.

Collect a variety of fall fruits, vegetables and leaves to brighten up your centerpiece. For a harvest centerpiece, fill a bowl with yellow and orange vegetables, such as pumpkins, squash and kumquats. Or, use a shallow dish and arrange various-color fall leaves on its bottom, interspersed with bright berries or grapes. For a floral fall piece, use an abundance of brightly colored flowers such as roses, tulips and daffodils in orange, red and yellow hues.

Fall is a time to celebrate nature’s bounty. Take a trip to the farmer’s market or simply collect some beautiful items from your backyard. Bring them into your home for use as an artistic and unique table centerpiece. If your centerpiece relies on fall leaves, place a foil-wrapped leaf-shaped chocolate on each plate as a favor. If the centerpiece contains pumpkins or gourds, provide a snow-white or orange mini-pumpkin for each guest.

A nature-inspired bag of potpourri poured onto a platter or any shallow container is the beginning of a beautiful and aromatic centerpiece. Place pillar candles of differing heights in the center and surround them with the potpourri. Add natural items collected from your yard, such as seed pods, pine cones, buckeyes and acorns. The result is earthy, rustic and autumnal.

Apples are the fruit most associated with autumn, and they make a colorful seasonal centerpiece. Whether it’s apple-green Granny Smith, Red or Yellow Delicious, or any other variety, your guests will enjoy this pretty and edible centerpiece. Place the apples on a glass pedestal, hurricane or bowl, or pile them inside a grapevine wreath decorated with fall foliage.

Draw the focus to the center of the table with a seasonal autumn centerpiece. Cast a glow across the table with ambient candlelight or creatively carved Jack-o-Lanterns. Showcase the bounteous harvest with a mixture of pumpkins, apples and leaves. Anticipate the joys of the Thanksgiving feast with an elegant, homemade turkey centerpiece. Centerpieces are limited only by the bounds of your imagination. In every case, warm yellows, oranges, reds and browns cast a seasonal coziness around the house.

Decorate the table with deliciously beautiful reminders of the harvest. Fall is a season of pumpkins, apples and richly colored produce. Arrange these items in a circular shape to create a wreath, or try a more elaborate centerpiece. Add color by spray painting pumpkins or apples with gold, silver, black or other colors of paint.
Fill a hollow pumpkin with seasonal flowers, candles, candies or other fall produce. An elaborate cornucopia can be created by filling a large pumpkin with apples, cranberries, Indian corn, small gourds, wheat stalks, dried flowers, small pumpkins and other produce.
Create an elegant bouquet of dried grains and grasses. Divide more than a hundred stalks into bundles of about 15 stems. Wrap each bundle with floral tape and assemble the bundles in a spiral shape so that the stalks can stand upright. Cover the bundle marks with a large, lavish bow of satin or ribbon.
Toss red and green apples into a basket and mix in a few miniature pumpkins or waxed leaves for color for an impromptu centerpiece that is visually appealing.
Leaves can be waxed easily by ironing fresh leaves between two sheets of wax paper for approximately 30 seconds. The waxy sides of the paper should be pressed against the leaves. These leaves can then be strewn across the center of the table for a whimsical look.

Posted in Eco Friendly Home Decorating | Tagged | Leave a comment

How to Decorate With Fall Decorations

 PR: n/a  I: 105  L: 0  LD: 54  I: 2  Rank: 17945626  Age: May 28, 2010  I: 0  whois source Robo: no Sitemap: yes  Rank: n/a  Price: n/a
Info  PR: n/a  I: 105  L: 0  LD: 54  I: 2  Rank: 17945626  Age: May 28, 2010  I: 0  whois source Robo: no Sitemap: yes  Rank: n/a  Price: n/a Density

Decorating your home does not just have to come and go with Christmas time. You can decorate with the seasons as well, such as fall. There are various ways to use items as fall decorations in your home. Many inexpensive items can transform your home for fall and without costing a lot of money. These items also can be used again year after year. Sometimes a simple transformation just involves incorporating festive fall colors.

Find some colorful mums from a nursery and plant them on your home’s pathway, in container pots or in a garden border. They can even be planted in pots to keep in your home.

Go to the local farmer’s market and purchase some Indian corn, gourds, pumpkins and squash to make creative display outside and inside your home. These items incorporate rich fall colors and have a fall feel. Arrange some of these items in a glass bowl and accent them with colored leaves and acorns. Arrange pumpkins on a fence post or the front porch.

Many think of fall of as the most beautiful time of the year. The leaves change colors, pumpkins ripen and the views outside are breathtaking. There’s no reason the beauty of the fall season has to be limited to the outdoors. Bring the beauty and color of fall into your home with fall themed decor. Save money and have fun by making your own fall decorations. The finished look will be unique and customized to your tastes.

Arrange pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes throughout your home. Place miniature ones on mantels and shelves and line stairways with larger ones.

Collect pine cones and fill a bowl or large vase with your findings for a fall centerpiece. Spay paint the pine cones for a little extra pizazz.

Everyone loves to pick out Halloween decorations, but fall decorations can be a bit more difficult. After all, you want decorations that will look just as good in September as they do in November. There are several decorations that look great all season long. Best of all, many of these decorations are simple to set up.

Consider what fall represents. What does fall say to you? Is it a time for things to come to an end or the beginning of something new? Is fall a season for harvest or cool nights with crisp air? Knowing what fall means to you can help you better choose decorations that suit your home.

Select decorations that suit the entire season. There are Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations. There are also decorations that suit the entire season. Hay and pumpkins can be used throughout the entire season. A display of pumpkins and hay is both simple and beautiful. Decorations like these will look great September through November.

Nothing makes a home feel more welcoming than country fall decorations. The country look is all about making your guests feel comfortable, and the colors of autumn generate a warm mood throughout your home. With just a few items you may have in your home, you can create a country look in all of your rooms that everyone will adore.

Wreaths are small and easy ways to bring the season into your home. For a country look, make a wreath from natural items you find outdoors. Glue walnuts evenly around a lightweight foam wreath form. Glue berry sprigs, pods and rose hips in the gaps to completely cover the wreath form. Another option is making a wreath from a straw wreath form. Wire sumac berries, acorns and baby’s breath to the wreath with floral wire. Finish off the look with a piece of torn fabric tied into a bow.

Posted in Eco Friendly Home Decorating | Tagged | Leave a comment

How to Make Natural Christmas Decorations

 PR: n/a  I: 113  L: 0  LD: 52  I: 2  Rank: 17928629  Age: May 28, 2010  I: 0  whois source Robo: no Sitemap: yes  Rank: n/a  Price: n/a
 PR: n/a  I: 113  L: 0  LD: 52  I: 2  Rank: 17928629  Age: May 28, 2010  I: 0  whois source Robo: no Sitemap: yes  Rank: n/a  Price: n/a
Info  PR: n/a  I: 113  L: 0  LD: 52  I: 2  Rank: 17928629  Age: My 28, 2010  I: 0  whois source Robo: no Sitemap: yes  Rank: n/a  Price: n/a Density

A handmade Christmas is a good way to get everyone involved in the celebration. A family outing is the perfect time to gather some of the natural materials you’ll need. The time spent together reminiscing about past holidays and working on your Christmas decorations can help create enduring memories. These are just a few suggestions of Earth-friendly and economical ways to decorate your home with natural Christmas decorations.

Start collecting materials early. During walks, look for bird’s nests, dried flowers, berries, nuts, pine cones and herbs. As the seasons change, you’ll have a selection of different colors and textures from which to choose. Collecting all during the year gives you the opportunity to stockpile a variety of materials to make your Christmas decorations.

Think about a fresh cut Christmas tree or a potted tree that you can plant after the holidays. Start a family tradition and make a special day out of looking for the perfect tree. If you don’t have live evergreen trees or shrubs to clip branches from, buy a tree that’s a little too large and trim some of the branches to use for wreaths or garland.

The holiday season ushers in a time of happiness and a reason to deck the halls with crafty and festive decorations. Choose Christmas tree decorations made of natural materials to add organic charm to your decor.

Natural materials provide an inexpensive alternative to store-bought Christmas tree decorations. They also bring the outside world inside, for a short time at least.

Various types of natural materials can decorate a Christmas tree, including pine cones, acorns and berries. Other options include flowers, dried seedpods, bundles of dried herbs and dried fruit.

Decorating for the holidays is a tradition in many households, with every family celebrating its own decoration customs. The Christmas tree is often the focal point of holiday decorating, and more and more families are going green with their decorating ideas. Natural holiday decorations are a growing trend, and adding these natural products will add to the beauty of your Christmas tree.

Select a fresh, live tree. A beautifully decorated Christmas tree begins with a healthy tree, so choose a tree with no dead needles or branches.

Place your tree in a tree stand and fill the stand with fresh water. You will need to check the reservoir in your tree stand every day to make sure it is getting enough water.

Give your home a charming country-inspired look during Christmas using natural decor elements. Decorating with nature-inspired items will infuse any room in your home with cozy, rustic appeal. Make your own decorations using a mixture of crafts and natural pieces, such as pine cones and berries, for a one-of-a-kind-look. Natural Christmas decorations also will make thoughtful gifts for friends and loved ones.

Use festive-hued fruit to create vibrant and natural Christmas décor pieces. You can use fresh or dried fruit to create the décor. Save money by drying your own fruit at home using a food dehydrator or an oven. Create a colorful Christmas tree garland using natural popcorn and fresh cranberries. You also can use the garland to enhance a fireplace mantel. To create the craft, thread a large sewing needle with waxed dental floss and knot the opposite end. Pop a batch of unbuttered popcorn. Thread the cranberries and popcorn pieces onto the floss, alternating the food items for a decorative look. Remove the needle and knot the end of the floss, leaving 12 inches free for tying. You can substitute the popcorn for fresh lime slices or green gumdrops to create a festive color scheme.

Natural pine cone ornaments will look just as decorative as the ornate antique versions they are hanging next to. Use craft items to personalize the pine cones. Prior to painting the cones, thread a pipe cleaner through the center of them to create a convenient handle. Take the pine cones to a well-ventilated area and coat them with shimmering gold spray paint. You can sprinkle gold glitter onto the wet paint for extra sparkle. You also can use silver spray paint and coordinating glitter if it’s a better fit for your overall decor scheme. Tie a wide gold or silver ribbon into a loop and glue it to the top of the pine cone for hanging.

Posted in Eco Friendly Home Decorating | Leave a comment

Looking for Net Zero Energy Residences

A pretty committed yet an important one into the future is the net zero household. A net zero home is one that is so energy efficient that mostly, they take in almost no energy by any means.

Officially, at certain times of the day, they will likely use up power-solar-equipped houses are not fully off-grid as well as do use electricity in the evening, for example-but other times they’d set back identical amount of power into the electricity grid.

Main people in this house of the future are cost effective home appliances. Obviously, part and parcel of the total approach is slashing energy consumption yet taking in what little we all do, correctly. Smart appliances perform a significant role in every in this. Mainly, the tank-less water heater. In any of its incarnations at this point, in its best, the gas tank-less water heater.

Other economical home appliances or characteristics are very important too but nothing will make as big as a positive change as a tank-less water-heating process.

They are usually known as on demand units, since the thought is that they heat up water right away, only when you need it. For that reason, this type of system doesn’t need a storage tank. As a result, the tank-less system is capable of offer energy savings, mainly because it does not need to retain an entire tank of water hot regularly.

In combination with other systems, the home of the near future, the net zero energy residence is also possible at the moment; the cost is just too hard. Nonetheless, builders are little by little trying to insert some good design or green design into new developments to work with the incentive programs covered by the government, but it’s available in what could be identified as more of a drip instead of a wave.

Since consumers become a little more and more knowledgeable about productssimilar to newer insulation technology, gas tank-less water heaters, low-flow water fittings, CFL and LED lighting fixtures, solar lights the need for such products as well as other energy efficient solutions will also be increasing.

While fossil fuel will continue to diminish, the cost has nowhere to go but up; and since we will begin to boost and improve, so will our wants and our energy requirements. The only alternatives are to try to produce more energy or to use what we find more efficiently. Presently, energy efficiency seems the to be the more cost-effective as well as eco-friendly possible way.

Continually pushing for better made homes with better quality and also efficiency products can simply help us in the long run.

Author:

Marie Malacaman

Looking For ‘Net Zero’ Energy Residences

Posted in Green Living | Leave a comment

Eco Friendly Playground Design

The last thing on any child’s mind as they are happily playing on climbing frames and swings is whether their playground equipment is having a detrimental effect on the environment, and therefore their future enjoyment of the planet! But as they grow older this will start having an impact on their lives and the lives of their own children. Little do they know, as they laugh and play, that there are people committed to creating a safer, greener world for the benefit of future generations to come, and putting in place the tools needed to carry on this new eco-friendly tradition through the years.

Anyone would agree that sustainability is a key factor in helping the world progress, not only in terms of natural resources, but also in terms of the economy. This is one of the main reasons that playground equipment companies have developed world class eco-friendly playground products, which is specially catered for the individual needs of many different age groups, as well as being manufactured from ethically sourced, environmentally friendly materials.

Eco friendly playgrounds are designed with a dream in mind. This dream is the desire to improve the lives of the population in developing countries through more just working conditions and by having a less devastating impact on their natural habitats when obtaining resources.

So what sets an eco friendly playground apart from a non-eco friendly one?

In terms of production, the materials used to manufacture equipment such as swings, slides, activity must demonstrate a reduction in dependency on non-renewable resources. This can be achieved in a number of ways, one of which is by recycling (for example by using recycled wood chippings for surface materials). Manufacturers understand that recycling is a major aid in helping reduce pollution and by reusing materials where possible, there is more scope for development in this ever growing world.

Recycled materials are so versatile that they can be used to create a wide range of new apparatus including outdoor benches and picnic tables, surfaces, swings, slides, climbing apparatus and even fencing. The wide range of eco-friendly equipment available means there is an ongoing interest and awareness of pro-green play providers with an end result of creating a better world for everyone.

Eco-friendly playground specialists know that it is important to set a good example as early on in a child’s life as possible in order to reap long term benefits for the whole population. The more productive business will work tirelessly with local authorities to encourage young people to lead more active and healthy lifestyles in the knowledge that by doing so on eco friendly equipment, they are helping to change the world one step at a time.

As well as all this, some corporations use a proportion of the profits from their ethically sourced playground equipment to support international organizations that are committed to improving the quality of life for developing communities.

Playtime is important, but so many companies forget about the long term scenario in their bid to make a quick turnaround. The best providers of playground installations put the time and effort required to really make a difference to the wider world through their products and this will have a long term impact on humanity. This means from generation to generation playtime can remain the way it should be; safe and happy in a more beautiful world that our children deserve to be a part of.

Author: Pete Tooley
Eco Friendly Playground Design

Posted in Eco Friendly Products | Leave a comment

Will a Solar Heated Hot Tub Save You Money

Some people are alarmed in regards to the strain and cost they will encounter on their electric utility bill in the event that they were to purchase a hot tub.  Ingenious designers, environmentally friendly, friends of the planet have come up with an option which will give you all of the conveniences that a jacuzzi will give you and they’ve made it so the tub is heated by solar energy, not by a plug!

The initial thing to consider when you’re looking into purchasing a solar-heated hot tub is understand that this is a unit which should be outside. If your idea of the ideal hot tub setting is in a room of your home, there’s very likely to be an absence of sunlight that you will need to heat your tub.  That said; another thing to consider is the region where you live.  If you happen to reside in a region that sees little sunshine then the solar-heated hot tub is not really something that could work.

Let’s say you reside in an area which will sufficiently accommodate the solar-heated jacuzzi and you are also comfortable with the thought of having it outside of the house, what next?  Do you fill the hot tub and wait for the sunlight to warm it up?  What about when the sun goes down, what happens to the heat that has collected during the daytime?

It is suggested that rather then having to wait for the sun to come out so that you can enjoy a hot temperature of water, there exists types of solar heat devices that will allow you to save the heat that’s solar generated in order to be used later when it is time to enjoy the benefits of the hot tub itself.  It may seem like an expense that clearly isn’t a good idea and it will be an up-front expense, but the pay off is that by having the solar heated unit; you will never need to plug it in and further drain those resources.  In the long run, the cost saving measures that a solar heated jacuzzi will allow, far out weigh the need for electric power or propane gas.

Solar heated spas, like their electrical and propane powered counterparts will always benefit from the use of a safety cover that’s manufactured to contain the heat generated, instead of having to waste time and money waiting for the water to heat up itself.

Thinking about an eco-friendly choice for a hot tub, the solar heated hot tub is where you need to look.  Keeping in mind that it’s going to need to be outside, that inside will never be an option; you live in a location that is sunny enough to properly heat up the hot tub and you know ahead of time that there is the possibility of the cost for the solar heater, by all means, go solar.  Understand that you’ll be able to reap the benefits of the use of a hot tub and you will be doing your part in the effort to safeguard the planet.

Posted in Eco Friendly Products | Leave a comment