Day 17: Adjustments to Equipment: Thermostat setbacks

The report recommends an indoor temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter months with an adjustment down by seven degrees for eight hours at night and by four degrees for ten hours during the day when someone is home or by seven degrees during the day when no one is home.
For a/c during the summer months they suggest the indoor temperature should be set to 73 degrees Fahrenheit with an adjustment up by five degrees for eight hours at night and ten hours during the day when someone is home and seven degrees when no one is home.

Here is some info from the EPA regarding settings and savings.

Goal: Set thermostat per outlined guidelines

CO2 Savings/year: variable because it was not tracked prior

Cost/year: $0, actually we will save money on our utility bills, the EPA suggests up to $180 saved

Day 16: Adjustments to Equipment: Water heater temperature

Here's an easy one! Set back the water heater setting to 120 degrees.  "Every 10 degree Fahrenheit reduction in a water heater reduces energy consumption by 3-5%," suggests the authors of the supporting information to the study.

Unfortunately when I went downstairs to check out household's setting I found letter indicators, not numbers.  Our temperature gauge options are A, B and C.  We have our heater set to A, the lowest on the scale so I'm going to assume that is 120 degrees and we've already done our part in conservation here.

Day 15: Adjustments of Equipment: Washing machine cold/cold cycle

The report cited above suggests reducing hot water consumption by washing clothing on warm/cold cycle. In the past I have defaulted to the warm/warm cycle but I know my husband uses the warm/cold setting; so our total carbon footprint savings would be calculated at 50% (we'll assume he starts the wash 50% of the time!). If I am reading the report correctly they used a weighted average based an assumed water heater temperature of 140 degrees and state that the reductions would result in .5 millions of metric tons of carbon if executed by the nation as a whole.

In order to calculate what that savings would mean for our individual household I started researching and came across this interesting article at treehugger.com which has persuaded me to switch to the cold/cold cycle and save 1.02 metric tons of CO2.

Goal: Set washing machine to cold/cold cycle

CO2 Savings/year: 1.02 

Cost/year: $0, actually we will save money on our gas bill because we are heating less water 

Day 7 thru 14: Execute transportation goals all week

Boy I created quite the challenge for us here and realize after a super busy week last week how difficult it is to add a new eco-friendly routine daily. Not just to execute it but to research it and understand it from a carbon footprint perspective.  So I cut us some slack and we spent last week just keeping up with our new goals.  Here's a recap: we have been able to use alternate transportation to and from preschool a minimum of two times a week, the pole/bike extension has worked out brilliantly as we can do more errands via bike with our toddler, grocery shopping via carpooling is great...got some new meals ideas from my wing-woman, I've been 100% more aware of idling and have started to curb the habit, we changed our oil sooner than we would have in the past but driving 55 miles per hour especially when running late to an interview is not so easy!