Proper use of the washing machine

11 easy ways to take care of nature

Every year around the world in the spring, Earth Day is held. This is a whole range of activities aimed at developing civic environmental initiatives and improving the environment. Also in the spring, a massive campaign “Earth Hour” is held, which urges people to spend resources more economically and turn off the light for one hour.
But why wait for a specific time if you can think about ecology now and make your own contribution regularly? These ways to preserve nature are a simple help to the planet, which is within the power of every person. You just need to slightly change your everyday habits.

1. Proper use of the washing machine

Use the water you use more rationally. First of all, we are talking about a washing machine.

To save a thousand gallons of water per month (and at the same time electricity with powder), it’s enough to load the drum every time, and not to idle it. But this does not mean that the equipment must be overloaded, overdoing it with the weight and volume of clothes or adding things that are not intended for automatic washing. Ideally, buy a car with low resource consumption and several modes (for example, economical washing, which does without extra rinsing and heats water only up to 30-40?).

2. Refusal of unnecessary options “dishwasher”

The above rules apply to the dishwasher. It should be turned on only when all the dirty dishes are collected. Many people think that energy can be saved by completely abandoning an automatic dishwasher. In a sense, this is true, but you will spend a lot of water – a more valuable natural resource. The fact is that it takes 60 liters of water every day to wash plates and pans manually, and a maximum of 20 liters to wash in a car.

If it’s important for you to reduce your electricity consumption, shorten the duty cycle of the dishwasher by turning off the dryer. This function “devours” energy. And the dishes can be dried naturally.

3. Work with the refrigerator

Save electricity. This type of household appliances, such as a refrigerator, is constantly working, so it spends a lot of energy. To reduce costs, place it in the coolest place in the kitchen, do not lean it against the wall, regularly remove dust from the back and do not look into the cameras too often and idle (and especially do not leave the door open).

It is better not to keep the refrigerator half empty, and the freezer in general should be packed to capacity for stable compressor operation. At the same time, one of the main ways to save on the refrigerator is to find the optimal temperature. It is believed that in the main chambers it can be 2-3? C, and in the freezer not lower than -15? C.

4. Reducing power consumption in appliances

First of all, we are talking about the consumption of electricity in standby mode when you leave equipment that you are not currently using connected to the outlet. You may not know, but even when the appliance is turned off, the power consumption does not stop. For example, a TV devours 0.2-10 W per hour, a microwave – 3 kW per hour, various chargers – 1 W. So turn off the computer, phone, TV and Wi-Fi router from the network for the night.

5. Timely watering of the site

If you live in a country house or have a cottage, then you probably came across the issue of regular watering of the lawn or garden. It is believed that the volume of water used at a time depends on weather conditions and the type of soil, but on average is 10-30 liters per square meter. In this case, it is necessary that the water is completely absorbed and does not leave puddles. But how to do so that daily watering is effective, rather than turning into a waste of water?

To begin, remember the optimal time for watering. In the middle of a hot day, it is useless to do this: the drops will attract ultraviolet light and burn the grass. Evening watering is also harmful because of the danger of developing fungus and rot in a humid environment. It is best to water the area from 6 to 9 in the morning, when the ground is dry and cool. In a not too dry summer, it is enough to do this twice a week, and in the spring and autumn – once every 7 days. Remember that the lawn cannot be watered for future use, and frequent portions of water will simply destroy the immunity of the root system of plants.

Collect and accumulate rainwater for further irrigation of the site. It will not take you much time, but it will significantly save resources. By the way, according to 2015 surveys, in California every fifth owner of a private garden plans to purchase a rainwater harvesting device, and another 3% of residents opt for a domestic wastewater treatment system.

6. Replacing disposable bags with a bag

A reusable accessory for going to the store (whether it is a shopping bag or a shopping bag) is not only fashionable, but also practical. We all know that plastic bags are terrible. They decompose for hundreds of years, clog communications, kill river and sea inhabitants. The production of plastic bags takes 4% of all oil produced.

As for paper bags, they are not an alternative to plastic, since their production contributes to global warming and massive unauthorized deforestation. So, in America, about 14 million trees leave for 10 billion paper bags. The issue of safe disposal also remains: the packages are buried with other garbage, and the lack of oxygen prevents the material from decomposing. When processing a kilogram of paper, 91% more energy is consumed than in the case of plastic.

7. Buying new bulbs

Make sure that all of your lighting fixtures have energy-saving lamps. They can be both luminescent and LED. Of course, you will have to pay more than for ordinary ones, but in the future you will recoup these expenses by saving on electricity. The service life of an energy-saving light bulb is higher – from 5 to 12 thousand hours of operation. For example, an LED lamp is 75% more energy efficient than incandescent and lasts 25 times longer.

Energy-saving appliances have greater light output. The flux of a 100 W incandescent lamp is equal to the light flux from an energy-saving one with a power of 5 times less (20 W). It turns out that a traditional light bulb simply heats the air around you for your money. In addition, over time, it illuminates the room worse and worse, because the tungsten thread burns out.

Another option for saving electricity is to limit the power of household appliances through a dimmer. It allows you to adjust the lighting system (changes the brightness of halogen, LED and incandescent lamps). Only with energy-saving and fluorescent devices does this option practically not work.

8. A fresh look at water procedures

Refuse to take a bath. At least 150 liters of water are spent on one relaxation session in the air foam surrounded by scented candles, and half as much for a shower. Take a bath when you really want to warm up or continue a romantic date, but sitting in it every weekend is a waste of natural resources.

Buy a diffusion water-saving shower head. It will allow you to spend only 5 liters per minute, while with an ordinary nozzle it takes 12. By the way, if you just take a shower one minute less than usual, you can save 150 gallons of water per month.

9. Waiver of mercury

You may not have thought about this, but mercury-containing objects surround us every day. But they are harmful to health due to hazardous secretions and adversely affect the nature (especially with improper disposal). Mercury poisoning from a conventional thermometer can cause memory loss and prolonged insomnia..

Be sure to think about where to bury and destroy old thermometers, as well as batteries and accumulators that you do not need. Typically, such objects are handed over to special machines or demercurization points. You can also call the Ministry of Emergencies or SES to find out the addresses of their collection points.

10. Change in diet

To contribute to saving the planet, give up eating meat and various animal products for at least one day a week. Scientists from Australia are sure that vegetarians are 5 times less polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gases (for example, methane). Even to bring regular beef to the table, producers spend valuable resource fuel..

The European Commission’s Joint Research Center this year found that reducing meat in the human diet would help save up to 10% of water resources. We are talking about reducing the so-called water footprint – the volume of fresh fluid involved in the production (not only meat, but also other products, as well as alcohol). For example, 2,757 liters a day are spent on food for one Englishman per day. If you become a vegetarian forever, you can reduce water consumption by 55%.

11. Caring for the trees

Forest is the most important natural resource that cannot be dispensed with without human protection. This can be done using several options. For example, reduce paper consumption. To do this, learn double-sided printing and save office sheets. Another option for saving paper is the rejection of disposable cups. Buy a beautiful ceramic mug or steel thermos to pour your favorite coffee in. Daily purchase drinks in paper containers leads to the formation of 10 kilograms of garbage per year.

Since wood is the basis not only for cellulose, but also for furniture, think about your interior as well. Perhaps it makes sense to buy a used cabinet or a used ear bookshelf and make something of it yourself. So, you also save the family budget.

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