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Congratulations to Patti of Minnesota, winner of The Carbon-Free Home!
With all the talk of needing to change our energy consumption habits, many of us feel lost. Maybe we have some cute curly lightbulbs in our house, and perhaps we plan our shopping trips better so we don’t double-back through town and use so much gasoline. But aside from this, what can we do? If your electric bill is giving you nightmares, if you’re dreaming of being more self-sufficient, then The Carbon-Free Home – 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit, may just be the next book to pick up.
For me, The Carbon-Free Home, published by Chelsea Green, is a rich resource of information on becoming more self-reliant. The focus of the book is most definitely environmental, but because of my interest in self-sufficiency, I’ve found that the two most often go hand in hand. I don’t like relying on the electric company and the gas company. I dream of windmills in my back yard! I appreciate the detailed info authors Stephen and Rebekah Hren share on everything from solar cooking to using rainwater to those wonderful windmills. They go to great lengths to take out the guesswork for you and me, even giving difficulty levels for various projects and the estimated cost of each. Whether you live in an urban apartment or have land far from civilization, you’ll find tips and information useful to help you cut down on your carbon footprint.
If you’ve got kids, there are projects in here that you can involve them in as well. For instance, building a solar oven would make a fabulous project for the whole family. (There are simple instructions and more involved, permanent solar oven constructions as well. Take your pick, they all look fun and efficient.) I can’t imagine a more engaging and educational family activity than learning to cook food on an oven you’ve all made together, with no gas and not even a flame. Teaching children self-sufficiency and love for their planet are two important lessons for certain!
Other sections of The Carbon-Free Home include: Refrigeration, Domestic Hot Water, Rainwater, Heating & Cooling, Food & Landscaping, and more. This book is a rich resource for any family looking to conserve energy and lessen their dependence on fossil fuels.
3 Ways to Enter:
1.) Just tell me one thing you do or would like to do to help your family cut down on energy usage. Remember, leave an interesting comment. If I cannot contact the winner, you might be chosen instead based on your comment.
2.) Email subscribers are entered into this and all future giveaways, for as long as their subscription is active. Just click here: Subscribe to dkMommy Spot by Email (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you do not receive it, check your junk mail. Only verified subscriptions are entered for all the giveaways.)
3.) Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back to this post. Come back and leave me a Comment with a link to your blog post.
Feel free to do all three, and you have three entries to win! You have until midnight EST on Thursday, August 14, 2008, to enter.
turn off lights when not in use.
I own a 2002 Prius, but I’d love to get one of the new “Plug-in” hybrids that run on electricity for the first 40 or so miles before switching over to the hybrid engine.
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I would like to look into solar and unplug “vampire” appliances. solta(at)hotmaildotcom
Danis last blog post..Back To School Event!
Just a school bus driver and have to cut back on using electricty. Looking for other ways to save money.
unplug things whne not using, wash a full load, turn off uneeded items…conserve in the shower becuase it saves on the hot water
i am interested in solar lamps for the outside.
We’d really like to implement some rainwater harvesting techniques at our house, both passive and active. This book looks very interesting; thanks for the drawing!
Unplug everything we can, for a start
turn off your cable box when you shut off the t.v.
Put in ceiling fans in the bedrooms.
We’ve been making a lot of small changes lately to reduce our carbon footprint. This book could help us to go even further. So far, we are carpooling, using re-useable canvas totes at the store, using re-fillable water bottles, recycling, turning off lights, lowering the air conditioner, and taking shorter showers. I would love to figure out how to insulate our attic better as well as seal up the windows. During the winter, I save energy by bundling up with blankets and making my cats snuggle up to me. Hmmm… maybe kitty cats are the solution to the oil crisis? Gotta ponder that one.
of course I already subscribe to your blog!
We have been car free since 2002. We’ve never owned a clothes dryer. A dishwasher came with our house, but we’ve never used it. A refrigerator came with our house, but we’ve never used it (well except for storage). We’ve never owned an air conditioner. In the winter time, we keep the heat at 65 during the day and 55 at night. These are just a few things off the top of my head.
Well, I’ve already got the kids doing 10 push-ups for each time they leave their lights on so the next item I need to tackle is getting new windows … my old “contractor grade” windows leak energy!
We try not to use many lights during the day, and don’t use any lights we dont need, keep the ac low and use water saving cycles on the dishwasher and laundry. Great giveaway, thanks!
Mary @ Adventures in Mommylands last blog post..Little Einstein’s Giveaway at A Bookworm’s Diary
turn the heat down to 50 when out or at work during the winter
I love summertime in Georgia, because it doesn’t get dark until around 9 p.m. We literally don’t turn on any lights until about that time. There are lots of windows in the house, and we make good use of natural sunlight until we absolutely HAVE to turn on the lights. It has made a significant difference in our electric bill. Not huge, but noticeable. We also try to keep the A/C between 76 and 78 degrees to save energy.
Jennae @ Green Your Decors last blog post..Green Rooms in a Box Series: A Modern Boy’s Nursery Under $2500
When our electric bill in our new home went up 400% during last summer’s heat wave (20+ 100 degree days) we new we had to take immediate action. I recycled our kids Fleece no-sew blankets and turned them into curtains. The cost was $0 because I used things we already owned. It allowed none of the heating to enter the room, thus lowering our AC usage considerably, and it was already set at 85, it just didn’t have to run as much. It also helped during the winter when it was below freezing for much of the season, their rooms never got cold.
To deal with the darkness, I allow them to play outdoors as much as possible in the early morning until it gets too hot. They come in for lunch, and they are tired so they nap during the heat of the day. Otherwise, they each have one lamp in their rooms with an energy efficient bulb in it, so they can read, work puzzles, or play when it is too hot to play outside.
Karens last blog post..CFBA Presents: The Jewel of Gresham Green by Lawana Blackwell
I am investing in those energy saving lightbulbs in every light of the house!
We would love, love, love to have a solar panel grid and small wind turban back-up. Oh, if only someone were giving that away . . .
We added this giveaway to our “Free Stuff” page at http://www.ForMyKidsOnline.com/free_stuff
Okay, sorry. We don’t want a breezy hat. We would like a wind turbine. (It’s been a really long day!)
Hi, Our family of four made a commitment early in the year, to become more eco-conscious.
Thus far, we have turned down the temperature on our water heater and we take shorter showers.
We turned down the thermostat in the winter and up in the summer. Also, we run more errands in one run as opposed to making many trips. Please enter me in your delightful book drawing contest.
Thanks, Cindi
We are unplugging appliances, etc. when they are not in use.
only lights on allowed are where we are at the moment…all other lights…off…took a while to get the kids into the habit of this…but they are great now…4 people in the house…max, four lights on. THANKS
We put in a solar hot water heating system. Then I do my best to only do laundry on sunny days. We’re way overdue in putting in a clothesline, too. That’s this weekend’s project.
Put up curtains to block the hot sun, because the blinds are just not cutting it.
I put in a drain for the clothes washer that emptys into a barrel to use as water for my garden
I have started taking shorter showers and washing clothes that aren’t too dirty-like towels in cold water. I would like to eventually replace my older appliances with Energystar ones.
I’d like to know how to change my house over to something cheaper and more environmentally friendly than oil heat.
energy saving lightbulbs
THANK YOU GOD BLESS
I’d like an inexpensive way to heat the house. In the meantime, we are recylcing everything we can (including having a comport barrel).
Our heat is electric and it is quite costly during the winter…I would love to be able to find a way to trim that cost
I would love to have solar heat & hot water!
I could really use this book.
Al Gore
I need to replace more lightbulbs with more energy efficient ones. Thanks for the chance!
I work at home, so it is a huge engergy savings, but beyond that we do the lightbulb thing and unplug unused electronics.
We have a candle night once a month, we have ceiling fans in every room, we are looking into the “green switch” for our outlets, and we are trying outdoor solar cookers.
Sure would like to win.
God bless our troops
I’m an unplugging nut. EVERYTHING, monitors when not in use, computers, chargers, toasters, EVERYTHING.
We also have a one cup per day rule that cuts down on how much I run the dishwasher per week!
Pattis last blog post..Gimme more Monday
We would really like to get into using solar energy. Also, to help conserve energy we just recently got special power strips that help reduce phantom energy draws by completely shutting down accessories when a master item is turned off.
This book sounds great. Things I do to cut down on energy in our home: Shorter showers and I have really worked hard with remembering to turn the water on at a low level too (not so much pressure), we always buy high efficient appliances and just got a dishwasher that has no hot dry cycle but works great. I stumble around in low light/dark a lot too instead of turning on all the lights
) My energy bills have indeed gone down!!
Next project is to get a new hot water heater that heats on demand.
We are trying to make changes but have a long way to go to say we are “eco -consious”.
I need to find ways to cut back on my electric bill. Thanks for the chance to win this book to give me some ideas.
Brandys last blog post..Enlightened perspective
I have always wanted to use our rainwater….in fact I would love to reuse the shower water, too, that is a lot of water going down the drain. Solar panels and a windmill would be great, I would love to generate ALL my own electricity but I don’t think that is possible.
Yvonnes last blog post..Fields of Gold Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!
I am going to start taking public transportation more often and let my kids ride the bus for a change.
Looks great. We’ve already cut back a TON on things like transporation and using electricity
Our thermostat is set at 77.