The ups and down of greening your house

With a tighter household budget, most people are wondering about ways to save money - including energy conservation. However, it's easy to leave the process at wondering. In a very insightful National Geographic article, Peter Miller discusses the ups and downs of making his home more energy efficient and reducing his carbon footprint. He and his wife made a goal of reducing the carbon their household produces to 20% of the US average.

Miller's efforts to conserve energy and reduce emissions range from the more mundane - such as using compact fluorescent light bulbs and cutting down on car travel - to some less common and more insightful ways of conserving. He describes the "energy audit" that he and his wife did, revealing areas of their house with poor insulation. All of his tips are useful and within the means of most homeowners. Miller found that he and his wife saved $190 on energy bills.

However, Miller doesn't only share the successes. He calculates how one plane trip doubled their average CO₂ emissions. He also shares how his neighbors had to abandon air-drying their clothes, or how another set of neighbors produced a whopping 248 pounds of CO₂ a day because they all had to different destinations to drive to each day (to be fair, they also had kids).

As it has been said many times, it isn't easy being green. Even with all of the challenges, though, the Millers did save almost two hundred dollars in energy costs, donate a little of that money to offset the jet trip and cut their CO₂ to half the average household emissions.

For the original article, click here.