All the time we have heard and read that using recycled paper helps to save trees and conserve energy, all in all is good for environment. This information which I got from a cover of printer paper ream by Aspen , which shows actually how much it helps the environment. Choosing recycled papers over non-recycled paper has following environmental impact*.

	30% Recycled Paper	50% Recycled Paper	100% Recycled Paper
% fewer trees used	30%	50%	100%
% less energy used	13%	22%	43%
% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions	11%	19%	37%
% less water	14%	23%	46%
% reduction in solid waste	15%	25%	49%

*Source: Environmental Defense's Paper Calculator, www.environmentaldefense.org/papercalculator

Why do we still keep using Pennies and Nickel?

Soaring copper prices are pinching the penny makers. It now costs 1.3cents to make a penny and 7.7cents to make a nickel. But there's an environmental cost, too, to minting new coins- namely, copper mining and refining that involves huge amounts of power and water. Coinstar estimates there are some 150 billion coins going unused in US. => $10billion or $90 per household, stashed in mason jars and under couch cushions. Cashing in just 10% of this amount would translate into sizable environmental savings as show in the table below.

Savings Of	Equivalent to
Water	82 million showers*
Energy	4.1 million 60-watts bulbs**
CO2	12619 cars removed annually from roads***

* 40 gallons each
** Over average life span of 1000 hours
*** Assuming average mileage
Source: Business week May 2008

Nuke All- Helps you print only the stuff you want!!

Now something on a different tone. How many times it has happened to you that you take a print out of a web page, but you don't want everything that is printed? I know the answer 'many time'. At least to me it has happened many times. Some times you don't need the big images that gets printed but since its part of the page it gets printed! Also sometimes there are many advertisements which we really are not interested but they use our paper and ink since they are on the page. This has happened to me specially when I try to get the printout of the directions. Well I have one solution to this problem for those who are using Firefox as their browser. Firefox has an add-on called "Nuke Anything Enhanced" which allows to remove not needed object from a web page so that you can print only the stuff you want hence saving paper and ink. Let me explains how the add-on works.

Once you install the add on, you get couple of new options in your right click. One is "Remove this object" and the other is "Remove all other objects". The names justify their use. Here Object may means a side bar or an image or group of sentences or that submit button. Once you select to remove an object you will actually be able to view how the page will appear without that object. If you want to go back to the original screen press F5 or refresh the web page. I think there are also some other option to undo your actions. So it is that simple to save some paper and ink and help the environment. To downloadthis add on or for more information go to following link.

HOW MUCH - II

This post is in continuation with much previous post. I want to prove my point that with little consideration we can save electricity and contribute in the fight against the global warming. So let's take one more example. In my rest room I have 6 normal light bulbs to enlighten it, each bulb 60W. Let's say that I spend 1.5 hr every day in the restroom, so that would be 6*60=360Wh=.36kWh everyday. So for one month that would be 0.36*30 *1.5=16.2Wh every month => 16.2 * 0.22= $3.56 approx. I surely didn't needed all the six bulbs so I removed 3 of them and replaced the other 3 with 13W fluorescent bulb. 13W fluorescent is equivalent to 60W normal bulbs, so after these changes the saving would be= 3*13W=39W *1.5 hrs* 30 days = 1.755 kWh *.22= $0.39 approx So I save about 3.15 every month. So now justs adding the savings from previous post $4( by switching off the wireless router and cable modem) + $3.15 =$7.15 savings / month. Now the above scheme of bulbs there is a catch, you have to buy the fluorescent bulbs, but hey thats one time investment for at least 3-5 years. And also you are helping to avoid global warming. I will be posting some more examples, as I they come in my mind but surly currently we are abusing environment by relying more and more on non renewable sources of energy!! I hope after reading these posts a small thread would have spawn in your minds!

HOW MUCH !

I don't know how to start this but am trying to bring out one of the threads that has been running in my mind since long. Call me "Global warming" fanatic or "kanjoos" (you will know in a short while why am saying this), I am going to put down the thoughts and the research I did after that. Also this is not only just about me or my thoughts, the suggestions I have would help you to mitigate your rising electric bills to some extent. The use of electric/electronic devices in our life is so common that sometimes we even don't realize that we are using them. We need to burn fuel in order to generate electricity, and combustion of fuel leads to more green house gases in the atmosphere which leads to global warming. See its that simple!!
I have always been thinking as how much electricity would a given device consume in a given time? Lets say my TV is on but am not watching it, so what impact would this have on the environment? There are two parts to above questions a) how much electricity my TV consumes? b) what impact would this have on the environment?
First I will try to answer the first question.
I know that there is a very basic formula to calculate electic consumption of a given device, but me being a dumbo in Electrical stuff (e.g. it was tough for me to remember ohm's law) had to search it online and I came across this nice website by Michael which gives me all the necessary information.
Thanks to this website and its author, now I understand HOW MUCH ! electricity a given device consumes in a given time.I am putting down some interesting information but I encourage you to go through the site for more information if you are still reading this blog.
Usage of electricity is measured in kWh => kilo watt hour and we are billed according to that number. The formula to calculate kWh = (# watts usage per hour * # hours )/1000.
We are charged according to amount of electricity we use and the unit is kWh=>kilo watt hour. Nearly everything you can plug into the wall has a label that says how much electricity it uses i.e # of watts. (It may be printed directly into the plastic or metal.) You will have to make some efforts to find it.
If the label only gives the number of amps and not the number of watts, then just multiply the amps by 120 (for USA) to get the number of watts.
e.g. it the label says 65W, it means the device consumes 65Wh every hour.
if it says 5 amps, then it means the device uses 5*120 W hour every hour. (120 for USA and I think for India and European countries it is 240).
Now if you know how much you are charged per kWh then you can exactly calculate how much a the usage of a give device can cost you. Lets take an example so that I can help you take off some $s from you electric bill -;)
I have cable internet at my home, and I also use wireless router so that I can get internet in any room without need a physical connection between the computer/laptop and cable modem. For the sake of the study we will exclude the electricity consumption by the computer/laptop. Both the cable modem and the wireless router use electricity when they are turned on. My modem uses 18W and router uses 16W, so when I use them both, the total usage is 34W every hour. Lets say I don't switch them off during night (when we are not using it). Lets say we don't use internet from 11pm to 5 pm other day as we sleep at night and work till 5 pm. So in total 18hrs of non usage time. So the total kWh = 34*18 = 612/1000=0.612 kWh . In my last electric bill I saw that I am charged $0.22/kWh, so that totals 0.135 $ per day => $4 /month. So see now I am saving $4 every month just by switching off the modem and wireless router and you can too!.
Thats enough for now, will be adding more information soon as this post seems to have grown a bit big!!!!

New post after loooooong time

Its been long time since I wrote the last one. In fact this is my first post fro the year 2008. Well a lot has happened since then which includes me getting married. But now I think I should keep updating the blog as it would help me to know about myself in future.