Photovoltaics on the roof. Geothermal heating under-ground. Spiffy dual-flush toilets all about.
This wasn't the nature of our eco-mania.
We considered ways for reducing household waste. We looked at less toxic housecleaning products, and green gardening techniques and pet products. We answered readers' questions and printed tips from the hundreds who wrote to us throughout the year. In the end, we amassed a huge bank of information on what we can do to make a difference.
We're marking the one-year anniversary of the series' launch with a compilation of 50 of the best ideas we've printed -- tips from engineers, chemists, environmentalists, recycling experts, government agencies, medical professionals, appliance-makers, Master Gardeners and, of course, our trusty readers.
Use it. Contrary to popular eco-belief, it's greener than hand-washing -- if you run it with full loads and scrape rather than rinse. The average dishwasher in American homes today uses 8.7 gallons of water a load. Washing by hand for 10 minutes with water running can use 20 gallons. If you fill the sink, you still use about 5 gallons for washing, 5 for rinsing.
Do not over-dry laundry. An electric dryer operating an extra 15 minutes a load can cost you up to $34 a year in wasted energy; a gas dryer, $21 a year. If your dryer has a moisture sensor that turns the machine off automatically when clothes are dry, use it.
Wash only full loads of laundry and save (the average American home) as much as 3,400 gallons of water a year.
Plan for wise watering. Group thirsty plants in one bed close to the house. Fill farther beds with drought-tolerant perennials that need little or no watering. For lawns, choose fescues, which tolerate dry spells better than bluegrass. Mulch around trees and plants to keep water from evaporating.
The garbage disposal
Use it. It's greener to feed the disposal than it is to encapsulate food waste in a plastic garbage bag and send it to the landfill. Sent down the disposal and into the sewer line, organic waste gets treated by the sanitary district and turned into fertilizer.
Power them off. A home office with a computer, printer, fax machine, computer speakers, scanner and cordless phone could consume as much power as two 75-watt light bulbs left on 24/7. And that could cost you $100 a year in electricity. Plug equipment into a surge protector-power strip. Power off all equipment and then turn off the power strip at the end of the day. If you have a high-speed cable connection to the Internet (i.e., Comcast), plug that modem into a separate outlet and keep that "on" all the time, as Comcast updates during the night. If you have AT&T DSL (high-speed Internet), it's OK to power off that modem. In fact, AT&T's technical folks recommend it, to preserve the modem's life.
Get a programmable thermostat and save as much as $150 a year. Set it way up (in the summer) or way down (in winter) when everyone's at work or at school and when they're asleep. And program it to turn up the heat (in winter) or air conditioning (in summer ) shortly before folks get home or shortly before they wake up.