Summer vacation? Traveling on a plane or car?

A recent article analyzed the fuel efficiency of airlines and found they get 60 to 75 seat miles per gallon of fuel in 2009.  Better than the 50 mpg of a Toyota Prius hybrid automobile. Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest, and Continental were best.  The most fuel efficient planes were the Boeing 777-200ER wide body at 82 mpg and Boeing 737-900 at 99 mpg.  The Airbus A320 at 77 mpg is their best.

Want to go a step further? We noticed a Climate passport kiosk in the airport.  You can pay to offset your airplanes emissions. A 2,000 Miles (4 hr flight) generates 1,869 lbs of  CO2, and costs $11.44 to offset.  The money goes toward:

“The Carbon Offsets purchased through the Climate Passport Carbon Footprint Calculator are sourced from the Garcia River Forest, a conservation-based forest management project located in Mendocino County, California. The project achieves multiple goals including: increased sequestration and storage of carbon in native redwood forests, wildlife habitat restoration, and a sustainable supply of certified wood products.”

Tripbase has a CO2 Emissions Calculator that’s been made to help people out with being a bit more green and socially responsible when it comes to flying.

We all have heard of traces of drugs in the water system. It is time to make sure no one contributes to this any more by flushing expired or unused medicine down the drain. Wastewater treatment facilities aren’t designed to remove pharmaceuticals but someday may need to be.

Many local police departments take medicine waste as do many pharmacies.

FDA has some guidelines, some of which seem outdated.

NoDrugsDownTheDrain.org has a locator to help you find places to properly dispose of medicine.

Chemicals from medicines have been even measured in water from sewage treatment plants.  Our waste has traces of these chemicals and chemicals from cosmetics wash off from our skin as we shower.  This will be hopefully someday addressed.

RFQF6F74RYC6 It is hard matching EPA estimates for any car, especially hybrids. I found some helpful Prius Mileage tips, some of which are counter intuitive.

“..rapid acceleration to speed followed by cruising is actually more efficient, though counterintuitive”

“, keeping the windows open is more economical. The rationale: Battery drain from air conditioning uses more gasoline than aerodynamic drag caused by open windows.”

This one will have everyone passing you: “Remember that for every mph above 55 in a Prius, you could lose up to one mpg, mostly due to atmospheric drag — even with its advanced aerodynamic body.”

“..motor-generators (MGs) reach their maximum rpm at about 42 mph, which forces the engine to run to prevent damage to the MGs. So at speeds above 42, the engine must run, which creates added friction. This must be compensated for to maintain speed, causing a reduction in fuel economy.”

Let’s face it, almost everyone has problems with the battery life for notebooks and cell phones.  Our iPhone barely makes it through a day without charging. More and more devices come with rechargeable batteries and we felt it was time we looked into ways to extend battery life and extend cell phone or iPhone battery life. Eventually all batteries will die, but this article focus on extending the life of lithium-ion batteries that are present in most modern devices so the battery lasts as long as your device will.

If you have devices that need regular sized batteries (AA, C, D, etc), make sure you switch to lithum rechargeable batteries instead of single use batteries.  You will save money over the long haul.  Newer rechargeable batteries store their charge a lot longer.

Lithium-ion batteries do not have memory problems like older NiCad batteries. Topping a Lithium batteries’ charge off is on. Avoid running the battery down to near zero capacity before charging. Lithium-ion batteries’ life is shortened every time you fully discharge them. Luckily most modern operating systems like Windows Vista and Windows 7 give you critical shutdown warnings around the 5% battery charge level.  You can click Start – type power – select Power Options – click Change advanced power settings – expand Battery - expand Critical battery level to see minimum battery level in these versions of Windows.

Most manufacturers recommend you to go through at least one full charge cycle per month.  Charge the battery to 100% full and then running the battery down to zero. Batteries slow discharge without use, so charge it up periodically to exercise the battery. Notebooks will need sleep to be disabled during the rundown process. See technique below.

Keep your devices near room temperature as much as possible. (72° F or 22° C)  Some device cases can cause the battery to get significantly warmer, resulting in lower battery life. Blocking the vents on your notebook will raise its temperature as will putting it on a pillow or cushion. Putting a phone in your pocket can do the same thing. Keep the vents clean. Do not leave your computer or phone inside a hot vehicle.

Obvious, turning OFF your device when you are not using it will help battery life.  This means off, not sleep, standby, or hibernate. Remember to do it every night.

Remove batteries from chargers right after they have been charged. If you are not using the device for a while or are going to run on AC power for several days, remove the notebook battery if possible. This will prevent the battery from constantly charging and discharging a little. Clean a notebook or cell phone’s battery contacts every couple months.

Notebook Battery Life Tips:

• Turn on Energy Saving in your Operating System. Windows 7, XP, and Vista – EPA recommends setting computers to enter system standby or hibernate after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity.
• To save even more, set monitors and hard drives to enter sleep mode after 5 to 20 minutes of inactivity. The lower the setting, the more energy you save, just make sure it syncs with your work routine.
• Windows XP – Select Hibernate if laptop will be inactive for 1.5 hours or more, otherwise use Standby
• Windows Vista and 7 – Select Hibernate if there will be 2-3 hours of inactivity
• Climate Savers Power Setting instructions
• Disable energy sucking Aero and Sidebar user interface candy in Windows Vista and 7.
• Lower the brightness on your laptops screen and turn off sound.
• Reduce the number of background applications you run.
• Turn off Bluetooth, Wifi if they are not needed.

Additional Windows 7 Energy Saving Power Management tips. For our Macintosh users, Apple has lots of tips to extend battery life.

Reviving a Bad Notebook Battery:

If your Notebook’s battery is not holding a charge or lasts for short intervals, your can try to discharge and fully charge the battery a couple times.  There is no way to make a degraded battery hold more electrons though.

To drain a PC Notebook’s battery, turn on the laptop then enter its built in BIOS Setup program by hitting F2 or DEL or whatever key the manual suggests.   Leave the notebook sitting in the setup program and allow the battery to fully drain. Plug in AC power so the battery can fully recharge.  Repeat this process one more time.

Cell Phone Battery Life and iPhone Battery Life Tips:

1. Lower the brightness or backlight of your screen.
2. Vibrate uses a lot of power, disable it.
3. Disable push email or constant email checking.
4. Reduce the number of email accounts checked.
5. Avoid using the camera’s flash.
6. Turn off Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS if you do not use these features.
7. Download apps and music when pulled in at home.
8. Disable background applications.

Apple has a page with additional iPhone battery life tips.  The most useful ones are turning off notification, Push email, lowering screen brightness, turning off Wifi, location services, and Bluetooth. Disabling 3G helps but who wants a slower phone? Turning off sounds made when unlocking and sending e-mail will also help battery life. Apps that constantly run, such as Textplus, Facebook, Pandora, and Skype also drain the battery. OS 4 or newer users can Kill background tasks.

Never throw batteries in the trash. Recycle them.

Here are a couple easy ways to reduce the amount of energy your water heater uses:

1) Lower the setting so that water is heated to about 110-120 degrees. Many are set to 140 or higher.

2) Wrap the water heater in an insulating thermal blanket. Cost about $10. Possible savings of 4-9% on your water heating bill. Also insulate the hot water pipe, cost about $2 per foot.

3) Use less hot water.  Take faster showers and use low flow showerheads and faucet aerators to save water.

4) If you are in earthquake territory, strap your water heater to the wall and install flexible hoses.

5) Wash your hands with cold water. Hot water hasn’t been proven to remove germs better.

Consider a tankless water heater when replacing a water heater. These new models heat water on demand, not continuously.  They have Energy Factor (EF) ratings of about 0.80. They are not for everyone, I was unable to use one because of the gas pipe and exhaust requirements.

Alternately you could replace your water heater with a modern more efficient unit.  Natural Gas models have up to 0.67 Energy Factor (EF) ratings now. Modern electric ones have a 0.93 Energy Factor.