New rebates have been added for 2012.

Utility Company PSE&G or Public Service Electric and Gas has a bunch of programs and incentives to help save energy, go green, and save money.

• New Jersey Clean Energy Program – Receive $50 for recycling your old, working refrigerator or freezer.
• $50 rebate on new Energy Star appliances including Clothes washers. Exp 12/31
• Up to $400 rebate on furnaces, boilers, water heaters Exp 12/31
• $1200 incentive for solar domestic water heating system.  Exp 12/31
• Up to $500 rebate on Central Air conditioners Exp 12/31
• Up to $500 rebate on Geothermal heat pump, heat pump Exp 12/31
• New Jersey my have a new solar Incentive program based on a rebate and additional Solar Renewable Energy Certificates or SRECs that you earn by generating solar power, and then sell back to your utility.

Questions, call 1-800-854-4444.

Always check your local utility’s web site for rebates before you buy a new item. We recently bought a new dishwasher that had a $50 utility company rebate that was not advertised by the store. They fulfilled the rebate in only 2 weeks. Green your home and get cash back. Most rebates run through December 31 or while funding is available

Federal Energy Efficiency Tax Credit

Be sure to also take advantage of the Federal Energy Efficiency Tax Credit. This Federal tax credit can save you money in addition to your utility companies’ promotions. It applies to many items including: Wind Turbines - GeoThermal Heat Pump – Solar panels.

Additional Resources for more information

Read our article: Ways to Save Energy, Money on your Energy Bill – It is full of tips to save you money.

Interested in Solar? Read our article Are Solar Panels for Me?

Other Power Utility Company Rebates

For Northern California Energy Rebates see: PG&E Energy Efficiency Rebates
For Southern California see: SCE Rebates or Southern California Edison Rebate for Energy Efficiency
For San Diego see: SDGE Rebates, SDG&E, or San Diego Gas and Electric Rebate for Energy Efficiency
Energy Efficiency Rebates for other locations.

Low cost iPhone, Cell Phone, and portable electronics Solar Chargers with batteries are now available for under $40.  Leave it out in the Sun to charge, then use it when you are out of power. iPod, iPhones, BlackBerry’s, Kindles all eat batteries fast. Solar Panels charge and maintain 1400 mAh of battery power present in this unit.  Full Solar Charging takes from 5-7 hours. Most units have USB connectors to charge various devices like the Nintendo DS game console.

Be green and use the sun’s energy to power your gadgets.

Some new cell phone and gadget chargers even have a mini windmill and a solar panel.

Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750

Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 is a new computer keyboard that is solar-powered. This wireless keyboard makes battery hassles a thing of the past. It even works indoors with your lamp’s light. It also stays charged for at least three months in total darkness.

Iqua BHS-603 Sun Solar Powered Bluetooth Headset

Iqua BHS-603 Sun Solar Powered Bluetooth Headset solar panel that provides theoretically infinite standby time. An eco-friendly Bluetooth headset at a low price, that rarely needs charging is a useful gadget we all can use.

Solar Powered Bluetooth Cell Phone Speakerphone

solChat is a new solar powered Bluetooth speakerphone that attaches to your car’s winshield or visor for safe and convenient handsfree conversations. It is green because it continuously re-charges and it frees your hands from holding a phone. Everyday we see people driving with phones in their hands, even though it is against the law. The reviews indicate that the solar charging really works. The solchat sells for about $61.99 with free shipping.

Personal Energy Generator

nPower introduced this cool new environmentally friendly, portable way to recharge your handheld electronic devices including your cell phone, MP3 player, PDA, digital camera, and GPS.

Put it in your backback, then it charges devices using electricity generated as you walk or run around. It will cost about $99. Perfect for cell phones. Ships in a couple months. Wish it was a little cheaper. Someday, tech like this will be built into gadgets.

Rechargeable batteries are a good way to power all those gadgets and small items.  No need to recycle a battery every time it runs out.

Hi capacity NiMH rechargeable batteries are good for digital cameras that use AA or AAA batteries. Some portable music players use AA or AAA batteries.  Radios, and other electronic devices can use these NiMH batteries because of their long life and optimal power per charge cycle. These batteries have minimal memory charging problems.

Top rated Sanyo Eneloop 4 Pack AA NiMH Rechargeable Batteries and charger run about $18, $11 without chargers. Regular AA batteries cost about $5 for a 4 pack, making payback time pretty short.

Do not run rechargeable batteries down till they are fully exhausted.  Try to buy a smart charger that can trickle charge batteries to extend their lifetime.

All rechargeable batteries should be recycled when you need to disposed of them.

A Battery Regenerator for regular Alkaline AA, AAA, C, D & 9-Volt Batteries is available to recharge regular batteries.  It is a hit or miss product though.

Fuji Eco-Friendly EnviroMAX Batteries

Fuji has new Environmentally-Friendly EnviroMAX Batteries that will not harm the Earth if disposed through normal waste systems. They contain no mercury, cadmium, or PVC. You can buy them online from them and look for them all over the place, very soon.

Batteries should always be recycled, not tossed in the trash. We see this as a step in the right direction especially for those not enlightened enough to do the right thing.

Read our article Battery Hacks Tips and Tricks to Save Energy

Almost everyone has to deal with pests.  Whether indoor or outdoors, we need to think about eco friendly pest control or green alternatives to toxic pesticides and insecticides.

The Bugman had a great list of things to do to help prevent pests. Some of the best tips:

• Check your outside doors. If you can see light coming in from under the door or you can slide a piece of paper under the door, a bug can crawl in. You may want to install door sweeps or thresholds to keep them out.
• Check for openings around pipes and cables that penetrate an outside wall and seal any you find. These are excellent places for ants and wasps to enter.
• Make sure all of your screens are in good repair and that the doors and windows close properly.
• Install hardware cloth on all attic, roof and crawl space vents in order to prevent rodents and insects from entering. If you have a chimney, make sure you have a chimney cap.
• Keep debris away from the building as this will attract all sorts of insects, spiders, centipedes and rodents.
• Go around the building periodically with a broom and knock down any spider webs. Spiders will not stay in an area where they are continually harassed.
• If you have playground equipment, make sure you plug up the ends of the pipes on the equipment to prevent wasps from setting up housekeeping in them.
• Do not leave outside lights on any longer than necessary. Lights attract a number of bugs and all sorts of things that eat bugs.
• Cut back any branches on trees or shrubs that touch the facility. Ants will often use the limbs of trees and shrubs to gain access to buildings.
• Keep flies away by hanging a zipped block bag half filled with water on your doors or windows that get sunlight. This will confuse the flies.
• Keep rabbits and other small animals away by hanging CDs. This will confuse the animals.
• Yellow Corn Meal spread around the base of plants will control cut-worms.

Less-toxic chemicals for Eco Friendly Pest Control include:

• Borates or boric acid, diatomaceous earth (DE), insecticidal soaps, horticultural oils.  Diatomaceous earth absorbs the waxy layer of insects causing them to dry out and die.  Put it under wood piles, stones, and other hiding area.  Mix it with water to make a barrier around the home.
• Baking soda can be sprinkled inside and outside your home and around. Food areas to repel ants and cockroaches.
• Neem Oil repels mosquitoes, biting flies, fleas, and ticks
• Rosemary in a powder form is used as a flea and tick repellent for pets.
• Salt water will kill snails and slugs and can also deter termites and cockroaches when used in crawlspaces or other access areas.
• Sugar can be used as a bait along with yeast and molasses to exterminate ants.
• Soap can kill insects when mixed with water and alcohol. Use 20% dish soap, 40% alcohol, and the balance, water, to create an effective insect spray.

Our Water Our World has a great free guide to a Healthy Home and Garden. It was funded by California’s State Water Resources Control Board.

Some key items I learned from this book include:

1. Try to use INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) to control pests. “With IPM, the focus is  on preventing pest problems through healthy gardening practices and avoiding the use of  chemicals when they are not really needed”
2. Ask a Master gardener like the ones at UC Davis.
3. Many pesticides are very toxic to our water supplies.
4. How to control weeds without chemicals

Scotts Miracle-Gro is huge in the lawn and gardening area. They make lots of pesticides like Roundup, and Home Defense MAX we looked at recently. A recent WSJ article highlights there push into more greener pastures and covers how they test products in garden labs.

They are testing Canadian thistle fungus has a herbicide to wipe out weeds. Scotts recently introduced Ortho® EcoSense™ Brand Indoor Insect Killer, which uses soybean oil, we will analyze it next. Their Kill & Contain mouse trade does not use poisons. New “Water Smart” EZ Seed contains coconut fiber that helps grass use less water. Their Ecosense fire-ant bait uses natural soil-dwelling bacterium called Spinosad.

All these products are a step in the right direction away from highly toxic synthetic chemicals.

Roundup Pro, a strong insecticide that is used commercially,  is even being used in the middle of a forest in the Woodside area of California. We were a bit shocked to see this sign in the middle of a hiking trail.

Ortho EcoSense Insecticides

Scotts Miracle-Gro has launched the Ortho EcoSense Brand of Insecticides. Having seen all the chemical laden Ortho products in Home Depot, I was surprised to see this. Let’s examine how green this is. Looking at one featured product:

Ortho EcoSense Brand Indoor Insect Killer Aerosol web page states that it is safe to use inside the home and uses 100% natural soybean oil as its active ingredient. Material Safety Data Sheets must be requested from them. We dug one up here.

Ingredients include: Water 40-70%, Soybean oil 18.75%, Polyglyceryl oleate 3-7%, Lauric acid 3-7%, Sodium Caprylate 1-5%, Sodium Benzoate 0.1-1%

Potential health effects:
Eye contact: May cause slight irritation.
Skin contact: Irritation not expected.
Ingestion: Considered practically non-toxic.
Inhalation: May cause irritation of respiratory tract.

Looking at the Cosmetic Safety Database:

Lauric Acid, Sodium Caprylate, Sodium Benzoate – Has some interesting alerts.

This product is far from being really green but is a step in the right direction.

Here is a more green pesticide recipe.

Eliminating Gophers
Gophers can be a nuisance in your garden. A tell-tale sign that you have gophers are mounds of loose dirt in your yard. There are many chemicals and traps that are available. A more eco-friendly way to get rid of gophers is to pour a smelly liquid such as fish oil into their tunnel system.

Eliminating rats
Rats can be a major pain both inside the home and out. One eco-friendly way to control pests is to attract predators such as owls. San Rafael, California installed owl boxes, mounted on 10 foot posts, to attract owls. These proved effective in controlling rats, more so than poison. Poison affects everything in the food chain including animals like lions, dear, squirrels, which may feast on dead rats.

Be sure to read our article Green Termite Pest Control

On average, a typical US household spends $90 a year on ink cartridge and toner costs. Costco has a new inkjet cartridge refill service in many locations. They do this in the Photo center. Not only do you save money over purchasing a new cartridge, you also reduce waste by recycling what you already have. Ink cartridges need to be used regularly, otherwise they begin to dry up and clog the printer’s nozzles.

Refilling a HP 901 XL Black cartridge at the Costco Inkjet Cartridge Refill Service costs $9.99, buying a new one costs $29.99. You can find re-manufactured ink cartridges from Amazon for even less cost than refilling.

Infotrends estimates that roughly 85% of printer cartridges are thrown away after just one use or 350 million empty cartridges are ending up in landfills.

Refilling Inkjet Cartridges

You should refill the ink cartridge as soon as possible after running low on ink.  If you continue to print with one color empty, the print head nozzles will be damaged and the cartridge may not refill properly. We have had the Costco ink refill people tell us that they could not refill our cartridge because one color was totally dry. You can refill the cartridge roughly two to eight times before you have to buy a new one. Keep the cartridge in a ‘print head down’ position as much as possible.

Refilled ink cartridges are usually about 95% Full, so you may not get quite as many prints. Archival quality prints may not maintain their quality for as long, but refilled ink cartridges are fine for every letters, invoices, labels, etc.  If you need top quality photo prints, visit the kiosk at your local Walgreens or Costco.

Ink cartridges are big money makers for printer companies like HP.  They label their cartridges with “Intended for single use only.” and “No licensed for modification”. When looking for a new printer, be sure to review ink costs before buying. A bad refill job may result in the leak inside your printer or printer heads being clogged, but probably not any hardware problem.

It is illegal for printer manufacturers to void printer warranties if you use third party inkjet cartridges.  If the refill breaks your printer, then you probably will not get a free repair.

Refilling Cartridges at Home

If Costco Inkjet Cartridge Refill Service does not refill a certain ink cartridge (Epson for instance), try some online vendors that may have inkjet cartridge refill kits. It is messy refilling your own ink cartridge using syringes but you can save even more money.  Unfortunately, some inkjet cartridges have computer chips to prevent refilling. You can also buy a tank based ink system. These are best for people that print high volumes of items.

Refilling Inkjet Cartridges and Toner Cartridges

Be sure to recycle any inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges. Most electronics stores such as Best Buy or Office supply stores such as Office Depot will gladly recycle ink cartridges.  HP through its HP Planet Partners program includes free UPS return labels to recycle its toner cartridges.

Buying a New Printer

When buying a new inkjet printer, consider not just its features, performance, cost per page, and printing quality but also the costs of supplies and availability of 3rd party ink and refillable inkjet cartridges. Often times, the cheapest printers has the highest printed cost per page. More expensive printers can use high capacity cartridges. Look for printers with average cost per page around 2 cents by diving price of ink cartridge by number of pages it prints per cartridge. Some office oriented printers like the HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 have a low print cost per page but do not take into account all consumables like print heads.

Laser printers

If you mainly print in black and white, consider getting an inexpensive black-and-white laser printer instead of a color inkjet printer. Laser printers use a toner cartridge that can sit unused for months, and have a significantly lower cost per page, and print faster when compared to a color inkjet printer. Cost per page is typically around $0.02 or less versus $0.04 or more for color inkjet printers.

Laser Printer Danger

Professor Lidia Morawska from Queensland University of Technology’s International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health has details on dangerous emissions from common laser printers. Her earlier finding was that almost 1/3 of popular laser printers emitted large numbers of ultrafine particles and VOCs.

“In the printing process, toner is melted and when it is hot, certain compounds evaporate and those vapours then nucleate or condense in the air, forming ultrafine particles,” she said.

You can try to avoid using laser printers at home by sticking to inkjet printers or safer printers on their list. Also ensure ventilation is good around laser printers and that they are turned off when not needed.

Green Office Supplies at Office Depot

Office Depot has a new Smart Steps to a Greener Office Section. Help Go Green in the office. Going green is getting more mainstream. A survey they did indicates that businesses definitely need to get with the program.

• More than half (54%) recycle paper and magazines
• Nearly a half (48%) recycle bottles and cans as well as ink cartridges (45%)
• Only 24% purchase Energy Star rated technology, e.g. computers, monitors, copiers, etc.
• One-third (33%) use energy-efficient lights
• A quarter (24%) print double-sided copies
• Only 16% purchase remanufactured ink and toner cartridges

Items they recommend buying from Office Depot of course include:

• EnviroCopy 100% Post Consumer Recycled paper
• 100% Recycled, 95% Post Consumer Hanging Folder
• Remanufactured Ink and Toner Cartridges
• Refillable products
• Energy star technology and lighting
• Green Cleaning products like their hand soup
• Greenguard certified furniture like Global Genoa

They also have lots of useful tips for being more green. A pretty good effort.

Costco Inkjet Cartridge Refill Service is a good way to save money and be more green. Be sure to read our article Inkjet and Toner Saving Software and Solutions to learn about software solutions to reduce ink cartridge usage.

Eco Friendly, Green Printer Paper

We ran out of printer paper and were looking for an eco friendly solution. The goal is to have FSC certified paper and 100% recycled. Office Depot did not have anything that met our goals.

Staples has Staples 100% Recycled Copy Paper that meets both requirements. $51.99 a case vs $35.99 for their standard copy paper. Ah the price of being ECO friendly..

Conservatree has listings with advice on selecting paper.