Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

Many home owners want to “go green”, but fear the cost and bother of doing so. It’s surprisingly inexpensive and fairly easy, though, to make small changes that can lower your family’s carbon footprint. I’m only going to mention three, but this article has ten simple ways to become more environmentally friendly.

On average, an American household annually emits about 26,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The energy used costs about $1,400 every year. A first step to reducing these financial and environmental costs is the old “turn off that light” maxim. My mother’s cry of “turn if off if you’re not using it.” would echo throughout our modest ranch house, so much so that I find myself stepping into empty conference rooms to flick the switch on lights left burning after the meeting was long over.

Another small step is to check the standby energy use of your electronic appliances. Computers, when shut off, still draw electricity through their power cords. Today’s television sets don’t shut off completely when you hit the power switch. One way to make sure the appliances are completely off and not drawing power is to plug them into a power strip which, when the item is not in use, is shut off at the strip, thus ensuring no electricity ‘leakage’.

One last piece of advice: replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. The technology in this area has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past few years and these bulbs, while still a bit pricey, are easier to screw into the socket and use a quarter of the electricity of a traditional bulb. They also last ten times longer on average.

Simple steps, big benefits. Going green has never been easier

As with all good things and developments like the green movement, it seems like there’s someone out there ready to take advantage of the technology learning curve and people’s desires to do good. This company was stopped before they could do too much damage, but I personally hope that they get what they deserve for defrauding the environmentally conscious Texas public.

Joe

Excerpt from My Fox Austin.

05/14/2008 — Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott obtained a temporary restraining order and limited asset freeze Monday against Forum Trading, Inc.

The state’s legal enforcement action charges the Austin-based company, which is organized as a multi-level marketing scheme with independent distributors, with marketing energy devices it falsely claims will significantly reduce power consumption, extend the life of household appliances and save consumers money.

“With Texas families focused on energy prices and seeking cost savings, these defendants are promising lower electricity bills but failing to deliver,” Attorney General Abbott said. “Experts who reviewed the defendants’ products discovered no actual savings for well-intentioned purchasers. The Office of the Attorney General will continue to aggressively crack down on scam artists who attempt to illegally profit from Texas families.”

Court documents filed by the state indicate that Forum Trading, Inc. and several affiliated companies, including Xium Corporation and Xedia Technologies Inc., deceptively market and sell small devices that can store electric energy. The defendants falsely claim that the “Xpower Energy Saver,” which they sell for almost $200 per unit, will reduce consumers’ electricity consumption by up to 25 percent, while the “Mega Power Saver,” priced at nearly $300, will result in more than 10 percent savings.

However, engineers who tested the purported energy-saving products at the University of Texas at Austin concluded that the Xpower Energy Saver could produce no more than a 0.06 percent reduction in electric consumption in an average house. The Attorney General’s laboratory expert similarly concluded that the Mega Power Saver could provide, at best, no more than one percent total energy savings. According to the state’s expert, the devices have no effect on the life of household appliances, despite the defendants’ claims that the Xpower Energy Saver allows appliance motors to “run about 10% cooler.

The laboratory testing also revealed that the products are, in reality, ordinary capacitors, which are often used in electronic circuits to store energy or to differentiate between high-frequency and low-frequency signals. Capacitors are regularly used by electricians, and they can be purchased for less than $20.

You can read the whole story at MyFox Austin.

As the cost of oil rises into the record books, businesses, regardless of size, are looking for ways to reduce consumption, and thereby improve the bottom line. Managing energy costs has become a new industry as companies such as LPB Energy Management in Abilene, Texas, come into being and carve out a niche for themselves, advising businesses on lowering energy consumption.

Construction comes into play first and foremost, with details such as which way the building faces, how air and sunlight moves throughout the day, and how best to take advantage of existing topography. In Abilene, costly alternative energy sources are not as in demand as the consumer doesn’t have the benefit of selling extra power back to the utility grid. So, innovations in design and construction are needed to meet the desire for greener, more environmentally friendly buildings.

LPB has provided advice in energy management to the Abilene Independent School District. As a result, more efficient lighting systems – those that incorporate motion detectors – were installed in AISD’s newest building, Craig Middle School. Motion detectors are an easy, low cost way to realize an immediate savings in energy costs. The motion detectors have an added bonus of being a security feature.

The heating and cooling system at Craig is monitored and controlled at the central maintenance office, meaning the system can be powered down at a specified time to save on energy when no-one is occupying or using the building. Eventually, all systems within the AISD buildings will be monitored and controlled in this way.

LPB monitors electricity, water, and natural gas usage for its clients and plays a large part in negotiating the best rates possible from regional providers, and saves its customers the headache of wading through contracts and rate negotiation.