Inspired by a recent story (and many, many previous blog posts) by Northwest Environment Watch uber-geek Clark Williams-Derry about home energy efficiency, we've taken two steps at our house to improve our energy efficiency and decrease our climate impact. The first step was to sign up for Seattle Public Utilities' GreenUp program, whereby ratepayers can voluntarily pay a premium to ensure that all or a portion of their power is coming from renewable sources, such as the Stateline wind farm. As an added bonus, early subscribers receive a $10 gift certificate to local organic food heroes Puget Consumers' Co-op and a nifty canvas "green power" tote bag.
The second thing we did was to hire a firm called Atmosphere (no web site!) to perform a series of whole-house energy efficiency improvements: sealing all the cracks in our house where heated air was escaping, improving overall air circulation, installing new fans, etc. The repairs haven't been in place long enough to measure quantitatively, but already we've noticed that the furnace doesn't kick on as frequently and the whole house feels more comfortable. I'll report more when I've got some numbers, but I can recommend Atmosphere if you're thinking of doing something similar--they did great work and were extremely conscientious.
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