Tired of the nightly ritual of turning on certain lights or appliances and later turning them off? How about forgetting to turn them off altogether? It can all be a big waste of time and money, especially if you live in a larger home. Wouldn’t it be great if you could program the pesky light switches to automatically go on and off by themselves? The Leviton 6124h programmable timer switch does exactly that, relieving you of the hassle and allowing you to efficiently fine tune exactly when your home’s lights get switched on and off.
The Leviton 6124h is part of the Leviton Decora family of switches, an award-winning line of devices designed to enhance any interior, from the contemporary to the traditional. The switch is available in white, almond and ivory.
The switch is 24-hour LCD programmable, and allows you to program your lights on or off down to thirty-minute intervals. That level of flexibility makes it ideal for a wide variety of applications: general lighting, bathroom heat lamps, hot tubs and spas, motors, pools, attic fans, exhaust fans, home office lights, closets, landscape and security lighting, and more.
The Leviton 6124h has a single large button and three smaller ones below it. The large button lets you turn the light on and off manually, overriding the timer. The smaller buttons are for setting up your programmed times: the left one advances the electronic cursor at 30 minute intervals, the center one toggles the on/off command, the right one sets the actual time. A red LED light informs you when the switch is set to “on.” The switch also has a memory so that you do not have to re-program the switch if the power goes off.
The switch is single-pole, has a load rating of 1200W, and is intended for 120 volt AC. It is three-wire, and a neutral is required. It is compatible with electronic ballasts such as those found on fluorescent lights.
I can think of a lot of handy places where I’ll love having the Leviton 6124h when I get to doing the electrical work in my new home: my front door light, my back door light, my front foyer, my basement lights, and more. I’m tired of forgetting to turn them off and feeling guilty about wasting energy. With this stylish Decora programmable timer switch, it won’t matter!
SUMMARY:
Pro’s: Allows you to turn on lights and appliances only when you need them, and not worry about remembering to turn them off.
Con’s: somewhat more expensive than regular switches or other programmable switches with less flexible features.
Why it’s green: you can save a lot of energy, fossil fuel-based electricity, and money by having lights and appliances turned off automatically when you know you won’t need them.
Green certifications: none that I’m aware of.
Buy:
Leviton 6124h White
Leviton 6124h Almond
Leviton 6124h Ivory
On the list of many things I have to do to go green in my new home is to upgrade to Energy Star appliances as soon as I can. Of particular concern are my Maytag washer and dryer that look like they’ve been around since before I was born. Energy efficiency and water saving wasn’t considered to be quite as important back then and these two appliances seem to consume a lot of both.
I did some research and found that the Obama Administration is preparing a “cash for clunkers” program for old machines, to encourage people to replace them with more efficient Energy Star appliances (and thereby help the economy improve). It is a rebate program to reimburse you when you purchase an eligible energy efficient appliance.
Here’s how it works, based on the Energystar.gov website. The Department of Energy has approved rebate money to be allocated to the states and the District of Columbia. The latter will establish their own guidelines for implementing the rebates, including amounts to disburse per purchase. The money available varies by state and is limited–here in my home town of Washington DC a total of $568,000 is available.
Check this website to see when the Energy Star rebate program begins in your state (some states have already begun their programs.) Also on this page is a list of each state’s rebate website and the phone hotline you can call for more information. Follow your state’s instructions carefully! One state I checked had a requirement of purchasing your Energy Star appliance in the state itself instead of online.
It’s important to act fast–once the money allocated for your state is gone, it’s gone. For my part, I’ll have to wait until April 2010 before the money arrives in DC. You can bet I’ll be lining up to buy my Energy Star appliances and replace my old clunkers. Can’t beat going green with energy efficient appliances and helping the economy while you’re at it!
Environmentally minded parents with small children ages 3 and older and looking for eco friendly toys need look no further than Sprig Toys, a line of creative, smartly designed, well-made toys constructed from environmentally friendly materials guaranteed to delight your kids for hours on end.
While most toys are made from environmentally harmful materials like unrecycled plastic, Sprig toys are made of a material the maker calls Sprigwood. It is a child-safe, durable, bio-composite substance made from recycled wood and reclaimed plastic. Sprig uses no decorative paint that could flake and get chewed on. The packaging is responsible and minimal, and every effort is made to reduce the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process.
Rather than rely on batteries, these toys keep kids active by using natural kinetic energy from pushing and pulling the toys to generate electronic effects such as lights and sounds. That keeps batteries out of your kids’ reach and out of the landfill.
The toys break down into four series:
The Adventure Series offers trucks and toys rugged enough to be used on both land and water (including pools and bathtubs). The series revolves around the Discover Rig, a sturdy vehicle with with electronic effects that interfaces with various “Adventure Guides”–little characters that come with their own USB port that provide unique light and sound sequences to represent adventures in different parts of the world.
Sprig Hollow follows the story of friends Bee and Butterfly and the various farm vehicles they enjoy. These toys can be used with water, sand, and garden environments.
Eco Trucks are for heavy duty dirt pile and sandbox fun, as they let kids dig, load and dump with flip-open cabs and easy-grab handles.
Story Builders are a series of playsets for pre-schoolers that allow them to join Princess Penny in her storybook palace, help the Three Little Pigs keep the wolf away, or keep good company with Little Red Riding Hood.
The various series are expandable, allowing for later additions to your kids’ collections that will fuel the imagination and keep the fun going for a long time.
If you’re in the market for eco friendly toys, your kids can have loads of healthy, active fun without damaging the environment with this beautifully designed line of toys.
SUMMARY:
Pro’s: made of eco friendly materials, no need for batteries, encourages active play.
Con’s: somewhat more expensive than non eco friendly alternatives.
Why it’s green: uses recycled wood and plastic instead of original material, lessening the impact on the planet.
Green certifications: none that I’m aware of.
As the cold weather set in this season I turned to painting the dining and living rooms of my new house. I wanted to use an eco friendly paint and had previously decided I would use one of the low VOC paint brands I have previously mentioned. I settled on the Benjamin Moore Aura Low VOC Paint brand for interiors.
All I can say is, Wow. Benjamin Moore has always exceeded my expectations, but Aura really goes above and beyond. I had not used Benjamin Moore for several years because I sold another place and rented for a while. Back then, pretty much all that was available was their “Regal” line. Great colors, but not particularly low-VOC as I recall. I was glad to hear they had since added “green” alternatives.
In terms of consistency, Aura is deliciously thick, closer to molasses than runny water. That ensures almost no splatter as you dip your roller or brush and then take it to the wall.
When you apply it, Aura goes on smoothly and dries very quickly, much faster than other paint brands I have used. You can easily paint an entire room, let it dry, and then paint it for its second coat an hour later.
Its ability to cover the underlying paint is excellent. I had a jaundiced yellow color I was painting over, a truly dreadful shade. Aura was able to completely cover the old color with a single coating. A second coating was mostly necessary to correct minor painting errors the first time, and also to lend an even richer hue to the finished wall–but you could probably get away with a single coat if you are a complete perfectionist the first time around.
The Aura brand is “intended” for use with Benjamin Moore’s Affinity collection (although I believe the base Aura paint can be used with any of Benjamin Moore’s color collections.) Affinity is a grouping of 144 colors that the company says are specially selected to all go well with each other. This is important for me, you see, because I am not a professional interior decorator and I’m guaranteed to choose colors that go together terribly!
The collection seemed rather low-intensity for my tastes, but I gave the colors a chance and I’m very glad I did. My dining room was transformed by a combination of “Caliente” red and “Buttered Yam” orange, while my living room looks like a peaceful oasis with the light silvery-sage “Wind Chime.” The colors have an incredible depth and vibrancy to them that bring the rooms to life.
Consumer Reports gives Benjamin Moore Aura high marks for things like wearability and scrub resistance. However I have not had the paint on the wall for enough time to say whether I agree or not.
Aura is certified eco friendly by third parties. It bears the GreenGuard certification for low voc paint emissions, and is also certified by the California Collaboration for High Performance Schools (CHPS). It is also usable for LEED (eco friendly) green building construction.
Aura is not cheap. It is considerably more expensive than other options from Benjamin Moore and other brands. However, you get what you pay for. You don’t have to deal with headache-inducing, environment-harming volatile organic compounds. You get a paint that performs incredibly, dries quickly, and looks stunning. Personally, I would never use anything else for my home’s walls even though it hurts the wallet.
Summary:
Pro’s: low voc paint brand, looks amazing, goes on great
Con’s: it’s expensive
Why it’s green: low voc paint brands reduce toxic emissions that could cause health or other problems.
Green certifications: GreenGuard, CHPS, LEED
