In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we have some tips to save green by going green.
We turned to an expert, David Sant, Chief Marketing Officer at Cyprus Credit Union.
Here are his suggestions:
Change the Bulbs:
• Replacing your traditional incandescent lights with energy-efficient light bulbs can reduce your energy use by 75% which can result in saving about $70 year and up to $135 per bulb over its lifespan.
• Energy-efficient light bulbs have a life of 10,000 hours compared to traditional bulbs which only have a life of 1,000 hours—this means you will buy 1/10th of your previous amount of bulbs and create less waste.
Ditch the Bottle:
• The average American drinks more than 30 gallons of bottled water each year, which equates to more than 250 plastic bottles a year per person—which not only take up space in landfills, but costs a pretty penny.
• Bottled water at the lowest estimate costs at least $1.25 gallon, which is 300x the cost of a gallon of tap water, which averages about $0.004 a gallon. At retail prices, water can go as high as $8 gallon for premium brands.
• More than half of bottled water is no different than the water available through your tap, so you are paying for something already available to you at a much cheaper price. If filtration is important to you, consider purchasing a filter and refilling at home.
Unplug & Turn Off:
• Be sure to unplug appliances and gadgets you do not use regularly. For example, an older stereo can use up to 70 watts in standby mode—which can cost $67 a year just to keep it plugged in.
• Don't leave your air conditioning on while away or at work—this can cost you an additional $180 a year. We don't want you coming home to a sweltering house, so considering installing a programmable thermostat. Also, consider using ceiling fans and allowing the house to cool naturally through open windows in the morning and overnight.
Go Paperless:
• Switch to E-Statements to eliminate the waste and clutter that comes from paper statements. Simply log-in to home banking and choose 'account preferences' under the 'preferences' tab and select the online option. You will receive an email notification each month when your statement is available online. The statement is available in PDF form, so you can save it to your computer for your personal records or access it from any smart device using mobile banking.
For more money-saving tips, please visit: cypruscu.com.
