Green Tips

Welcome to the online home of BA Green, Bay Area Heating and Cooling’s ambassador of all things…well… green! Not only will you find green tips related to the operation and maintenance of your AC system, you also learn ways you can go green in an effort to save dollars and help protect the environment at home as well as at work.

Green Heating and Cooling Tip of the Month:

Each degree you turn down the heat saves 3 percent of heating costs, while each degree you raise the temperature of your air conditioner saves 3-4 percent of cooling costs. By changing the temperature by 2 degrees all year, you can save about 2,000 pounds of C02 a year.

7 Ideas for Going Green at Home:

1. Plug anything that can be powered by a remote control or that has a power cube transformer (little black box) into a power strip, and turn it off, and/or unplug, when not in use. (Power cubes are 60-80 percent inefficient.)
2. Turn off the lights when you aren’t using them and reduce your direct lighting energy use by 45 percent.
3. Switch to compact fluorescent from regular incandescent bulbs and use 60 percent less energy per bulb and save 300 pounds of C02 a year.
4. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket and save 1,000 pounds of C02 a year. Insulate your hot water pipes.
5. Switch to a laptop instead of using a desktop computer and cut three-quarters off your electrical use. Turn off the laptop at the end of the day.
6. Use public transportation whenever possible, carpool, shop locally, and ideally switch to a hybrid or energy-efficient car (if you haven’t already).
7. Keep your tires inflated to improve gas mileage by 3 percent. Every gallon you save also saves 20 pounds of C02 emissions.

5 Ideas for Going Green at Work:

1. Buy recycled and eco-friendly office supplies and products.
2. Turn off equipment, including computers, at the end of the work day.
3. Go Paperless (email, faxing and records).
4. Reuse packaging.
5. Before buying new, investigate refurbishing your old office furniture.