A green house is a house that uses energy efficiently and uses resources responsibly. There are easy steps you can take to make your home more green.

Lighting: Switch over to compact fluorescent light bulbs. CF bulbs use about ¼ the energy of normal incandescent light bulbs and CF bulbs can last up to 10 times as long as standard bulbs. CF bulbs also produce much less heat.

Appliances: Switch to EnergyStar appliances or if that is not possible, simply start by unplugging all appliances when not in use (simply turning them off does not turn off their energy use).

Hot Water Heater: Replace your hot water heater with a tankless heater to reduce energy use, wasted water and carbon dioxide emissions. You can start by reducing your heater's thermostat and insulating the heater and piping.

Go to Low Impact Living for more information on what you can do.


Are you living in a healthy home?

You know that good, healthy feeling you get when you've just cleaned house? Sorry to spoil it, but you may have just made your home dirtier.

Take a look at these statistics.

* Over 90% of poison exposures happen at home.

* Common bleach is the #1 household chemical involved
in poisoning.

* Organic pollutants, found in many common cleaners and
even air fresheners, are 2 to 5 times higher inside your home than out.

* A person who spends 15 minutes cleaning scale off shower walls could inhale three times the "acute one-hour exposure limit" for glycol ether-containing products set by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

* Common cleaners give off fumes that have been linked to
increasing the risk of your kids developing asthma, the most common serious chronic childhood disease.

* 1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma. Rates in children under five have increased more than 160% from 1980 – 1994.

* Children are highly vulnerable to chemical toxicants. Pound for pound of body weight, children drink more water, eat more food and breathe more air than adults. The implication of this is that children will have substantially heavier exposures than adults to any toxicants that are present in water, food or air.

If your home is anything like the average U.S. home, you generate more than 20 pounds of household hazardous waste each year (the EPA designates toilet cleaners, tub and tile cleaners, oven cleaners and bleach as hazardous waste).


Go to www.shaklee.com for more information or to read the full article.


For more GREEN products visit www.greenhome.com.