8 Ways to Stay Cool this Summer

Since I was a tiny tot, I remember that the summer was the perfect time of the year for my mother to go shopping. She easily justified walking around in the mall with her insistence that she was receiving "free A/C." Growing up, I never understood what she was talking about. I thought it was another strange immigrant saying. How much does air conditioning really cost anyway?

As it turns out, the air conditioning unit has a bigger impact on your budget than you might have expected. Most households in our country rely on 3 major sources of energy: natural gas, fuel oil, and electricity. 
However, the US households are fast outpacing commercial and industry sectors in electricity consumption. According to the Department of Energy, the total electricity consumed by US households in 2001 totaled 1,140 billion kWh. The most significant end uses were central air-conditioning and refrigerators, each of which accounted for about 14 percent of the U.S. total.

It's expensive to power all those air conditioners. Just ask the US Military; they are paying $20.2 billion to power all the air conditioners used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan each year.

Spring Green-Cleaning

It's that special time of year. The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, and you are ready for some spring cleaning!

But sometimes, I wonder if all the chemicals I'm using to clean are really that good for the environment or even myself. After all, I wouldn't touch them without wearing gloves. Just because the EPA says a chemical is ok to use, doesn't necessarily mean I want to be inhaling it.

Check out these facts on just how many chemicals, microbes, and pollutants humans are exposed to:

• 17,000: the number of petrochemicals available for home use, only 30 percent of which have been tested for exposure to human health and the environment.  
• 63: the number of synthetic chemical products found in the average American home, translating to roughly 10 gallons of harmful chemicals.  
• 100: the number of times higher that indoor air pollution levels can be above outdoor air pollution levels, according to US EPA estimates.
• 275: the number of active ingredients in antimicrobials that the EPA classifies as pesticides because they are designed to kill microbes.
• 5 billion: the number of pounds of chemicals that the institutional cleaning industry uses each year.     --treehugger.com

So, I wanted to make the switch to "green" cleaning products, but instead of buying those fancy, eco-friendly, non-toxic, biodegradable cleaners, I decided to make my own.