With these great tips, you can keep your energy costs down while you go about those chores around your home.

Chores

• When doing your laundry, try to dry your clothes outside. Also, run your washer with cold water whenever your load will allow it.
• Instead of running your vacuum cleaner, attempt to use a carpet sweeper on your carpeted areas and a broom on your hard surfaces. Since they are manually powered, it won’t cost you a dime!
• Adjust your habits to naturally consume less energy. For example, cook simplistic dishes in your kitchen (thereby reducing the amount of dishes you have to clean), or create less laundry by re-wearing clothing that’s not dirty. According to the American Cleaning Institute, jeans can be worn three times before washing! 

Reduce Cost of Chores

• Cut your own grass instead of hiring a landscaping company. This will save you a lot of money in the long run, though it will require an initial investment. If you choose this route, be sure you’re using an energy efficient lawnmower!
• Ditch the carwash and wash your own car at home. This will provide you with the opportunity to implement water-saving techniques and to ensure that you are using environmentally friendly products on your car. Plus—no fumbling around with quarters!
• Performing general housing maintenance like changing your furnace filter and fixing leaky faucets and running toilets can absolutely save you a lot of money. While you’re at it, consider making some energy efficiency upgrades to save on your energy bills in the future.

Check out the rest of our Bright Insights blog for more information on renewable energy and energy efficiency advice!

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Are green hotels any different than a regular hotel?

Aside from their positive impact on the environment, there isn’t necessarily a noticeable difference between eco-friendly hotels and standard lodging. From the hotel owner’s perspective, it is argued that implementing eco-friendly solutions (such as installing renewable energy technology) will increase the property value of a hotel in the long-term, which can easily be argued to be a benefit. And from the consumer’s point of view, this increase in property value may result in lower prices or expanded services and perks!

However, there are some that worry that while investing in these eco-friendly programs is good for the environment, it might actually cost hotels too much money in the short-term to be worth the investment. Would the necessary costs of investment, and the increased prices of rooms, drive consumers away?

According to one study, this clearly doesn’t appear to be the case. The study, Hotel Sustainability: Financial Analysis Shines a Cautious Green Light, found that average booking revenue stayed about the same for eco-certified hotels. But the study also found that eco-friendly hotels made better use of their resources, and therefore were found to be more productive than their less sustainable counterparts.

Why should you stay in a green hotel?

There are many reasons why you might choose to stay in a green hotel. First and foremost, you are likely to seek out a green hotel if you are interested in supporting a hotel or business that is actively taking steps to become more environmentally friendly. You can look at your decision as another way to reduce your personal carbon footprint on the environment.

How do you find green hotels?

You could spend hours tracking down all of the green hotel options for your upcoming trips if you had to manually review each hotel’s website. Luckily, aggregators like Expedia make the process of finding eco-friendly lodging much easier. Aggregator sites allow you to easily search for a green hotel in the area you wish to stay.

Looking to learn more about green hotels? Check out our helpful list of resources below!

• 30 Gorgeous Eco-Friendly Hotels—Via Mashable
• For general information on the benefits of green hotels, visit the Green Hotels Association

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