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Home & Garden
Green Fireplaces The Smart Solution to Winter
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Written by Shireen Qudosi
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| Monday, 05 October 2009 | ||||
Green Fireplaces: The Smart Solution to Winter
September 22nd marked the autumnal equinox – the official first day of autumn. The morning was marked with a heavy blanket of fog over the city streets and a crisp thin veil of ice on the windows.
Fall is officially here, and not a moment too soon for some who endured an incredibly scorching summer. Shifting gears, any eco-savvy person knows that a whole new set of rules come into play once the season begins its cold long descent into winter. While normally aware of Mother Nature inspired do’s and don’ts, I have to admit my guilty winter pleasure has to be the fireplace. Fireplaces are a terrible eco-gremlin, not only burning natural resources, but also releasing smoke and fumes into your home and the environment. Fortunately, there are a few things we can do to make sure our fireplace use is as green as possible. Understanding Your Fireplace: Many people think that there are ways to use a conventional fireplace so that it’s as eco-friendly as possible. Some of these so-called “green” choices include using woods such as birch, hickory, sugar maple, and red oak to produce more heat and less smoke. But the truth is, switching out one type of wood for another is still use of a natural resource that otherwise could have been spared. The act of switching out one type of wood for another does nothing to reduce deforestation.
The use of a conventional fireplace still leads to harmful smoke, fumes and other indoor air pollutants – definitely something to consider if you have pets or children. Traditional open fireplaces burn very inefficiently and produce hundreds of chemical compounds, including carbon monoxide, organic gases, particulates, and some of the same cancer-causing agents found in tobacco smoke. Minor spillage of these pollutants occurs regularly, primarily when starting or stoking the fire. However, the larger concern is when the fire smolders late at night, producing high levels of CO and a weak draft that is dangerous and sometimes even fatal. The Smart Fireplace: Whether or not you have a fireplace, you can still create the same effect with a faux fireplace that doubles as an energy-efficient heater. A fireplace heater lets you fill your home with a mesmerizing, soft glow, without the hassle of burning ash and buying wood.
Conventional fireplace are often limited to a large home that can accommodate the space and chimney necessary to install a traditional fireplace. With an electric fireplace heater, it’s possible to have a fireplace no matter what size or type of home you’re in. Electric fireplace heaters are perfect if you live in a small home or apartment and prefer the stylish addition of a fireplace. Fireplace heaters make it possible for these types of spaces to still enjoy the warm glow of a fireplace. The look of an electric fireplace heater is surprisingly realistic since it includes light bulbs to simulate the gentle smoldering of a fire down to the glowing embers. With portable fireplace heaters, you can get the coveted architectural element of a fireplace, without the cost. Plus, the electric fireplace’s portability allows you to move it whenever you decide to rearrange your décor or relocate to a new home! Image 1: www.iStockphoto.com Image 2: http://blogs.worldbank.org Image 3: http://www.Luxist.com 1 Best Practices Guide to Residential Construction, by Steven Bliss. John Wiley & Sons, 2006. ISBN-10: 0471648361, ISBN-13: 978-0471648369, Hardcover.
1. 13-10-2009 13:54 I love the idea of the electric fireplace. I took a look at some pictures; who knew they could look so realistic?! I sure didn't. I really like how you can use them without using the heat. THat's so cool. Registered Only registered users can write comments. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 07 February 2011 ) | ||||
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Green Facts
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Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.
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You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.
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A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.
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Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.
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In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.
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Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.
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If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.
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Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.
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Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.
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A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.
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In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.
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Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months
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A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
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Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.
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Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
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Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.
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Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.
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82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.
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American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.
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Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.
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The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.
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You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.
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Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
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One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.
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States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.
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Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.
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Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.
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A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.
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Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.
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Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.
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You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.
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Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.
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77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.
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It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.
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Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.
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Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.
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For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.
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Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.
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An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!


September 22nd marked the autumnal equinox – the official first day of autumn. The morning was marked with a heavy blanket of fog over the city streets and a crisp thin veil of ice on the windows.
Many people think that there are ways to use a conventional fireplace so that it’s as eco-friendly as possible. Some of these so-called “green” choices include using woods such as birch, hickory, sugar maple, and red oak to produce more heat and less smoke. But the truth is, switching out one type of wood for another is still use of a natural resource that otherwise could have been spared. The act of switching out one type of wood for another does nothing to reduce deforestation.
Whether or not you have a fireplace, you can still create the same effect with a faux fireplace that doubles as an energy-efficient heater. A fireplace heater lets you fill your home with a mesmerizing, soft glow, without the hassle of burning ash and buying wood.
