When you want to live as eco-friendly as possible, there are many ways to reduce your waste and keep your carbon footprint small. Green living is a challenge that is best when taken one small step at a time, but there are some options that can make a significant difference without sacrifice. Online learning is one of those steps that can make a big difference for the environment, without impacting the quality of your education.

Turning College Green

Much of your traditional college experience will revolve around turning in papers that have been printed off the computer, driving to and from classes, and researching your subjects. Taking the time to assess the resources that you are using each and every day is a simple way to find things that you can change to benefit the Earth. For instance, purchasing notebooks and pencils that are made from post-consumer waste, and then recycling the leftovers, is a simple change that you can easily make.

You may also want to look at your energy usage for both college related and entertainment devices. Modern technology has now provided us with small solar panels that can be used to charge mobile phones, mp3s and much more. Taking the time to power off your television or computer and unplugging the device can also save energy. Remember that these devices use a small amount of power even when they aren’t on if they are plugged in. You can also find strip outlets that have an on and off switch if you don’t want to spend time unplugging items, just make sure the switch is off when you are done.

Saving Resources

Going green in college can also help you save money. If you are like most students, then you know that saving money is always a great thing. Shopping for like-new second hand clothes, dishes, paperback books, and board games can save money while also benefiting the environment. Make sure that you re-donate any items that are still in good condition after you have finished with them.

Attending online college can also help you save resources since you don’t need to drive to class. Most of your work will also be turned in online, so you don’t have to worry about wasting paper and other resources, as well. Getting an online education is often a simple solution when you want to attend college, but need more flexibility in your schedule.

Your Education

When choosing an online education you have all the benefits of a traditional student. You can visit your camps to use the gym and attend all university events. Going green is often based on the changes you can make that allow you to live the life that you want, while still maintaining your eco-friendly lifestyle. Online college is one of those things that benefit both you and the Earth.

As fossil fuels diminish, energy costs are going to soar until we have a scalable and viable alternative energy source. Until then, making sure we use as little energy as possible directly saves us money with our fuel bills. So in the interest of saving energy, here are a collection of gadgets for your home that are designed to reduce your energy bills.

A central heating system is pretty effective for heating a home, but there are a number of inefficiencies. One of those inefficiencies are radiators, which sink a large about of heat into the wall on which the radiator is mounted. The radiator booster is designed to blast hot air from behind the radiator into the room. By increasing the air circulation, your rooms will heat up more quickly, therefore saving you the need to have the central heating switched on as long. The best bit is that the running cost of the radiator booster is only 30 pence a year (less than $1).

Using central heating is all well and good, but if the room is losing heat, you’ll be wasting energy. The Thermal Leak Detector from Black & Decker is essentially a remote thermometer that helps you find cold spots in a room. The detector shines a beam of light on to the part of the wall you’re checking. The colour of the light changes from red to blue when a cold spot is detected, with the temperature being shown on the LCD display on the detector. By finding the cold spots, you can then patch them up and save more energy.

For the kitchen, you can make your morning breakfast greener with a Morphy Richards Ecolectric Toaster. The toaster saves up to 35% of the energy compared to a conventional toaster. The Ecolectric Toaster uses a special cover that closes when you start to cook your toast, resulting in less energy needed to cook the toast. The toaster also uses a motorised carriage to ensure your toast is evenly cooked. It’s a bit more costly than a standard toaster, but it will save you money if your family consumes a lot of toast.

Finally, something for the bathroom, namely the EcoDrain. The EcoDrain is a clever heat exchanger device that takes the excess heat from waste shower water and uses it to pre-heat the cold water inlet to the shower. This means the shower’s heater uses 25-40% less energy compared to using just cold water. The EcoDrain has no moving parts, but it does have a non-stick coating on its waste pipe to ensure it doesn’t get blocked by dirt and debris. What makes the EcoDrain practical is that it needs very little plumbing work to fit it into your existing shower system!

I hope you enjoyed reading about these interesting energy saving gadgets. This article was written by Dan Harrison who writes about eco-friendly technology for EnviroGadget.com. EnviroGadget features all kinds of gadgets and technology that save water, save energy or just do something to help save the planet!