Air Date: Week of October 19, 2007

A California listener shares two ways she and her husband are saving energy.

Transcript

[COOL FIX THEME]

CURWOOD: In our segment “Cool Fix for a Hot Planet” we’re highlighting ways you can make a difference. Connie Freed of Napa, California emailed us about some ways her family is fighting global warming, and we gave her a call.

FREED: My husband and I have two ways that we developed to save energy here. We’ve always realized that our oven is a major source of heat in the summer when we do not want any heat whatsoever in our house and so what we’ve had to do is to avoid baking from anything from June through the end of September. And then he came up with the idea of buying a small convection oven and putting it outside on our covered porch. And we’ve used it all summer long. It’s great. It doesn’t need as nearly the energy of our oven and for people who have air conditioning you wouldn’t be producing heat while at the same time trying to cool your home.

And my husband’s also come up with a second way that is a very low-tech way of saving heat that’s been fabulous. He takes shade cloth, which is available at any large home improvement store, and it looks like green cloth mesh. And we have just fashioned curtains out of it and we hang it outside the window and it blocks the direct sun from hitting your window and heating it up. Even if you have double paned windows this really makes a huge difference we’ve found. It lets in a really nice filtered green light and it provides privacy so you can have your blinds open if you want but you’re still receiving shade on the outside of your home, from this cloth. And those are our two ideas.

CURWOOD: Thanks, Connie. And for that we’re going to send you $432. Well, not exactly. What we will send you is a Living on Earth tire gauge. And if you use it to keep your tires correctly inflated, it could save you as much as $432 a year. So, if you or someone you know has a Cool Fix for a Hot Planet, please let us know. If we use your idea on the air, you’ll get a Living on Earth tire gauge, as well. Call our listener line at 800-218-99-88, that's 800-218-ninety nine, eighty-eight. Or email coolfix (all one word) @loe.org. That's coolfix@loe.org.