How You Can Help Lessen Smog, Bad Air
Tips for Your Home (cont’d)
- Plant a tree near your house. Backyard trees may cut your need for air conditioning by 40 per cent, and your need for heating by 10 per cent.
- Turn down the thermostat. In winter months, the EPA recommends turning down the furnace’s thermostat to 68 degrees F in the day and 60 degrees F at night.
- Reduce your use of oil-based paints, lawn pesticides and cleaning solvents. When they dry, they release VOCs. By 2010 they will contribute to more than twice the amount of VOCs from all transportation sources.
- Purchase “green power” for your home’s electrical needs. Green power, generated by water, sun and wind, does not create smog.
- Buy energy efficient appliances.
- Use compact fluorescent lights. They require one-fifth to one-quarter of the energy of the old incandescent bulbs.