EnviroHumanImpact

Summer and air conditioners go hand-in-hand for most of us. But while in the winter, you might try to increase moisture in the air using a humidifier or putting a pan of water on the radiator, during the summer, you should reduce the strain put on your air conditioner by making moisture less available for evaporation.

What do I mean? In the most subtle ways, you can probably find a few places where you may be failing to do this, putting unwanted stress on your air conditioning system and costing you more to cool your home.  Plus, remember to mentally tie electricity use to pollution!

• Turn on the exhaust fan while you shower to force the steam out of the bathroom. Just remember to turn it off afterward so you do not continue to vent cooled air out of your house.
• Make certain your dish drainer drains water onto a drainboard — whether built-in as part of the sink or more likely, a plastic mobile one — so to drain the water directly down the drain. I used to go without the drain board (yes, I know not the smartest thing for many reasons) and had a nearly constant source of moisture in my air.
• Ring out your rags thoroughly after use, so that they do not have a large abundance of water which would add extra vapor to your air.
• If you have decided to hang your clothing to dry to improve your envirohuman impact by using the clothes dryer less, be sure to dry them outside when possible to limit the amount of vapor they let off into your home’s air.
• Lastly, remember to use your tea kettle for boiling water, so as to minimize the amount of time you’re boiling water (which saves gas or electricity!) and decreases the amount of water evaporated in the process.  If you do not own a kettle, covering the pot of water decreases the amount of water expelled into the air and makes the water come to a boil faster.

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