by Mary Mcindoe

Created on: May 21, 2007

There are many options available now for folks who want to switch to cleaner energy sources and it pays to research the options thoroughly. Even though it may not be possible to change over everything that you do personally to greener sources of energy, every little bit can help. Many of the cleaner energies also can save you money over the long haul, so the benefit is two-fold - savings for you and a better environment for all of us. Going green is not just a matter of changing your own energy sources, it is also a matter of living in such a way that you are having a less harmful effect on the environment as a whole.

Even as simple a technique as replacing your home's incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent types can result in a nice savings for you. These bulbs use much less energy to run and last up to ten times longer than the incandescent bulbs and their production uses much less energy as well.

Rather than spending money on those expensive bottled waters, install a filter on your kitchen tap and refill your own bottles of water. Not only do the newer tap filters produce bottled water at least as high a quality as those bottled store-bought waters, you won't be contributing to the enormous numbers of plastic bottles that end up in the landfill every year. Since bottled water manufacturers are not as heavily regulated as your local water supply, there may be far more harmful ingredients in that bottled water than what comes out of your own tap, even without a filter. Look for a tap filter that carries the NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) label to assure the quality of the filter system.

Solar energy and wind energy are both viable alternatives for many people depending on their local area. Many areas are now able to offer wind-powered electricity to homes as more wind turbine systems are put into use. If you live in an area that gets a reasonable amount of sun, solar energy may work for you - there are also many outdoor lighting systems that are driven by solar power and these can used very effectively in many places. The use of alternative energies often come with tax incentives so it can definitely be a worthwhile upgrade to your home to switch over to these energies where possible.

If you are driving a diesel vehicle, you will want to check out the possibility of running bio-diesel rather than regular diesel in your car. Bio-diesel runs far cleaner in your engine and is becoming less expensive all the time. For local availability of bio-diesel

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