I can’t wait until summer arrives.  A home grown heirloom tomato, watermelon and feta, drizzled with olive oil  salad is when I know its summer.  Soon thereafter it’s air conditioning season in many areas of the country.   That’s when Smarty Pants becomes really valuable.  So go earn GET WITH THE PROGRAM.  It will pay for its self befor Labor day if go get one soon.

There are so many choices today.  I’ll break ‘em down into three categories and let you know our unofficial but  not biased preferences.

The least expensive but very functional award goes to Honeywell’s 5-2.  They typically go for 50 busks or so from Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot or BestBuy.  Allow a couple hours to install  all of these.   They all come with pretty good instructions.  Keep your old one so if you move to a new place you can put it back.  That means you can take the savings with you wherever you go.  The 5-2 setting fits most lives where we work during the week and catch up on sleep on the weekend.  If your schedule is more complex get a 7-1-1 but they are more complex to program.

Our most Aesthetically pleasing  programmable thermostat award goes to Nest.  If you haven’t heard it’s really well designed.  It’s the iPhone of thermostats.  Our creative director uses it and likes it.  The device is cool and the iPad/iPhone app allows you to easily see when your AC/Heat have been on and turn them off from afar.  It’s a bit pricy but cool.  It also has learning software imbedded.  Pretty cool if you done want to program .  Since this one and the one below need to be connected to the web add another thirty minutes or so do connect that side.

Best Programmable and Mobile Controllable.  I have the 3M Filtrete 7 Day Touchscreen WIFi Programmable Thermostat.  It’s less expensive than the Nest but can still be controlled from an iPhone.   It runs around $100.  I can program it from a bowser and control it from my iphone. 

All of these alow you to put a your thermostat on a diet.  That leaves plenty of room for eating all the fruits of summer’s Local Beets.

I can’t wait until summer arrives.  A home grown heirloom tomato, watermelon and feta, drizzled with olive oil  salad is when I know its summer.  Soon thereafter it’s air conditioning season in many areas of the country.   That’s when Smarty Pants becomes really valuable.  So go earn GET WITH THE PROGRAM.  It will pay for its self befor Labor day if go get one soon.

There are so many choices today.  I’ll break ‘em down into three categories and let you know our unofficial but  not biased preferences.

The least expensive but very functional award goes to Honeywell’s 5-2.  They typically go for 50 busks or so from Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot or BestBuy.  Allow a couple hours to install  all of these {link to Pin Video}.   They all come with pretty good instructions.  Keep your old one so if you move to a new place you can put it back.  That means you can take the savings with you wherever you go.  The 5-2 setting fits most lives where we work during the week and catch up on sleep on the weekend.  If your schedule is more complex get a 7-1-1 but they are more complex to program.

Our most Aesthetically pleasing  programmable thermostat award goes to Nest.  If you haven’t heard it’s really well designed.  It’s the iPhone of thermostats.  Our creative director uses it and likes it.  The device is cool and the iPad/iPhone app allows you to easily see when your AC/Heat have been on and turn them off from afar.  It’s a bit pricy but cool.  It also has learning software imbedded.  Pretty cool if you done want to program .  Since this one and the one below need to be connected to the web add another thirty minutes or so do connect that side.

Best Programmable and Mobile Controllable.  I have the 3M Filtrete 7 Day Touchscreen WIFi Programmable Thermostat.  It’s less expensive than the Nest but can still be controlled from an iPhone.   It runs around $100.  I can program it from a bowser and control it from my iphone. 

All of these alow you to put a your thermostat on a diet.  That leaves plenty of room for eating all the fruits of summer’s Local Beets and a basket full of Savings{Link to Pin Stats)

Eating healthy is triple phat: good for you, your local economy and the environment.  Learn more with our Top Chef’s three pins, Meatless Mondays, Fresh Beets and Down Home Eats.  JouleBug where you earn points, share and save.  

If you really want to dig deep, read Tracie McMillan’s new book The American Way of Eating or check out her site.

We’re live!

Big news, North Carolina: We just turned on the juice with Duke Energy. More than 1.5 million customers can now link their utility account to the JouleBug iPhone app to track how smart energy use is saving them money.*

Which means we’re now covering more than 10 million residences. In the words of our founder: “Wahoooo!”

Duke Energy customers, download the JouleBug app (it’s free and quick) and earn the Bill Collector badge. Players save an average of $200 a year. As long as you don’t cheat.

Washing and drying full loads, using cold water from time to time and cleaning the dryers lint trap all sound like work.  Why not make it fun with Joulebug.  Show off your sustainability bling with this badge and many others!

Fill your trophy case at Joulebug.

Walk to work.  Walk to meet up.  Walk to your date.  Walk to school.  Walk to lunch. Walk to the museum.  Walk to get a coffee.  Walk to see a movie.

You get the point.  Give it a try.  

JouleBug, where friends don’t let friends drive.

Thomas Friedman, in Sunday’s NYT, says “Take the Subway”: 

“There will be two billion more people here by 2050, and they all want to live and drive just like us.  And when they do, there is going to be one monster traffic jam, and pollution cloud, unless we learn how to get more mobility, lighting, heating and cooling from less energy and with less waste - with so many more people.”  

Getting more from less, with less waste is JouleBug’s raison d’etre. If you’re going to follow Friedman’s advice, get credit for it with the Road Warrior badge. 

Download the free JouleBug app and start learning to save $200 a year (for those 2 billion babies coming soon). 

Just Added DUKE ENERGY!  Give it a try.

It’s Friday, JouleBug says, drink sustainably (and responsibly).  Drink only local craft beer tonight, and save the freight from Milwaukee, or Plzen.  

If its on tap, even better, but gotta play JouleBug to get the buzz.

Try our Trash to Treasure Pin

Need some great ideas to Upcycle?  Head over to pinterest.  This is a great way to save some dough.  New is not always better. 

JouleBug What friends do to be sustainable

JouleBug is currently third place in the Challenge.gov “Apps for the Environment” challenge! The contest is sponsored by the EPA; we used EPA data to calculate how much carbon (and dollars) each small step in our game can save for the planet.  

We’re a young, bootstrapping company, and this EPA challenge is a great way to help us spread the word about using energy more wisely. If you haven’t already, please take a moment and vote! Click on the title above, or this link:

http://appsfortheenvironment.challenge.gov/submissions/4621-joulebug

This video shows off some of the newest JouleBug features - which are live, today, in the app store!  

Download the new game. And if you’re a fan of JouleBug, vote for us in “Apps for the Environment!” It won’t take you five minutes, and it’ll mean a lot to us: 

http://appsfortheenvironment.challenge.gov/submissions/4621-joulebug

Here’s a great video from Lowe’s that shows how to install a motion sensor exterior light yourself.

If you are one of the 25% of Americans that leave their outdoor lights on all night, this badge is for you.  We all want a safe atmosphere at night, but burning the porch light while you’re in bed can be a good way to run up those electric bills.  A better alternative is to install a motion sensor device that will light your house and yard only when it’s needed. 

These sweet devices will light up your yard if there’s any prowlers nearby (or when you pull into the driveway), but they’ll keep energy costs down by keeping the light off when you don’t need it.  We’ve calculated you could save over $20 per year by reducing your outdoor lighting usage.  

That’s not the only way to save on outdoor lighting.  Compact Florescents are also great to use outdoors because of their long lifespan.  Who wants to climb a ladder every 6 months to replace burnt out bulbs?  CFLs have a lifespan of around 7 years.  In addition, they use 1/4th the energy of traditional bulbs.  However, when buying a CFL for an outdoor light, a word of caution:  If you live where it gets cold, make sure you get a bulb with a special cold-weather ballast.  Just look for “Indoor/Outdoor” on the package. Regular indoor only CFL’s tend not to work well when the temperature gets below 40F.  The bulbs won’t be cheap, but remember that their long life span and energy savings normally makes it worth the cost.  

The final word:  Remember Motel 6’s famous ad campaign, “We’ll leave the light on for you”?  If they still leave the light on, it must be a CFL…they began refitting their properties with CFLs in 2006. 

You’ve probably heard about recycling since you were a wee lad (or lassie).   But as much as recycling is touted as a “green thing to do”, only 30% of our waste is recycled.  Americans throw away 4.62 pounds of trash per person every day.  

So why recycle?  Recycling saves energy and keeps our natural resources from being depleted. Nearly all recyclable materials save energy by shortening the supply chain…that is, using less energy to remove the raw material from the ground, ship it, and process it.   That’s less oil we have to drill, less trees we cut down, and less ore that need be mined.  Which turns into smaller environmental impact and more energy savings. 

Recycling (and using recycled products) means you are saving energy that’s beyond your immediate surroundings.  And while you may not see the savings on you electricity bill, the more energy we as a planet save together, the less our impact is and the lower our overall costs are going to be.

How to Recycle:

The first step is to reduce consumption in the first place.  Reduce the amount you need to throw away by making smart consumer choices.  Secondly, before recycling, think about repurposing.   Try to sell your old stuff, or give it away on Craigslist, Freecycle, ReuseitNetwork, or local swap shops. 

If you can’t give it away, then recycle it!  So you think you know how to recycle, but have you ever wondered what to do with old paint?  Motor oil?  How about electronics or old appliances?  What about bottle caps?  Getting the most out of your recycling program involves knowing the rules.  Look up what can and can’t be recycled in your area at http://earth911.com/.   Or visit the website of your city, town, or county!

Once you know what and where to recycle, go for it!  We believe that Joulebugs are capable of recycling 60% of what their trash, twice the normal recycling rate.   Chuck that stuff in the right bin and know that you’ve taken another step toward a wise use of energy in your life.