Save 50% On Your Power Bills For 6 Months To Pay For Your Next Trip

For those of you with power bills you can save 50% off each one for the next 6 months to pay for your next trip. Recently I made some easy changes around my home to do just that. In exchange for a few minutes per day and some comfort from time to time you can chop your electric bill in half and use that money to book a flight.

1. Turn Off Your Water Heater 19 Hours A Day

The typical water heater in the US is 52 gallons. To provide enough hot water for 2 people to shower you’ll only need to run it for 5 hours a day. It’s preferable to split those 5 hours into two times daily (morning and night) to keep the hot water flowing.

The simplest way is to turn the water heater on and off from the circuit breaker. The alternative is installing a hot water heater timer so it comes on and goes off automatically.

Trade Off: Varying time. You’ll need to plan on flipping the switch for around 2.5 hours twice a day and 45 minutes before running the dishwasher or laundry machine.

2. Turn Off The Dishwasher’s Heated Dry

Generating hot air to dry your dishes takes up a considerable amount of energy and money – cash that could be better spent getting you to Brazil for instance. You can hand dry the dishes or just open up the dishwasher door as soon as the wash cycle is over.

You can further your savings by not pre-washing and use less detergent for loads that aren’t as dirty, as recommended by dishwasher engineers.

Trade Off: A few minutes per load. Assuming you have to hand dry the dishes when you take them out.

3. Use A Clothes Line

As you can see from the trend so far, heating things is especially energy consuming. There is a nice natural process called evaporation that works just as well, expect that it takes a bit longer. Most of us imagine ropes and string all across a backyard or balcony but several companies make travel clothes lines that work just about anywhere indoors.

Trade Off: Time, heat…heat, time. The trade off is basically between the two.

4. Keep The Curtains Closed In The Summer, Open In Winter

It’s amazing how much money we spend on heating things, especially considering there is a huge ball of nuclear fusion called the Sun that will do much of it for us. Open your curtains during the winter and close them in the summer and forget about the air conditioning. Well, let’s leave the air conditioning off unless it gets above 30 degrees Celsius (~86 F).

Trade Off: Comfort. You’ll be a bit chilly in the winter and a bit hotter in the summer. Save enough on your electric bill and you can fly to the climate of your choice.

Squeeze A Bit More From Your Bill

There are a few more ways to really take a chunk out of your electric bill and pay for that next trip faster.

• Switch to a time-of-use plan – Call your electric company and see if you are paying the same rate for electricity around the clock. Time-of-use plans can save you lots if you run most of your appliances during ‘non-peak’ hours.
• Fill the freezer – The more you fill your freezer and fridge with food the less air is left for your refrigerator to cool.

There are other well-known ways to lowering your electric bill like changing your light bulbs to CFLs and turning off things like your computer when you’re not using them. I was able to cut my electric bill by more than 50% using these techniques and you should be able to get at least 1 extra plane ticket per year by doing the same. Make sure to keep a simple travel budget so the bill savings goes toward travel.

Your energy consciousness doesn’t have to stop at home though, there are 33 ways to green your travels once you hit the road.

[photos by: Kyle Slattery, emilyd10, Rosh PR]

Traveling Relics That Might Make A Comeback Due To The Rising Cost of Oil

As gas prices go up many travelers are looking for creative new ways to save money on every aspect of their trips. There are however, some ‘travel relics’ – formerly popular, now lesser used ways to get around, meet up, and stay in touch.

These travel relics are all in various stages of making a comeback, and you can use them to shave off cents to save for your next tank of gas.

• Hitchhiking - You’ll need to be good with directions to make sure you’re hopping off the right rides in the right direction. Hitchhiking is best done when traveling solo, preferably in a country you are familiar with.
  • Wikitravel has an excellent article on staying safe while hitchhiking, something that is not for everyone.
• Camping - Pitching a tent by the side of the road is cheaper than staying in a hostel and in many parts of the world you can find kilometers of uninhabited land to live off of. If you’re in a city you can do some ‘urban camping’ by crashing in airports (scope the best spot) or hotel lobbies.
• Taking Indirect Flights, Overnight Layovers - Any of you who can remember flying in the 80s and early 90s recall that overnight layovers were common, even for more expensive flights. These days we’re a bit spoiled by direct flights and short layovers, but many airlines still offer an overnight (hotel paid) layover for cheaper airfare. Call and ask the airline to see what your options and make 8 minute travel plans for your 24 hour trip.

Read more

Why Rising Oil Prices Are Good For Travel and Travelers

Don’t believe the hype, despite the dramatic increases in oil prices over the past year, the travel industry is booming. The rising cost of oil is fueling an international travel revival.

Take a look at the statistics – more people now are traveling than ever before. Over the past year travel to Europe is up 8% and the U.S. Department of Commerce projects international travel to be up 44% by 2010. Visitors to almost every country in the world is increasing, even Iraq. (Except the to the United States, in large part due to cumbersome visa restrictions and overzealous airport security.)

Though this might seem contradictory it’s not. The main driving force behind the increase in fuel prices isn’t price gouging (although it happens to a degree), it’s demand. This demand is coming mainly from the developing economies of China, India, and Brazil to name a few. These emerging economies on the world scene might make a trip more expensive but also create more places hospitable to travel.

So, it’s more expensive to get around but you’ve got more choices that compete with each other (directly and indirectly) driving prices down, which is ultimately cheaper, even if you stay within your own country.

Read more

Tourism Competitiveness Ratings Released, Switzerland At Top Chad Bringing Up Rear

The World Economic Forum has release their Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report for 2008 (some time ago, admittedly I’m a bit late). The rankings don’t measure how attractive a country is as a tourist destination, but rather the development of the travel industry there. Most of the countries at the top were in western Europe along with the US and Canada.

Most at the bottom of the list were African nations. Like I’ve said before, a tourism industry is a great boost to a 3rd world economy, since it doesn’t require much infrastructure and a weak local currency can attract tourists. You can view the entire report here [pdf], if you do you’ll notice that none of these up and coming destinations are on the list.

Earth Day: 33 Ways To Green Your Travels

Since it’s Earth Day, I thought I’d remind you about my list of 33 ways to green your travels.

The World’s Greenest Countries

Yale University’s ranking of international environmental performance indexes placed Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway in the top 3, respectively. The United States was just slightly worse off than Argentina at #39 and a touch better than Taiwan on the list of 149 nations.

Airplane Contrails Raise and Lower Temperatures In Heavy Flight Corridors

Contrails, those wispy clouds that form when ice crystals condense on jet engine vapors have been shown to raise and lower temperatures over large cities.

It was learned that contrails lower daytime and raise nighttime temperatures slightly in high-traffic jet corridors. Lacking those clouds for a few days after Sept. 11, the spread between daily high and low temperatures increased by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit.

There has been controversy over the global impact that jets have on the Earth’s atmosphere. Some of the comments in Upgrade: Travel Better’s post on the subject questioned if 3 days of data could really be conclusive. Those of you who’ve calculated the carbon impact of a recent vacation will find that air travel is where most of your carbon tonnage comes from.

Marriott Greener Than Hilton

Incentive programs at Marriott hotels, when compared to Hilton, have lead to more efficient hotels that are better for the environment.

Marriott has created incentive systems to award and highlight managers for their environmental initiatives. And on a corporate level, they are taking MEASURABLE steps toward reducing their energy and water use.

Simple Green Choices notes that both chains still have a long way to go. To really hotel it up green style, check the list of green certified ones.

[photo by: Daniele Muscetta]

How Well Do You Know Your World Geography?

The fun and curiously addicting free game, How Well Do You Know Your World, measures the time it takes you to locate major international cities.

The game gives you a city somewhere in the world and you drop a pin on where you think it is. Points are calculated on distance to the actual location and the time it took you to find it.

The game in entertaining for about 5 minutes. A nice little workweek diversion right before holiday rush.

[via Svenska Dagbladet]

10 Super Green Vacation Ideas

Regional Flavor suggests spending some time in Hawaii planting trees or cruising to the Galapagos on an carbon-neutral boat on their list of 10 green vacations.

Next Page »