Not all gifts have to be power-guzzling game consoles, They do send quite the mixed message. On the one hand, you care about saving energy and saving the planet. On the other hand, you consume industrial-level watts per hour blasting fake enemies in 4K splendor. Something seems a little off about that.
Perhaps this is the year we all do a little better at giving gifts that are consistent with our values. If you are a low-calorie guru, you wouldn’t give everyone on your list a box of chocolates. You want to give people things they will enjoy, but that also reflects who you are as the giver.
Sometimes, your gift is a statement of intent or even a call for a certain kind of action. Rather than another video game, you could give your child a basketball and membership at the local Y. You might give a less athletic child nice chess set to encourage their analytical thinking. So what do you give your friends and family to help them save energy, and show your commitment to conservation? Here are a few suggestions:
An Electric Vehicle
Why not go big? Get your family the gift of green. Put a new electric car in the garage and provide an app or website for all the drivers so they can easily search for “charging stations near me”. Don’t just talk about how bad fossil fuels are. Take a big step away from using them. Breaking dependency on fossil fuels starts at home.
While you’re at it, go big and go home. Add solar to your home and get completely off the grid. If you are the kind of person who likes to keep up with all the solar locations worldwide, why not become a solar location? Make your home the model of what you believe homes should be. Why have a white Christmas when you can have a green one instead?
Lights That Turn Themselves Off
A great energy-saving gift is a motion sensor that turns off the lights when you leave the room. If you have kids, you know it is useless to keep telling them to turn the lights out when they leave a room. Come to think of it, the problem isn’t just the children. Perhaps there is something in human nature that causes us to leave the lights on even when we don’t need them.
With motion sensors, you don’t have to worry about it. You can set things up so that the lights always go off even if everyone forgets to check. You will save money from all the lights you are not burning. When you need light, go for energy-efficient bulbs. These are fun and inexpensive gifts that can save money and the planet.
Thermal Leak Detector
Do you know where your heat is leaking? It is almost certain that you have heat leaking somewhere in your home. Those leaks are costing you a ton of money. The problem is that it is almost impossible to know where the leaks are just by eyeballing it.
This is where a good thermal leak detector comes in. It is a handheld tool that reads the ambient temperature. From there, you can point at places you think heat and air might be escaping. The device indicates hot spots and cool spots. This allows you to seal those areas that are costing you money. With a device like this, you can use less heat in the winter and less air in the summer. Save money year-round.
While you’re at it, you might want to pick up one of those smart thermostats that only heat the areas of the home that are needed at any given time. You can control the heating and cool it from your smartphone. Better yet, you can let the smart unit make those decisions. Again, the end result is that you save money.
There are a lot of ways to save money, and just as many ways to give the gift of green. You can go big and go home by investing in an electric vehicle and powering your home with the sun. You can go for stocking stuffers like motion sensors and energy-efficient bulbs. And you can use gadgets to find those expensive energy leaks and allow your smart gadgets to be the brains of the whole energy-saving operation.