Carpet Cleaning Scottsdale - ECO-FRESH

EcoFresh Newsletter — April 2009

Welcome to the April issue of Green Home, your EcoFresh Newsletter!

Each year, Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd. Earth Day 2009, will mark the beginning of The Green Generation Campaign. Earth Day, along with negotiations for a new global climate agreement coming up in December 2009, makes this April 22nd a day of action and civic participation. The Green Generation Campaign's core principles include a carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels and coal, an individual's commitment to responsible and sustainable consumption, and the creation of a new green economy, including jobs and a green education system.

In this month's issue:

• Make Furniture Polish Using Olive Oil
• Top 10 Tips for Electric Savings at Home
• 3 Ways to Clean Your Windows with Vinegar
• Recipe: Organic White Chocolate Rosewater Cupcakes

Cleaning Corner — Make Furniture Polish Using Olive Oil

It is very easy to make your own furniture polish if you want to skip the chemicals in commercial furniture polishes. There are two ways to make olive oil polish, depending on the level of polishing that your furniture needs. This kind of polish is best used on furniture that has an oiled finish rather than a shiny varnish. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution, but an alternative that some people may find worth trying.

Steps:

1. Combine the olive oil and vinegar (using proportions specified below) in a glass or ceramic container.
2. Apply the polish with a soft polishing cloth. Do not rub it in too hard but leave it to soak in.
3. Allow to air dry.

Regular Cleaning Furniture Oil

1. Combine the oil and lemon juice in a glass or ceramic container.
2. Apply with a soft polishing cloth.
3. Use the soft cloth to shine the furniture by rubbing briskly.
4. Allow to air dry if it hasn't already through buffing.

Tips

This polish isn't guaranteed to work with every kind of furniture. For example, because the lemon juice and vinegar are water soluble, acidic solutions, they are probably more suitable for polyurethane or laminate cover furniture. If you don't want to risk staining a valuable antique piece of furniture, you may need to rely on a commercial polish after all.

The first polish penetrates deeply; the second polish is more suitable for more regular cleaning and the lemon scent is delightful.

Do not keep these polishes - they should be made and used on the same day. Dispose of the polishes as you would dispose of olive oil.

A better choice of oil is ordinary drugstore mineral oil (sold as a laxative) because it will never go rancid and is completely food safe.

Warnings

Do a test on a small section of the furniture first. If you find that the mixture leaves your furniture too oily, or you're worried about the oil getting rancid in hot weather, alter your proportions to include less oil.

Using any other kind of vinegar may stain.

Applying this polish on fine, antique furniture may result in an undesired haze.

Things You'll Need

Polish #1:
3 parts olive oil
1 part white vinegar
Soft polishing cloth

Polish #2:
2 cups olive oil
1 lemon, juiced

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Live Healthy — Top 10 Tips for Electric Savings at Home

It Starts at Home
Buildings, not cars, produce most of the carbon emissions in the United States, accounting for 38%. Most of this is because of electricity use. The average U.S. household produces 150 pounds of Carbon per day, which is more than twice the European average and almost five times the global average. Here are some easy steps to consume less electricity and reduce carbon emissions.

If we turned off computers when not in use, we would cut their Carbon impact by 50%.

Top 10 Energy Efficient Tips for Home

1. Understand the energy saving methodology. To maximize your home energy savings, apply this simple methodology: measure your usage, break it down, cut the waste, then repeat the whole process. Learn to read your electric meter and utility bills.
2. Get tested. Have an energy audit done for your home. The energy audit will check the building envelope for leaks using an infrared scanner, and will perform a blower door test. Use caulk, foam, or weather stripping to fill these in and save as much as 10 percent on your energy bill.
3. Insulate. The attic is the place to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to insulation. If you already have some insulation, but not enough, you can simply add a layer. To find out how much insulation you need for maximum energy efficiency in your region, type your zip code into the box on this page of the Department of Energy's website.
4. Insulate your water heater. If your tank is warm to the touch, heat is escaping. This can be remedied by wrapping a water heater blanket (available at home supply stores for about $30) around the tank. While you're at it, you may want to lower the temperature on the water heater to 120-130 degrees, down from the factory-set 140 degrees. A water heater alone consumes 12% of a home's energy.
5. Replace incandescent bulbs with CFLs or LEDs. CFLs use two-thirds less energy than incandescents, and LEDs (which are less widely available and more expensive) use half of what CFLs consume. It's hard to believe a few light bulbs can make a difference, but they can: If every American home replaced the incandescent bulbs in their 5 most frequently used light fixtures with energy-efficient bulbs, the country would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs. If we converted half of all light bulbs to CFLs, we would reduce Carbon from lighting by 36 percent, or a savings of $200 a year.
6. Buy a programmable thermostat. The cost is less than $50 and is easy to install. By keeping your home's temperature 10-15 degrees lower while you're at work, for example, you can save up to 10 percent on your heating bill.
7. Make the most of daylighting and shading. Reduce your need for electrical lighting by adding south-facing windows or skylights. A less expensive option: open window treatments to fully to let the sunshine in. Similarly, keep your house cool naturally by closing blinds and shades when it's sunny and hot, reducing your reliance on air conditioning.
8. Test your ducts for air leakage and seal them. In homes with forced-air heating and cooling, up to 20 percent of the air moving through ducts is lost through leaks. Focus on easy-to-access, exposed ducts in places like basements and attics, and be sure to include the repair of hidden ducts when doing larger renovation projects that require opening up walls. Use duct tape, or better yet duct mastic, to fill in holes in the seams.
9. Use lighting control systems such as occupancy sensors, timers and dimmers.
10. When replacing old appliances choose efficient Energy Star-labeled models. From dishwashers to air conditioners, appliances with an Energy Star label meet high government standards of efficiency. One note: many European appliances that are equally (if not more) efficient do not carry the Energy Star label.

Lastly, claim your credit!
Federal tax credits for energy efficiency are available at 30% of the cost, up to $1,500, in 2009 & 2010 (for existing homes only) for: Windows and Doors, Insulation, Roofs (Metal and Asphalt), HVAC, Water Heaters (non-solar), and Biomass Stoves. Also, see www.energystar.gov for a breakdown of qualified products. APS customers: Improve the comfort and energy efficiency of your home by having a Building Performance Institute (BPI) Certified Contractor seal your home's heating/cooling duct system. And you could qualify for up to a $250 rebate from APS. For assistance testing your home's energy efficiency or qualifying for rebates and tax credits, phone EcoFresh at 480.422.4353 to schedule a free in-home consultation.

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Cleaning Talk: How To
3 Ways to Clean Your Windows with Vinegar

By Melissa Breyer, Senior Editor, Healthy & Green Living

Finally the days are becoming clear and sparkling, although I'd be hard-pressed to tell if I were to rely upon the blurry view from my winter-grimed windows. How can windows get so speckled and what am I going to do about it? Time to break out the vinegar.

One of the earliest DIY housecleaning formulas that the media grabbed on to way back when was cleaning your windows with vinegar. Remember that? It was a good idea; the only problem was, according to Annie B. Bond, that years of using commercial products left a residue on windows that wasn't adequately handled by the vinegar. The result? Streaky windows and a lackluster reputation for homemade housecleaning formulas. So if you are looking at the world through dirty windows and want an inexpensive and natural way to clean them, you might need a tweak on the simple vinegar formula. Try one of these methods depending on your situation.

First time with vinegar
If you are going to clean your windows with vinegar for the first time, you need to add an extra ingredient to help combat the residue left over from commercial products. Here is Annie's formula:
2 cups of water
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of liquid dish soap or detergent
Combine in a labeled spray bottle, spray and wipe.

Normal dirt
Once you have removed any waxy residue with the liquid soap formula, you can begin using a diluted white vinegar solution for normal dirt.
1 cup white distilled vinegar
1 cup water
Combine in a labeled spray bottle, spray and wipe.

Very dirty
If you have extra dirty windows, or windows with dried paint or hard-water mineral spots, try warming up full-strength white distilled vinegar and applying it directly to the windows.

What to wipe with?
As for what to wipe with, what's best? To avoid streaks it's important to dry the window as quickly as possible once you have cleaned it. Many normal cleaning cloths can leave a small flurry of lint, not ideal. Paper towels are lint-free, but are too wasteful. Some people swear by newspaper-it is lint-free, and the texture of the crumpled paper can work well on grime. But if you don't like the feeling of newspaper ink on your hands, or if the ink smudges your white window frames or sills, you'll need something else. Squeegees are good because you only need one towel to wipe and they really do conquer streaks once you have the technique mastered. I find that microfiber cleaning cloths work well on just about everything, including windows. What do you use? We'd like to hear, leave a comment!

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Organic White Chocolate Rosewater Cupcakes

For those who have a passion for making cupcake, here is a simple and delicious cupcake recipe that is a hit at parties!
All of the below ingredients can be found as organic with perhaps the exception of baking powder.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Cupcake ingredients:

• 12 cupcake paper liners
• 8 oz of organic white chocolate chips (If can't find chips buy the bars and chop it)
• 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned unsweetened organic coconut milk
• 3 large egg whites

Meringue Buttercream ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 5 large egg whites
• Pinch cream of tartar
• 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons of rose water*
• Edible flowers for garnish - like scented geraniums, violas, Johnny-Jump-Ups, lavender etc. Caution! Confirm that the flowers you are using are edible, organic and have definitively not been treated with pesticides or sprays!

Method for Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 325°

Line two 6 - cup or 12 - cup muffin pan with paper liners. Place white chocolate in double boiler or metal bowl and set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir with a wooden spoon until melted and silky smooth.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and vanilla in a large bowl until blended. Stir in warm white chocolate mixture. Alternate adding the flour mixture in three additions with the unsweetened coconut milk in two additions, mixing until combined between additions.

In a separate medium bowl, beat egg whites with perfectly clean whisks (to get whisks and a bowl perfectly clean, squeeze fresh lemon juice around bowl and run lemon along side of whisks and wipe down with a paper towel). In the clean dry bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold egg whites into cupcake batter until completely combined.

Using an ice cream scooper with a spring action lever, evenly divide batter amongst muffin cups (about 1/3 cup each).

Bake about 25-30 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely. Cupcakes can be made 1 day ahead up to this point. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Method for Meringue Buttercream:

Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Using a pastry brush dipped in water, brush down the sides of the saucepan to prevent crystallization. When the syrup reaches 210° begin beating the egg whites as follows.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on low speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, and beat on medium high until stiff but not dry peaks form.

Simultaneously while the egg whites are being whipped, check the thermometer in the boiling syrup. Once the temperature reaches 240° or soft-ball stage, and the egg whites have reached stiff peaks, with the mixer running, pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the egg whites (to prevent splattering) in a steady stream.

Continue to beat mixture on high speed until the bowl of the mixer reaches room temperature about 5-10 minutes. Add pieces of butter one by one, with mixture running. Add vanilla and rose water. Beat mixture until smooth and has a nice sheen about 3-5 minutes. If at anytime the mixture looks curdled, continue beating until mixture is smooth.

* You can find rosewater at specialty markets or you can make your own. See our recipe for organic rose water

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