Two items I can think of: a bluetooth/wifi controlled multicolored lightbulb and reusable K-cups
Rather than setting up strips of lighting along my ceiling in my apartment, just changing out the bulb in my lamp is a really simple way to have full customization of a room’s lighting. Nowadays, I find myself just lying in bed, changing the color and brightness of the bulb on my phone as I listen to music, changing it to whatever feels the best. Even for regular use, changing how bright or soft the white light is can be useful.
As for the K-cups, it makes for a really easy method of making coffee at the office. Due to a long commute, I have to wake up earlier than I would like to arrive at the office on time, and it generally leaves me little time to prepare coffee at home. During the summer I usually prepare cold brew the night before, though in fall and winter, I prefer warm coffee and I find it easiest to grind whole beans myself, prepare a K-cup the night before, and then brew once I arrive. Simple and clean with very little hassle.
1 kW is enough to heat 1 liter of water per minute by 14.3 degrees Celsius. If you have a 20 l/min shower head and water pressure to actually deliver that, that’s 20-30 kW of power for as long as the shower is running (if the water is heated by heat pump, that’s output power, input would be 1/4th to 1/3rd, and wastewater heat recovery is possible - but most places don’t have that and use fossil fuel or resistive heating).
A 15 minute, 20l/min shower uses 5-7.5 kWh. You can reduce that by a factor of 6 by using a 10 l shower head and 5 minutes of water (turning the water off while you don’t actively need it). At 200 kg CO2 per MWh (natural gas), that’s 0.3-0.45 tons of CO2 saved per year.
Likewise, lowering the thermostat and saving heating can make a huge difference.
In general on a large scale, living in a smaller apartment is “greener”, since less space needs to be heated, but also less space has to be built, and higher density means less travel.
Heating/housing, food, and travel are typically the biggest parts of your footprint. For travel, distance matters more than the way you move. Flights aren’t great per km traveled but what makes them really impactful is that they make it practical to travel large distances. (Keep that in mind when you see “green” politicians trying to propose measures - often these measures are either purely symbolic, adding annoyance without benefit, or work mostly by making it impractical/undesirable to travel or do otherwise enjoyable things).
Use fans in the summer. You can keep your thermostat at 77-78 during the day and still feel comfy. The issue of why you feel hot is not because 77 is hot, it’s because air is not moving. Having a fan on keeps the air circulating in your apartment, making it more comfortable without using too much energy; instead of relying on your AC to move air around by lowering the thermostat so it keeps turning on.
Blackout shades also work to cool down your apartment, not just keep light out. Put them on windows facing west to keep sunlight out during the hottest time of the day.
You want white shades not black. A lot of modern glass is thermal blocking. It has a coating to reflect Infrared light. With black curtains, the sunlight hits the curtain and is absorbed. The curtain then re-radiates it as infrared. This spreads it around the room, since the window blocks it. With white, the light reflects off, and back out the window. This keeps more heat out.
For best effect, you want to use Mylar foil. I personally found the mylar bubble wrap wall insulation worked extremely well. It’s quite stiff, so easy to cut and handle. I used suction cups to hold it to the window. The outside would be the absolute best, but it still works extremely well on the inside.
I don’t think so. As long as nothing gets inside the outlet box there should be no fire hazard. There are acoustic caulk that don’t dry out and crack, which helps with sound proofing. I’ve heard Red Devil caulk works just as well, but it’s less expensive because it doesn’t have “acoustic” on the label
I'm pretty fond of these little Velcro straps I got from Amazon that are like 10cm x 30cm, you use them to push all your computer cables into them so you can neaten them up. I've got several of them strapped back to back and it's a pretty decent solution (and being Velcro you can just pull it apart later on)
A place I used to work at gave us big rolls of double sided velcro for cable management purposes. Me and another guy built a jig to split them in half so it was 1/4" instead of 1/2". Worked great and I still have a ton of those rolls we made from leaving it in my pocket at the end of the day. Very handy stuff to have around.
Consumables like that are common to be accidentally taken home if you don’t switch to work clothes at work. Any company complaining about it is insane.
Low(er) flow faucet aerators & shower heads (don’t have to get crazy but try a few at different flows to see if you can go any lower without it being obnoxious, I stopped at 1.5gpm as the 1gpm restrictors felt like a stingy public bathroom)
Adjust water heater to a cooler temp (at 125-130F I can still get the shower as hot as I need just by turning it close to full hot)
LEDs in all light fixtures, I usually calculate lumens per watt to get the most efficient I can find while still having ~80+ cri and a 2700-3000k temperature (colder temperatures are usually more efficient but I’m not about living in blue light)
IR reflecting window film for the summer and draft-reducing film for the winter
Weather stripping to fill any drafty gaps
Make sure HVAC filter is changed on time and not restricting air flow
Simply let it get a bit warm in the summer and a bit chilly in the winter, use eco modes if your thermostat has it
Leatherman metal bracelet with a lot of tools on the wrist. Not only it is strong and sturdy, but also looks cool. Also, saved me from being completely locked inside a room with no one around cause the door handle decided to break. Quickly disassembled the locking mechanism with the bracelet and was free in 2 mins, lol. Leatherman might be on an expensive side but there sure are alternatives. More than that, somehow I never had any issues with airports. They literally let me take it onboard every single time.
Phone holder for bed, aka robo-arm. Watching content before/while sleeping has never been more convenient.
A waist bag. No more stretched out jeans cause I keep all my stuff in the pockets.
A gas lighter. Works as a candle substitute if necessary. Also stylish.
A small but reliable kickscooter might be a great option if you need to go some distance that’s too long to walk and too short for a taxi drive.
A second usb-c charger for the laptop actually is a convenient thing if you need to carry the laptop across rooms. No need to carry the bulky charger every time.
Speaking of chargers, consider buying a lot of 2 or 3 way wireless chargers for your mobile devices. I don’t remember last time I bothered with plugging in my phone cause it’s always charged wherever I go due to having wireless chargers everywhere.
On an expensive side, but a good sturdy metal gaming chair.
A portable SSD. Saved me by having all my backups many times.
A usb-A and usb-C compatible flash drive.
Paper cups and plates I guess? I don’t like doing dishes and those two both eliminate the need to, but without a downside of being plastic.
Gonna sound strange, but a ladder. Replacing burnt lightbulbs with a chair is a nightmare, at least in my house.
What I meant is a gaming chair with some good metal base construction. I currently use DxRacer Iron series and it’s by far superior to all alternatives I’ve used.
Equally as expensive but I’ve found high quality office chairs are much better. Gaming chairs used to be fine for me until WFH. Every day after work my back was killing me, and I couldn’t ever game after work.
I got a relatively cheap ($500) office chair and it’s been fantastic. Ergonomic, fully adjustable in every way, and shaped for someone to sit in for 8 hours a day. Fantastic. I’d love an aeron but even used they’re over 1k and 500 was already a lot to spend on a chair for me.
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