Growcology Reviews

Growcology Reviews:

One of the goals of Growcology is to offer our community valuable information that they can apply directly into their lives. Valuable information can be desceminated through our workshops, events, our even our online community (www.mygreenriverside.com). In addition to these options, Growcology plans to put "Green Products" to the test! We are beginning our side by side analysis and reviews of products companies are marketing to you daily. We expect to discover which products fulfill their promises, which companies are the most green, and furthermore which products are actually worth their cost. If there is something that you would like to have us test please send us an email at growcology@gmail.com. We'll do our best start a review on the products.

Review: ENERGY MONITORS & POWER STRIPS

This blog is written for anyone interested in making a inexpensive purchase and saving a lot of money almost immediately. I will be offering a review on the "Kill A Watt," "Watts Up," and the "Smart Strip." Little devices you can purchase for your home and save money. :)

Recently Nick and I had some folks over to the Growcology Center for a garden walk. I always love having these walks because they are so casual and we get to really connect with community members. One of our community members shared how he purchased a little device for under $30 and was able to save himself lots of money by learning what household devices were sucking up energy without he even knowing it.

ENERGY MONITORS

The "Kill A Watt" and the "Watts Up" are known as Energy Monitors. You plug the Energy Monitor into the wall and plug your appliances into the energy monitor. Immediately the devices will start counting how much energy your appliances are using and also provides calculations to determine how much money you are losing when keeping these devices plugged into the wall. Some users calculated that they save upwards of $15.00 per month! These are great tools to see just how much energy is being used by our refrigerators, microwaves, entertainment centers, etc.

So what is the difference between the two?
Cost: Kill A Watt $23.43, Watts Up $99.00
Conversions: Kill A Watt requires simple math (multiplication) to determine your energy cost. Watts Up calculates those numbers simply by punching them into the device.

Growcology believes that the Kill A Watt is the greatest return on investment. Granted it may not have all the high tech features offered by the Watts Up, but the deficiencies are really easy to remedy. Not to mention it is an investment that keeps giving. If you purchase one of these little devices you can lend it to your neighbors, family, friends, etc. Talk about stretching your money to have a greater environmental impact!

POWER STRIPS

Once you determine which household items are costing you the most it is recommended to use a power strip. Basically a power strip not only protects your devices from power surges but also is saves money with a flip of switch. You can purchase a power strip for around $10.00 at most appliance stores.

However, I want to discuss the hand dandy "Smart Strip." Unlike most power strips this devices offers a "Control Outlet." To better understand this function imagine plugging your computer into the Control Outlet and your printer, fax, speakers, into the other outlets on the strip. Or another example would be to plug your television into the control, and your cable, speakers, DVD, into the others strip outlets. When you turn on the devices plugged into the control the other devices will automatically turn on. Vice versa, when you turn off the device in the control outlet all the other devices will turn off as well. This will save you time in unplugging all your devices when not in use.

GROWCOLOGY STORE


To Purchase any of the reviewed devices visit the new Growcology Green Store:

Growcology has teamed up with Amazon. You spend the same exact amount if you were to make a traditional amazon purchase, the only difference is that Growcology makes a small commission when products are purchased out of our little store. Let us know if there is something you would like to see in our store, and we will do our best to make it available. We value every nickel and dime Growcology can make, and in return we provide services to our Riverside Community. Thanks for all your support!

For more reviews on the Kill A Watt and Watts Up please visit: Consumer Reports

New Website and Article

The local newspaper, the Press Enterprise, just put an article out on our non-profit. Check it out here at this link.

Bianca has been busting her butt getting our new website up, and it was just in time because we finished it last night and the article aired today! Its at www.Growcology.com. There is all kinds of information on there about what we're growing, the history of the property, and feedback forms for workshops.

We've been really hustling the past few weeks to keep our garden alive in these hot summer months. We had a huge break in June, as we were still planting up until the last week. Fortunately, Spring actually extended all the way until the summer solstice, so our seedlings got a break and were able to get strong roots developed before the harsh summer sun baked and killed them.

We've finished planting both of our three sisters demonstration gardens, the corn is growing fantastically and our melons and beans are peeking up. Our okra is growing strong, although there are alot of lamb's quarters and oats trying to grow in between them. We've also spotted some cheeseweed, filaree, and datura, and a volunteer tomato!

Our tabletops are transitioning from spring to summer crops. Almost all the greens have fried except for the montain spinach and amaranth, though the broccoli and chard are still doing ok. Our squash won't put out fruit for some reason, but our tomatoes and basil have taken over all the boxes except one, and we're going to be sundrying like crazy in a week. It was cool how we stacked the planting so that as soon as the spring crops dried up, the summer ones took over. We're going to keep playing around with that in the future...

Also, we have some sad news. Spencer and Sarah are moving back to LA, but they'll still be helping out on work weekends and harvesting their plot. Bianca and I will be moving onto the property to safeguard our little plant babies, and we're expanding Growcology's board with some exciting established and young leaders from the area. Stay tuned!