How to Power Your Life With Clean Energy (It’s Easier Than You Think!)

Updated March 27, 2019

It’s surprisingly easy to power your life with clean energy! Learn how you can live carbon free with some time-tested tools and some new technology. Here’s how we made our 100-year-old house carbon neutral and you can, t0o!

Have you looked into clean energy or efficiency upgrades but found the information out there too confusing or overwhelming? A company called MyDomino helps make greening your energy use far easier. Their service is FREE to HealthyGreenSavvy readers — so read on to find out more about getting free personalized help powering your home with clean energy!

Thanks to MyDomino for sponsoring this post and for helping people switch to 100% clean energy!

(MyDomino has unfortunately closed its doors, so their site is no longer available 🙁  I’m leaving this post up because I think their idea was a good one even if didn’t pan out.)

Over the years I’ve spent more hours than I care to count researching ways to shrink my family’s eco-footprint. I’ve gone to green living expos, read hundreds (thousands?) of articles and books on living more ecologically, and gave myself a slow but steady education in green remodeling.

Immense amounts of time went into researching things like insulation, which has saved us hundreds of dollars off our heating bills every year. Winter in Minnesota is loooong, and nights routinely get down to -30, so insulating has not only kept us warmer, it’s been a smart investment.

Before insulating, we got a home energy audit and learned where we had leaks to seal up. (As well as lots of other ways to save energy and money — audits are also a great investment, highly recommend!)

Government rebates helped lower the price of our geothermal heat pump, which saves energy by efficiently using steady underground temperatures to heat and cool our house. It more than pays for itself while slashing the amount of climate pollution our home contributes.

We’ve been buying wind energy from our utility company for over a decade, helping to bolster clean energy production in the state. 

Another round of rebates helped us put solar panels on our roof this summer, covering more than half of our energy use. The other half comes from a community solar garden that opened recently.

It’s an exciting time for green-living enthusiasts, as the cost barriers to clean energy have been dropping rapidly. And of course these investments in a clean energy future save thousands of dollars over time, while some newer financing options make the upfront cost doable for more of us.

We’re about to put some of those savings toward an electric car, making our lives pretty darn close to carbon neutral. Our ecological landscaping and zero waste habits may push us over into climate positive territory. Can you imagine the benefit to the planet if everyone did this? 

Ready to power your life with clean energy but don’t know where to start?

You want to shrink your energy footprint, but you don’t have years to devote to understanding the complexities of solar or energy-efficiency upgrades. There’s SO much information out there, much of it conflicting, plus it’s changing all the time.

It’s easy to get paralyzed and do nothing, while you waste money and the planet continues to warm. What if someone who’s done all that research could simply tell you what to do?

A few months ago, I heard about an intriguing company that aims to simplify the process of switching to clean power called MyDomino. They’re trying to help consumers reduce energy consumption and switch to clean energy by doing the research for us so we can make informed choices more easily.

I gave them a call to find out how the service worked. A friendly and knowledgeable “energy savings concierge” named Dan went through a list of questions about my house, my habits, and my energy bill to help determine things I could do to save energy and money.

He answered my questions about everything from solar panels to light bulbs and sent me an action plan to follow. Taking its steps could save me over $40,000 in the next 30 years!

The call took less than a half hour, and Dan cheerfully explained the benefits of the options he presented. He created a dashboard for me so I could update actions I’d taken and see what to do next.

He was impressed with what we’d already done but still had suggestions for further improvements and links to useful information. Since MyDomino isn’t selling anything, there was no pressure to buy, just advice.

Here’s what my dashboard looked like:

What’s nice about this dashboard is that it helps you keep track of the steps you’ve taken as well as those you still have to take, patting you on the back while prodding you to do more. It condenses all that complicated research on the best ways to shrink your carbon footprint into an easy-to-understand graphic that includes links to further information about each subject. We’re all about practical here, right?

This dashboard really helps streamline and simplify. And if you have further questions, a phone call to your concierge can get you squared away. I got a few follow-up emails from Dan to see how I was doing on my remaining actions and offering further support. It’s easy to procrastinate on things that seem less urgent, so getting a nudge and a reminder that someone was there to answer questions is helpful.

So instead of hours combing the internet, you can chat with a dedicated representative who can guide you and explain what you need to know about costs, long-term savings, and financing/rebates. 

Some of the benefits MyDomino offers consumers:

• MyDomino vets the companies and products they’re promoting so you don’t have to spend hours online picking out a programmable thermostat or LEDs. (They currently advise on solar, clean energy plans, LEDs, smart thermostats, smart power strips, electric cars, electric bikes, and heat pumps.)
• They can even use Google Earth to look at your roof and help you decide if you’re a good candidate for solar panels. If you’re not, they can help you buy electricity from a community solar garden or clean energy company.
• A concierge can help you find solar installers in your area and assist you in comparing quotes. 
• Even if you don’t own a home, MyDomino can point you to ways to save energy and purchase clean power. They can even help renters!

About MyDomino

I find several things exciting about this company and its mission. First, it’s a B Corporation, meaning it’s “certified to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.” By helping consumers switch to clean sources of energy, they hope to help protect the planet for future generations.

The idea behind the company and the name MyDomino is that many small actions will add up to a big shift to clean energy. As they explain on their website,

You might think you’re not doing much if you replace a light bulb. But if 60 people switch to LEDs, that’s like taking 25 cars off the road for a year. If just 25 people go solar, that’s like planting 97,000 trees — or 400 football fields’ worth.

We believe in the power of individuals and communities across the globe to come together and make a huge impact — starting with small actions like these. With each step you take on your path to 100% clean energy, we get closer to our mission of creating 1 billion actions toward our clean energy future. Together, we can create an epic MyDomino Effect.

Learn more about what MyDomino can do to help you save money, energy and our climate on their About page.

Help create a Domino effect and take some of the 1 billion actions toward our clean energy future!

What green upgrades have you already made to your home? Which would you like to do next? Leave a comment!

Pin this post on clean energy for later!

Photo credits: BlackRockSolar, Felix Kramer, StockMonkeys.com via Flickr and MyDomino