1. Hang your clothes up to dry, either indoors or out.

2. Cool your home with fans and open windows in the summer.

3. Check your home’s insulation, and seal any cracks as necessary. Apply weather stripping to doors and windows, and insulate your attic if it is not already.

4. Turn your refrigerator down (but not so far that you find food spoiling too quickly – that, of course, is also wasteful).

5. Turn your thermostat down before you go to bed and when you leave the house.

6. Invest in compact fluorescent light bulbs. If you are able, have skylights or sun pipes installed.

7. Turn off lights during the day and when you leave a room.

8. Have dinner (and other meals!) by candlelight.

9. Cook outside whenever possible. Patio grills are relatively inexpensive. Or you can go to a local park or forest that has public grills or fire pits.

10. Open the curtains and shades and let sunshine warm and light your house. Close curtains and shades in the summer to keep hot sunlight out, or use sheets of removable window tinting. This will cut your electricity use by reducing the need to run your central heat or air conditioning.

11. Use a pressure cooker to reduce cooking time and stovetop temperature, thereby reducing the time your stove is on.

12. Use a crockpot on low to cook long-cooking foods like roasts – it takes less energy to run a crockpot than a stove.

13. Use timers on your lamps.

14. Sweep whenever possible instead of running the vacuum cleaner.

15. Make sure you change the filters in your heating and cooling system as often as the manufacturer recommends.

16. Look into alternative energy sources for your home – you may be able to install solar panels, a small wind turbine, or, in the near future, a magnetic generator to generate electricity. Even installing a small solar panel or wind turbine that will run one appliance will save electricity.

17. Landscape with trees and shrubs that will shelter your home from the wind in the winter and provide shade in the summer.

18. Insulate your water heater. Your power company can probably assist you with this, and may even provide the bubble wrap-like insulation for your water heater.

19. Turn your water heater down to 120. This is also a good protection against accidental burns.

20. Unplug electrical devices when they are not in use, especially those electronics that have a rechargeable battery (if it’s blinking, it’s using electricity).

Benefits:

• CFLs use 70% less energy than incandescent bulbs.
• CFLs last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs.
• They also produce much less heat, which definitely helps if you are sitting or working near one.

Drawbacks:

• Most do not work with dimmer switches.
• They aren’t good for ceiling fans, or applications where they might experience vibration.
• Light isn’t always as appealing as incandescent bulbs.
• Contain small amount of mercury, so it’s important to recycle them when done.

All in all, I would highly recommend trying out at least one Compact Fluorescent in your home or business. The prices keep dropping and they are pretty easy to find at your local store. If everyone would switch just one incandescent to a CF light bulb, we could dramatically reduce our energy consumption and save money in the process.