Using electricity wisely can help you get more value for your energy dollar.  It also helps to conserve natural resources and reduces the impact energy use has on the environment. Follow the advice and tips below to gain more control over your energy use at home.

Lighting :: Insulation and Air Infiltration :: Kitchen :: Laundry
Air Conditioning :: Water Heating :: Outside Your Home

A typical home uses 400-1000 kilowatt-hours per year in lighting. Don’t forget to:

• Clean your light fixtures regularly.
  
• Turn off lights when leaving a room.
  
• Provide task lighting over desks, tool benches, etc., so that activities can be carried on without illuminating entire rooms.
  
• Put lamps in corners of rooms where they can reflect light from two wall surfaces instead of one.
  
• Use compact fluorescent bulbs in fixtures that are on for more than two hours a day. Compact fluorescent bulbs will give an incandescent bulb's warm, soft light, while using up to 75 percent less electricity. They also last about 10 times longer. Typically, a 23-watt compact fluorescent bulb can replace a 90- or 100-watt incandescent bulb. If the fixture is on a dimmer switch, make sure that the compact fluorescent bulb is labeled as "dimmable" or "may be used with dimmers."
  
• Use dimmable incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs when possible.
  
• Install photoelectric controls or timers to make sure that outdoor lighting is turned off during the day.

Insulation and Air Infiltration

The single most important step in residential energy conservation is the installation of thermal insulation. To make sure your home is properly insulated, follow these tips:

• Check current insulation levels, and properly insulate a new or existing home.
• Insulate ceilings, walls, and floors over unconditioned crawl spaces.
• Find the obvious places where air can sneak into your home, then make repairs to plug the leaks by caulking, weather stripping, and using plastic covers.
• Check some of the other major air leakage areas, including: air ducts; window sashes and frames; plumbing utilities and wall penetrations; furnace flues; fireplaces; attic entrances; wall outlets; and recessed light fixtures.
• Make sure your fireplace has tightly fitting dampers that can be closed when the fireplace is not in use.

To make your windows and doors more energy efficient, follow these tips:

• Double-glazed windows (two panes of glass separated by a sealed air space) cut heat transfer by 40-50 percent. In extremely cold regions, triple glazing could be economically justified.
• Single-glazed windows should have storm windows. A wood or metal frame storm window provides a second thickness of glass and a layer of still air that reduces heat transmission markedly.
• Install storm doors at all entrances of the house.
• Weather strip and caulk around all entrance doors and windows to limit air leaks that could account for 15-30 percent of heating and cooling energy requirements.
• Keep the overhead door of an attached garage closed to block cold winds from infiltrating the connecting door between the house and garage.

Range/Oven

• Only use pots and pans with flat bottoms on the stove.
• Include more stews, stir-frys, and other single-dish meals in your menus.
• Develop the habit of "lids-on" cooking to permit lower temperature settings.
• Keep reflector pans beneath stovetop heating elements bright and clean.
• Carefully measure water used for cooking to avoid having to heat more than is needed.
• Begin cooking on highest heat until liquid begins to boil. Then lower the heat control settings and allow food to simmer until fully cooked.
• Cook as much of the meal in the oven at one time as possible. Variations of 25°F still produce good results and save energy.
• Rearrange oven shelves before turning your oven on—and don't peek at food in the oven! Every time you open the oven door, 25° to 50°F is lost.
• There is no need to preheat the oven for broiling or roasting.
• When preheating an oven for baking, time the preheat period carefully. Five to eight minutes should be sufficient.
• Use your microwave oven whenever possible. It draws less than half the power of its conventional oven counterpart and cooks for a much shorter amount of time.
• Use the self-cleaning cycle only for major cleaning jobs. Start the cycle right after cooking while the oven is still hot, or wait until late in the evening when electricity usage is low.

Refrigerator/Freezer

• Keep your refrigerator at 37°- 40° F and your freezer at 5° F.
• Keep your refrigerator filled to capacity, but don't overcrowd to the point where doors cannot be closed or air cannot circulate.
• Vacuum the condenser coils (underneath or behind the unit) every three months.
• Check the condition of door gaskets by placing a dollar bill against the frame and closing the door. If the bill can be pulled out with a very gentle tug, the door should be adjusted or the gasket replaced.
• Do not put uncovered liquids in the refrigerator. The liquids give off vapors that add to the compressor workload.
• Allow hot food to cool before putting it in the refrigerator.
• Plan ahead and remove all ingredients for each meal at one time.
• Try switching off the power-saver switch, if your refrigerator has one. If only a small amount of condensation appears, save energy and leave the switch off.

Dishwasher

• Wash only full loads of dishes, but do not overload dishwasher.
• Scrape food off dishes and rinse them with cold water before placing them in the dishwasher.
• Soak or pre-wash only in the cases of burned-on or dried-on foods.
• Don't use the "rinse hold" feature on your dishwasher when you only have a few soiled dishes.

• Set the thermostat as low as comfort permits. Each degree over 68°F can add 2-3 percent to the amount of energy needed for heating.
• In the heating season, water vapors from bathing and cooking are beneficial because they help humidify the home. Use kitchen and bath exhaust fans sparingly in the winter to keep as much heat as possible inside your house.
• In the winter, the air is normally dry inside your house, which is a disadvantage because people typically require a higher temperature to be comfortable than they would in a humid environment. Therefore, efficient humidifiers are a good investment for energy conservation.
• Locate the heating thermostat on an inside wall and away from windows and doors. Cold drafts will cause the thermostat to keep the system running even when the rest of the house is warm enough.
• Lubricate pump and blower bearings regularly in accordance with manufacturers' recommendations to limit the amount of energy lost to friction and to extend equipment life as well.
• Close heating vents and radiator valves in unused rooms. Make sure that drapes, plants, or furniture do not block registers for supply or return air.
• Tune up your heating system in the fall to make sure that it will operate at maximum efficiency during the cold weather.

Clothes Washers

• Follow detergent instructions carefully. Adding too much detergent actually hampers effective washing action and may require more energy in the form of extra rinses.
• Set the washing machine temperature to cold or warm and the rinse temperature to cold as often as possible.
• Wash only full loads of clothing—but do not overload your machine.
• Sort laundry and schedule washes so that a complete job can be done with a few cycles of the machine carrying its full capacity, rather than a greater number of cycles with light loads.

Clothes Dryers

• Hang your laundry outside when weather permits.
• Clean the lint filter thoroughly after each use.
• Dry towels and heavy cottons in a separate load from lighter-weight fabrics.
• Avoid over-drying. This not only wastes energy, but harms the fabric as well.

• Set your thermostat to 78° F, or as high as comfort permits. When the weather is mild, turn off the AC and open the windows.
• Close your blinds and curtains during the hottest part of the day.
• Close cooling vents in unused rooms and keep doors to unused rooms closed.
• Check and clean or replace air filters every month.
• Clean the outside condenser coil once a year.
• Reduce your usage by 10-20 percent by caulking and weather-stripping your doors and windows.
• Insulate your house.
• Schedule periodic maintenance of cooling equipment by a licensed service representative. A "tune up" in the spring will help the air conditioner run at maximum efficiency during the hot weather.
• Attics must be ventilated to relieve heat buildup caused by the sun. If necessary, improve attic airflow by adding or enlarging vents.

One of the biggest energy users in your home, next to heating and cooling systems, is your hot water system. To become more energy efficient with your water heater, follow these tips:

• Reduce your water heating bill by 10 percent by lowering the water heater temperature from 140°F to 120°F. (Keep the temperature at 140°F if you use a dishwasher without a temperature booster.)
• Once a year, drain a bucket of water from the bottom of the water heater tank. This gets rid of sediment, which can waste energy by "blocking" the water in the tank from the heating element.
• Locate water heaters as close to the points of hot water usage as possible. The longer the supply pipe, the more heat is lost.
• Insulate your hot water supply pipes to reduce heat loss. Hardware stores sell pipe insulation kits.
• Consider buying a water heater insulation kit, which reduces the amount of heat lost through the walls of the tank.
• Repair any leaky faucets promptly.
• Use sink stoppers instead of letting water run while shaving and washing dishes.
• Take showers instead of baths.
• Set the washing machine temperature to cold or warm and the rinse temperature to cold as often as possible.
• Wash only full loads of clothing and dishes—but do not overload machines.
• Scrape food off dishes and rinse them with cold water before placing them in the dishwasher.

Electric (and Cordless!) Lawn Mowers

• Electric lawn mowers offer a cleaner and quieter way to mow your lawn. No more gasoline storage containers or engine oil problems to worry about. In addition, it costs less to operate the electric mowers than gasoline powered mowers (about $0.52 per hour for gasoline mowers, assuming $2.50 per gallon of gas, versus $0.05 to $0.14 for electric mowers).
• Many state environmental agencies, along with utilities, have sponsored gasoline-powered lawn mower "trade ins" for coupons to purchase electric lawn mowers, since the environmental benefits are so significant.

Electric Bicycles

• Electric bicycles look like regular bicycles, except that they have a re-chargeable battery attached. This allows people in hilly areas to use their bicycles more and leave their cars at home. In many developing countries, urban pollution from vehicles using uncontrolled gasoline engines is a serious problem, which can be alleviated by commuters switching to electric (or regular) bicycles.

Electric Vehicles

• Electric vehicles are the only cars and trucks that can be classified as zero-emission vehicles, from the tailpipe to certain power plants (such as hydro-electric, wind, solar, and geothermal). According to studies performed by the Department of Energy's Argonne National Library, electric vehicles reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 31 percent in the Northeast Region (based on current, not future, power plants) and by 46 percent in the West Coast Region, when compared to reformulated gasoline. If the customer chooses a renewable source of energy or nuclear power, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by nearly 100 percent. There are now efforts underway to advance the use of plug-in hybrid vehicles, which can increase the efficiency of hybrid vehicles to more than 100 miles per gallon!