Ten Remarkably Easy Ways to Save Energy—and Money—at Home

It’s not surprising that energy-saving measures don’t rank high on most people’s lists of appealing home projects. After all, saving energy does not necessarily improve a home’s appearance or make it more comfortable. The benefits of energy-saving improvements can feel invisible and insignificant, because we don’t see all the oil or natural gas that is burned to provide us with heat, or the dirty coal that generates much of our electricity.

Yet energy saving deserves close attention because it can simultaneously save us money while benefiting society. The typical American household spends $1,400 annually on energy for the home—electricity, natural gas, oil, and wood. Most of us in New England pay even more because of our long winters and relatively high energy prices. So even a 10 or 20% reduction in energy consumption can have a significant financial payback.

Here are ten easy energy-saving measures, none requiring more than a few hours and some just a few minutes. In fact, they are so easy and logical, it’s hard to think of reasons, other than inertia, not to implement them.

Wash Your Clothes in Cold Water

Ninety percent of the energy used to wash clothes goes to heating the water, not to running the machine, so cold water washes reduce your costs and environmental impacts. Unless clothes are heavily stained, liquid laundry soaps in cold water will get them clean.

Install Compact Fluorescents

Ordinary incandescent light bulbs are horrendously inefficient, since almost all the electricity gets converted to heat rather than visible light. Compact fluorescents are more than three times more efficient. Replacing just one 75-watt incandescent bulb with an 18-watt compact fluorescent will save about 570 kilowatt-hours of electricity over the fluorescent’s 10,000-hour lifetime. And, because fluorescents last many times longer, you won’t have to keep changing the bulb. For each compact fluorescent you install, you’ll probably save between $3 and $15 per year. If you tried compact fluorescents ten years ago and weren’t satisfied, give them another shot, since they now have more appealing light quality and come in more shapes and light strengths.

Use the Microwave

A microwave uses much less energy than a conventional oven. Cooking a casserole in a 350 degree electric oven for an hour requires two kilowatt-hours of electricity and costs 20 cents, while a microwave uses less than one-fifth as much. Although toaster ovens, frying pans, gas ovens, crockpots, and electric convection ovens are all also better than a large electric oven, a microwave is at least twice as good as any of these alternatives.

Weatherstrip and Caulk

Few people get excited by the prospect of spending a Saturday afternoon weatherstripping and caulking, but several hours devoted to this task will likely yield considerable energy savings. Most weatherstripping and caulking materials, such as caulking cord, are cheap and easy to use. Most houses and apartments have small gaps around doors and windows that can be quickly sealed. Your home will feel more comfortable this winter if cold air isn’t sneaking in.

Pull the Plug

Even when they are not in use, many appliances like televisions and VCRs continue to use small amounts of electricity for things like their clocks and instant-on features. If you have a rarely used appliance, such as a TV or clock radio in a guest room, pull its plug and then only plug it in on those rare occasions when it is going to be used. Similarly, consider whether there are lights that are habitually left on, but which are unnecessary.

Switch the Showerhead

If you live in a household where four people each take a seven-minute daily shower, an old-fashioned showerhead that uses five gallons of water a minute will require 51,000 gallons of water each year. New showerheads use less than half as much. By installing a new one, you will save more than 25,000 gallons of water annually and will heat much less water in your home’s water heater. For households in Boston, in addition to saving money on your energy bills, you would see a reduction on your water bills of about $95.

Adjust the Thermostat

The ridicule heaped on President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s for promoting energy conservation by wearing a sweater in the Oval Office has made it difficult to discuss energy-saving measures that risk reducing Americans’ comfort. But it makes good economic and environmental sense to try to keep your home slightly colder in winter and slightly warmer in summer. You may not even notice a small adjustment in your home’s temperature settings. Start by lowering the thermostat one degree in the winter and raising it one degree in the summer. If this doesn’t bother you, increase the adjustments by another degree or two. It will cost nothing to make these changes, and you can save money on your heating and cooling bills.

Get Rid of that Halogen Torchiere

Many people purchased halogen torchieres because they are inexpensive to buy. But because they consume lots of electricity, they are expensive to operate. A single 300-watt halogen torchiere used eight hours a day can cost more than $100 in electricity each year. And halogen torchieres are a fire hazard. According to the Alliance to Save Energy, “The heat produced by these lamps is extreme—reaching 1,000o F , hot enough to fry an egg on top of the fixture.” The Consumer Product Safety Commission found that halogen torchieres caused 189 fires and 11 deaths between 1992 and 1997.

Turn Off the Computer

Some people have gotten into the habit of leaving their computer and other home office equipment on all the time. This wastes energy and money. Turning on and off the computer doesn’t shorten its life. As Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory points out, “The belief that frequent shutdowns [of PCs] are harmful persists from the days when hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off; frequent on-off cycling could damage such hard disks.” The lab’s experts reassure us that, “Shutting down computers at night and on weekends saves significant energy without affecting the performance.” So, if you are going to be away from the computer for several hours, turn it off. In addition, make sure that any power-management features are activated, such as having the screen go dark after 15 minutes of no use.

Choose Efficient Appliances

If you need to buy a dishwasher, television, or other appliance, look for a highly efficient one. As a minimum, you should always choose one with the federal government’s Energy Star label, which means it is significantly more efficient than minimum government standards. But you can do even better than this by looking at the Energy Star website (www.energystar.gov) and finding the best of the efficient appliances. Even if it initially costs a little more, you will very often quickly recover the extra money through savings on your energy bills. And in the case of refrigerators and freezers, even if you have not been planning to replace your existing ones, it may make sense to go out and buy a new efficient model. A new Energy Star refrigerator uses only half as much electricity as a typical 10-year-old one of the same size and with the same features. If your refrigerator is 15 or 20 years old, the savings will likely be even greater. By buying an efficient replacement model, you will likely save $50 or more annually on your electric bills.