Lower the temperature

Set your thermostat to the lowest comfortable setting, lower it at night and when you leave your home for longer than two hours. Install a programmable thermostat to help you make those settings automatic. Set your hot water heater to 120 degrees.

Weatherize your home

This can save you up to 10% annually on total energy bills. At a minimum, it involves sealing properly around windows and doors, and using mastic to seal ducts in unheated crawl spaces and basements. You can go further and use a tool called a blower door to performance test your home and find leaks (a blower door is a big fan that is placed in a doorway and sucks the air out of the house to create drafts, making it easier to find where sealing is needed).

Insulate ceilings, walls and ducts in unheated spaces

Each year the amount of energy lost through uninsulated homes in the United States is the equivalent of the amount of oil delivered annually through the Alaskan Pipeline. Millions of homes built prior to the 1970s have no or substandard insulation. Insulating your home is easy and can pay you back on your energy bills in two-to-five years. Even insulating within existing walls is relatively easy and cost effective. Brad Liljequist, the zHome project manager, had the walls of his 1925 bungalow insulated — it took three hours, cost about $900, reduced his heating bills by a third, and paid itself off in two years!

Replace incandescent bulbs with
compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs

About 80% of the energy used in incandescent bulbs goes into generating heat, rather than light. CFLs use up to 75% less energy than incandescents — a 100 watt CFL equivalent used four hours a day saves over $60 a year! The potential gain and simplicity of this fix makes it worth it. CFLs have improved dramatically over the last couple of years, with better start up, light quality, and lower prices, and they come in a variety of sizes and styles. Do an incandescent bulb purge!

Replace old furnaces with ENERGY STAR qualified furnaces,
or at a minimum, keep your older furnace properly serviced

Many older natural gas furnaces convert only 50% to 60% of the energy used into heat. New ENERGY STAR labeled furnaces convert more than 90%. Replacing your furnace can save $100 a year.

Replace hot water heaters with natural gas
high efficiency or tankless hot water heaters

New high efficiency natural gas water heaters are about 4% more efficient than code standard heaters, but tankless natural gas hot water heaters are even better — about 15% more efficient.

Replace single-paned windows with new
low-e double-paned or triple-paned windows

The exterior of a typical house with single-paned windows loses about a third of its heat through those windows. New low-e (a special heat retaining coating), double-paned windows have an insulation value which can be twice that of single paned.

Install ENERGY STAR labeled appliances,
particularly refrigerators

Old refrigerators use up to four times the energy of new ones and ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerators are 40% more efficient than the 2001 average. Please note that some ENERGY STAR appliances are more efficient than others — pay attention to the "percent" column which is the amount the appliance exceeds minimum energy standards — the higher the better.

Get rid of phantom electrical loads

Five percent of total residential electricity use in the United States comes from appliances and electronics which still draw power even when they are turned off. The largest culprits in a typical house are the TV, cable box and printer. To reduce phantom loads, plug items into a switchable power strip that completely shuts off power to the unit. It may be helpful to borrow or purchase a portable plug meter which will tell you how much power various items draw in for both on and off positions (they cost as little as $15, and are a lot of fun!).

Buy Green Power for 100% of your power

In the Pacific Northwest, power comes from a variety of sources: 8% from natural gas turbines, 17% from coal turbines, 69% from hydroelectric, 5% from nuclear and 1% from wind. Natural gas and coal turbines generate enormous amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. Most hydroelectric facilities impact salmon runs. Nuclear waste is difficult to dispose of and creates long-term disposal concerns. Green Power is power from less impactful sources, such as wind, solar, biomass and other sources. In many areas, you can pay an additional amount on your electric bill to support the development of green power sources.