“Saving energy saves you money” is the rallying call of EnergySavers.gov, a website and national education campaign launched by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Ad Council. If you’re looking for ways to save on energy, there’s no better place to start.
The site is packed with ways to save energy around your home, in your car, and at work. From the plain-English explanation of why you need a properly insulated air duct system to the benefits of planting trees on the south and west sides of your home, the site runs through almost everything you’d need to know to save hundreds of dollars a year on your energy bill.
A few gems I was able to find:
- “Carefully positioned trees can save up to 25 percent of the energy a typical household uses for energy.”
- “Unplug battery chargers when the batteries are fully charged or the chargers are not in use.”
- “Idling gets you zero miles per gallon. The best way to warm up a vehicle is to drive it. No more than 30 seconds of idling on winter days is needed.”
- “Keep tires properly inflated and aligned to improve your gasoline mileage by around 3.3 percent.”
- “Use a covered kettle or pan to boil water; it’s faster and it uses less energy.”
But there are literally hundreds of other ways to save money posted around the site. Even if you don’t do everything suggested, you should still be able to find at least one way to save on energy costs. There’s even a database of energy rebates and tax credits that may be available to you.
But there was one thing I didn’t see on the site: a recommendation against using a cable box. If you don’t need one, don’t use one. As we found in our story Study: Cable Boxes Use More Power Than Refrigerators, that little black box near your TV uses a lot more power than you think. If you really want to save on energy, cut out the cable box. (And if you want to save even more, cut the cable entirely. One of the most popular stories we’ve ever done is You Don’t Have to Pay for Cable TV.)
All of the information provided on the site is also available as a free 36-page PDF you can print out or keep on your hard drive: http://www.energysavers.gov/pdfs/energy_savers.pdf.
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