You do not have to be a celebrity to go Green. Its the 26th of the month and my PG&E bill is still less than $76.00. Extrapolate it and its going to be less than $100 for the month of October. A far cry from last year. Want to know how to save electricity without letting go of the luxuries of life? Winter is just around the corner. Here are the top 5 easiest ways to save energy. Before you read on, please note the disclaimer¹!

    #5. Get a digital thermostat.

Throw away the rusty old analogue thermostat. It's easy to install a digital one and save at least 40% off your heating/cooling bills. Even though I rent my home and I'm very wary of installing anything that would require more than an hour of my time(or give the land-lord free money), a digital thermostat from Honeywell turned out to be less than 5 minute Do-It-Yourself installation and has saved me plenty of money. Wondering why? Here are the advantages of a digital thermostat:

Accurate temperature sensing. An analogue thermostat can have +/- 20% error in sensing temperature over a long time-period.
    A digital thermostat can be programmed. For example, to keep the home at 77 °F between 6-9PM, lower the temp to say 74°F at night when you are safely tucked in bed, raise the temperature again in the morning and even switch the heater off during daytime when nobody is at home! Of course, if its a Saturday or Sunday, the thermostat knows that too! And in summer, the thermostat knows when you are coming home from office, it can keep the home cool just when you need it. From my measurements, a digital thermostat can save you more than 40% off heating/cooling costs.
    Built-in Eco-Star certified programs mean, most digital thermostats already come pre-programmed with efficient and convenient schedules. You won't notice a difference but your energy consumption will.
    Remote temperature sensing gives outside temperature directly to your thermostat. The amount of gap-heating/cooling that the heater/cooler needs to do depending on the external temperature is known much more precisely instead of the guesswork when one keeps fiddling with an analogue thermostat everyday just because today's temperature doesn't feel right!

 

    #4. Switch to CFL bulbs. Get rid of dimmers.

Hit the Costco or Walmart and get those mega-packs of 18 Watt CFL bulbs. And change them in one shot. Don't cringe on spending money for a good brand. I would always buy a Philips Natural light or GE Home Bright since I'm very particular about avoiding the irritable violet, bluish white light. Change the entire house's bulbs in one go. It takes less than three months to recover the cost of new bulbs from savings for a 3 bed, 2 bath house. And unlike normal bulbs, CFLs last and last and last.

A downside of using CFLs, you won't be able to use dimmers. Get rid of them. They were not saving you energy anyways. Most dimmers waste more energy in heat rather than save you anything. If you have three way lamps that require 3 way bulbs, you can still use CFLs, just that you may not be able to use one or two positions.

 

 

    #3. Use a switch/multi-switch.

Of all the equipment I have in my room, the standby power drain is more than 370 Watts. Imagine how much of energy is drained throughout the house in standby mode! If you are not going to use the stereo in the night, switch it off, same goes for the printer, the computer  monitor, the XBOX 360, the Wii, the cell-phone charging stations, the Amplifier, the TV, the shredder and whatever else doesn't need to be online all the time!

Yes, I know it is quite difficult to get power strips that have individual on-off switches for every outlet these days. But, you can find them at your local Frys (or other such places).

 

    #2. Automate your home.

This one is a repetition of #2 albeit meant for the DIY geeks. A $100 spent at X10 or amazon can get  you motion sensors, relays and receivers that will switch off equipment, lights, appliances when you are not around and switch them back on as soon as you enter the room.

No more leaving (or forgetting) those lights on all the time in the kitchen or the bathroom and convenience is up the top.

 

 

 

 

    #1. Know your home.

Know how to meter energy usage in your home. Buy a power meter (costs less than $30). Know what appliance in your home uses how much of electricity. If you have an electric dryer, use it sparingly or better still, use a clothesline if you have a backyard. Its green, keeps your clothes in a better shape, they last much longer and you save in more ways than one. Soaking your dishes in water or pre-washing them is 10 times better than using your dish-washer at heavy and high heat cycle.

    #0. If you are a geek, watch your gadgets!

Okay, I know I said 5 reasons and this one is the sixth. This is for those geeks in you (others won't even think '0' counts) that just waste too much power because of constant hunger for more storage, more power and more "cool" machines.  Did you know that a Pentium D class machine can consume almost 800W ? And for the same computing-power, the newer Core 2 duos would hardly consume 200 Watt? Did you know that the Tornado fan you just rigged up added 30 watts to continuous energy drain? Did you know that the CFL lighting that makes your case-mod looks cool also adds 24 Watts per stick as well as more heat to your computer case? And, get rid of those old (multiple) 200 Gig drives that you've kept adding to your computer and get a larger capacity drive(s). Each hard disk consumes as much as 25 Watts at peak usage and each brand has its own power consumption graph. Personally, I prefer the Western Digital 1Tb Eco-Power variable RPM drive.