• Set it & Forget it: Set your heating unit thermostat at the lowest comfortable temperature and leave it.
• Bundle up: If you are feeling cool this winter, don’t turn up your heating system’s thermostat to warm up. Instead, put on a sweater or sweatshirt. If you put on a light, long-sleeved sweater, you will feel two degrees warmer. A heavier sweater makes it feel about four degrees warmer and two lightweight sweaters can make you feel five degrees warmer.
• Monthly monitoring: Check the furnace filter each month, and clean or replace it as needed. Dirty filters block air flow through your heating and cooling systems, increasing your energy bill and shortening the equipment’s life.
• Body heat: When entertaining a large group of people during the heating season, lower the thermostat a degree or two before the guests arrive. Otherwise, since people generate heat, the space may become wastefully overheated.
• Shut 'em: Keep outside doors and windows closed even if you have storm windows and doors on the outside.
  
• Garage advice: Keep the overhead door of an attached garage closed to block cold winds from infiltrating the connecting door between the house and garage.
• No heat needed: Insulate and cover spas and hot tubs. Turn your hot tub heater off when it’s not in use.
  
• Showers are best: Take short showers instead of baths. Showers use less hot water.
• Still warm: Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120 degrees.
• Full and cold: Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes. Wash clothes in cold water only.
  
• Bad sediment: Drain a bucket’s worth of water from your water heater once a year to remove sediment that could negatively affect its efficiency.
• Bulbs: Replace incandescent bulbs (see photo at right). with compact fluorescents.
  
• At night: Close your curtains and shades at night; open them during the day.
  
• On windows: Tape clear plastic sheeting to the inside of your window frames if drafts, water condensation, and frost are present. Also, you can install tight-fitting, insulating window shades on windows that feel drafty after weatherizing.
  
• Kitchen: Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher's drying cycle.
  
• Cyber Savings: Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.
  
• Switch Off: Use power strips to switch off televisions, home theater equipment, and stereos when you’re not using them. Even when you think these products are off, together, their "standby" consumption can be equivalent to that of a 75 or 100 watt light bulb running continuously.
  
• Room to Room: If you have a heat pump, leave vents and doors to unused rooms open to save on the life of your compressor. If you have individual room heat, turn off heat and close doors to unused rooms.
  
• Keep Vents Clear: With a forced-air furnace, blocking a supply or return vent can cause a pressure imbalance in the entire heating system that will disrupt heat flow throughout the house.
  
• Help from a ceiling fan: During the winter, adjust your ceiling fan's rotation to pull warm air from the ceiling.
  
• No holes allowed: Plug those gaps that allow cold air into the house--by caulking, weather-stripping and insulating.
  
• Work those drapes: Wash your south-facing windows and open drapes on sunny winter days. When the sun goes down, close the window coverings to provide extra insulation.
  
  

Give the gifts that will save year around

Holiday gift-giving is heart-warming, full of surprises and fun. It also creates an extra one million tons of waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve every year. Why not consider giving presents that use less energy and create less trash? Some suggestions:

• Give energy-efficient small appliances like kitchen aids and grooming devices.
• Stuff stockings with compact fluorescent light bulbs.
• Look for clothes and products made from recycled materials.
• Bestow blankets, sweaters or scarves that help to hold down heating costs.
• Create a hand-made gift, like a basket of baked goods or fruit, a collection of your family’s favorite recipes, a videotape of family members sharing their favorite stories, or a wreath strung with holly and pine cones.
• Buy something you know the recipient will use: tickets to a ball game or concert; a gift certificate to the video store or grocery store; or a membership in a health club.
  

High setting, faster warming? One common myth is that the higher you set your thermostat when you return home, the faster your furnace will heat up your house. This isn't true since most central heating systems deliver heat at the same rate no matter how high the thermostat is set. So just set your thermostat at the temperature you'd like, and your furnace will heat your home as fast as it can. By turning your thermostat up more than 3 degrees at a time, you will likely cause "strip" or emergency heat coils to turn on, which will cause you to use extra electricity and pay more money on your bill.

Warming up costs? Another myth regards the efficiency of setting your thermostat down when you don't need heating or cooling, such as at night or when no one is home. This myth states that a central heating system works harder than normal to heat your home back to a comfortable temperature after the thermostat has been set back, resulting in little or no savings. This is not true, as has been proven by years of research and field observations. The longer your house stays at a reduced temperature when heating–or at an increased temperature when cooling–the more energy and money you'll save.

This is because your heating or cooling cost depends mostly on the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors. When you adjust your thermostat down in the winter–or up in the summer–you simply reduce this temperature difference. If you set your temperature back while you're asleep or at work, you could see some energy savings on your energy bill.

By the way, you can install a programmable thermostat that automatically adjusts your home's temperature at pre-set times. But you can also achieve savings if you faithfully remember to change your thermostat whenever you leave home or go to bed.

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• On older units, vacuum clean the condenser coils of refrigerators and freezers (in the back or at the bottom of cabinets) every three months or so. Dustcovered coils impair the efficiency of compressor operation and increase energy usage.
• Door gaskets on refrigerators and freezers should seal tightly against the frames to prevent infiltration of warm air. To check the condition of the gasket, place a dollar bill against the frame and close the door. If the bill can be pulled out with a very gentle tug or, worse still, simply drops out on its own, the door requires adjustment, or the gasket needs replacing.
• Some older refrigerators are furnished with a power-saver switch. A heating element provides a small amount of heat that prevents moisture condensation around the edges of the door. Try turning the switch off; condensation, if any, may be slight and unobjectionable. If this is the case, save energy by keeping the switch off.
• Do not place uncovered liquids in refrigerators. In addition to absorbing undesirable flavors, the liquids give off vapors that add to the compressor workload.
• Allow hot foods or liquids to cool off before placing them in the refrigerator. The cooling off period should not hurt the taste of the food and will reduce the load on the refrigerator. (Source: Edison Electric Institute)
  

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• When cooking, keep the lids on pots. Better yet, use a microwave oven.
• Rather than using the oven for preparing small quantities of food, consider cooking in small portable electric appliances such as a frying pan, grill, or toaster oven. On average, these use only about one-third of the electric power of an oven broiler.
• When operating an electric oven, attempt to cook as much of the meal in it at one time as possible. Foods with different cooking temperatures can often be cooked simultaneously at one temperature-–variations of 25 degrees in either direction still produce good results and save energy.
• When preheating an oven for baking, time the preheat period carefully. Five to eight minutes should be sufficient. There is no need to preheat for broiling or roasting.

You may find lost energy dollars in basement and attic

Crawling around your attic or basement searching for ways to cut your energy costs isn't the easiest activity you could choose with all the bending over and tight conditions. But with some study and investment, you could see some real energy savings.

Here's where your energy dollars go?