• I’ve removed all the AC units from the windows there’s no chance of 90° weather anytime soon I can get those out of the window.
• I’ve got a space heater a simple oil filled radiator that I can adjust from 1500, 900 or 600 watts.  While it does affect my electric bill I can heat only what I need.   I use a tower fan to blow the heat around a room.
• Socks and blankets are in full swing.  You can pick up a simple blanket at Walmart for less than $10 or go all out and get a Snuggie for $15 to $30.  It’s a little adjustment but it helps
• I’ve been using the oven a bit more.   Baking bread not only tastes great, smells delicious but it’s healthier and warms the kitchen.
• Great Stuff,  this is one of the BEST NAMED products of all time.  Because that stuff you spray and turns to foam and expands while descriptive doesn’t really tell you how great this stuff is.   You can fill in holes and it expands to fill the gaps.  One dry you can cut it with a knife.  I use a serrated steak knife.
• Plastic on the windows – While I would LOVE to replace the windows, the plastic you shrink with a hairdryer is a fast way to get a leaky window nice and warm.

All of this should help warm up my place without costing a lot.

The simplest thing you can do is that anything you don’t have to have powered not only turn off unplug. N Not only is this an energy saver it can save the device in a lighting strike and reduce the risk of electrical fire.  Here is a list of items that you may or may not know use power when you’re gone.  

• DVD/VCR/TV – Yep they use power when ‘off’.  That way they power up quick and respond to the remote.  Although you may have to reset channels and settings.  A couple minutes of that is a small price to pay.
• Tivo/DVR – Unless you REALLY have to have that show while you’re away unplug this. 
• Coffee Maker – Automatic Coffee makers with timers do use a sip of power.
• Air Conditioning/Heat – While it may not be a good idea to shut them off completely. Turning them down/up will save energy. 
• Chargers/Bricks/Transformers – If you don’t need them (e.g. for an alarm system) unplug them.  

Finally to keep your house a little safer using timers is a great idea.  They do use some power but the security bonus is BIG.  Just don’t plug them into an incandescent use a CF or LED bulb. 

So while I’m off on vacation a little planning in energy savings can give you a few more bucks for postcards. 

But now the question is to power down or not power down.  For YEARS I’ve always kept my computer on.  Running day and night.  Haven’t had a problem.  But then if I count the number of hours I am away from the computer and the amount I’m on one I begin to see large gaps that I could theoretically power down.  From my experience as a help desk person powering down your computer does very little in the way of reducing the computers life.  The hard drives spin less, the fans work less and pull in less dust, less heat is generated and a LOT less power is used.  The suspend mode is a good step.  I’ve been using the hibernate function which also works pretty well.  I turn off my computer at night and on in the morning before coffee.  

Now when you’re working on your computer is there a way to reduce your usage.  First run only what you really need to run.  Turn off or uninstall anything you don’t really run.  For example there is a system such as BOINC which allows you to ‘donate’ spare CPU cycles to find alien life, cure cancer and AIDS, find prime numbers and dozens of other projects that ordinarily would require a super computer but instead use the consolidated spare CPU cycles of thousands of volunteers.  While a GREAT way to help projects that would ordinarily not have the computer resources they need. Running these makes your computer work harder and in turn use more electricity.  That cool screen saver that has 3d stuff zooming everywhere looks really cool.  But that also uses a LOT more electricity than the Blank and tons more than the Turn Off Monitor.    

Turn off components you don’t use. Printers unless you’re printing right now turn them off.  They suck power. Unplug unused USB devices (e.g.  your iPod or WebCam) when you’re not using them.  USB powered devices do suck juice from your computer and your wall. 

So in summary

• When turning off your computer cut the power to your peripherals.
• Turn off your computer when not using it.  It WILL survive.
• Don’t run anything extra such as P2P, Grid Computing and Screen savers unless you have to. 
• Turn off and unplug your extras (printers, cameras, mp3 players) when not in use. 

These should reduce your electric consumption.

I have 2 kid who have rooms at the top of the stairs and one really likes night lights.  I also have a disabled wife who needs light when moving about the house.  The way our house is situated we don’t get a LOT of outside light and leaving lights on all the time is NOT a good idea.  So in addition to replacing bulbs I got a bunch of LED night lights with light sensors. My daughter had a nightlight she loves so and was able to find a replacement LED bulb.

I used LED bulbs instead of incandescent and florescent bulbs for energy savings.  While an LED bulb may cost about $2.00 more it lasts 10x as long and uses 1/10 the electricity.  By getting lights with light or motion sensors the lights are ONLY on when darkness prevails.  This is also helpful in some rooms where the compact florescent bulbs take a minute or two to warm up.  You still have a bit of light.  

So far things have been good.  We can still see and we are turning off  more lights but not losing the luxury of illumination.  A stubbed toe is NOT a good thing.

I think my next step with this is to see if  I can get some Solar cells and run some of these lights from solar cells that gather light from the sun and interior lights. Recycling some used light how cool would that be?

To give an idea of the savings I’ll describe what I WAS doing.    Starting awhile ago I was running 1 60W bulbs 12 hours a day in the bathroom ceiling fixture as a night light (this would be on when people would be in the bathroom and during sleeping hours this costs about $30 a year.  I replaced this with a 14W CF which saved about $23 yearly.  Finally I used a 2 watt LED nightlight with a light sensor so it’s ONLY on when its dark.  Running this way costs less than $1 a year TOTAL. 

Another example in the downstairs bathroom I placed another one of these night lights.  Before we would keep the 2 14W CF bulbs burning as they would take about 2 minutes to warm up in the winter and just kept the habit up throughout the year.  This cost almost $30 a year the 2W nightlight runs about $2 a year.  Granted we DO turn on the overhead lights still but now we are in the habit of turning them off during the day and at night when we are not in the bathroom.  The warmup period is also not that bad as we have the nightlight to compensate. 

With this in mind we’re starting to only run the hot water when we ABSOLUTLY need it.  This means making sure that when we use faucets with only one handle its ALL the way to the cold side. Even a little bit of hot water will be a big waste as it simply sits in the pipe and cools.