POWER-SAVING TIPS – HOME

Electronics

• Use your computer’s power management features to ensure it shuts down when not in use to save between $40 and $80 annually in electricity.
• If you’re in the market for a new computer, choose a laptop to save $25 in electricity yearly.
• Buy an ENERGY STAR television to save 30 percent in energy costs.
• Choose ENERGY STAR for your entire computer system (monitor, computer, printer, and fax) to save $115 in energy costs over the lifetime of your equipment.
• Look for the ENERGY STAR logo on all battery-powered devices you’re considering buying, whether it’s a power tool, a new electronic device, or a household appliance. These will come with battery charging systems that are 35 percent more efficient than standard models.
• Install a power strip to completely power-down all electronics, including televisions, computers, monitors, DVDs, VCRs, and set top boxes when they’re not in use. Although it’s difficult to estimate how much this will save one home since it depends on the quantity and efficiency of your electronics and the price of your power, as a nation, this could cut $750 million from our annual electricity bill.
• Choose an energy efficient television model to save $30+ every year on energy costs.
• If you’re television uses 130 watts, and your cable box 35 watts, and your electricity costs about $0.08 per kWh, one hour of television watching might cost $1.42. Save money by encouraging your kids to have one Green Hour every day away from the television and pocket the energy savings.
• LCD televisions are generally more efficient than plasma TVs, so choose a more efficient option to save up to $60 every year in power consumption.
• Choose a television with an energy-saving standby feature (and make sure it’s activated!) to save between $10 and $40 every year in electricity costs.

Appliances

• Use cold water for washing laundry to save up to $63 every year in energy costs.
• Choose an ENERGY STAR washing machine the next time you need to replace your old one to save $145+ every year on utility bills. If your washer is 10+ years old, it’s time to replace.
• Look for the ENERGY STAR label on a new dehumidifier to save $20/year or $250 over the life of the unit.
• ENERGY STAR dishwashers cut energy costs by $30 over other models yearly.
• A front loading washing machine uses less energy for spinning than top-loaders and could save you up to $100 annually in electricity costs. Front-loaders also use less water and less detergent, saving you even more.
• Close to 90 percent of the energy used for washing laundry is for heating the water, so wash your laundry in cold water to reduce energy consumption for that load by 50 percent.
• Hang your laundry to dry instead of running the clothes dryer to save $135 in energy yearly.
• Choose a dryer with a temperature sensing control (rather than just a time-drying mechanism) to save 10 percent on drying costs. A moisture-sensing dryer will save 15 percent.
• Empty the lint screen on your dryer to save 30 percent or more on drying energy.
• Choose a gas dryer for your laundry; gas dryers cost between 15 and 20 cents per load, whereas an electric dryer costs between 30 and 40 cents per load.
• Water costs energy, and hand washing requires more water—using your dishwasher could cut your water use by 37 percent.
• Choose the “air-dry” rather than the “heat-dry” setting on your dishwasher to save 15 to 50 percent off the energy used for a load of dishes. Save even more by just propping your dishwasher open to avoid drying altogether.
• When buying a new dishwasher, choose one that comes with a booster heater for warming the incoming water from 120F to 140F. This allows you to reduce your water heater’s temperature to 120F without compromising on your dishwasher’s cleaning ability, and could save 10 percent in dishwashing energy costs.
• Don’t use the “rinse hold” feature on your dishwasher as this uses 3 to 7 more gallons of hot water each cycle it runs.
• Use your microwave to re-heat or cook food to save on cooking energy costs by 50 to 65 percent.
• Do small baking jobs in your toaster oven rather than an electric oven to cut your energy from 2.0 kWh to 0.9 kWh and save 50 percent in energy costs.
• A crockpot uses less than half the energy than an electric oven, and just over half of the energy of an electric convention oven.

Lighting

• Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which use 65 to 80 percent less energy and last 8-10 times longer. CFLs are a bit more expensive up front, but by replacing the five most-used bulbs in your home with CFLs, you will save $60 yearly.
• Choose light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to cut lighting energy use in both outdoor and indoor fixtures by 75+ percent. These bulbs last 22+ years and because they use solid-state technology, they’re virtually indestructible.
• Obtain the ENERGY STAR Advanced Lighting Package (ALP) designation for lighting throughout your home and save $65/year or 75 percent in energy costs.
• Use ENERGY STAR qualified strings of light-emitting diode (LED) decorative lights for your holiday decorating. These strings cost more up-front, but will use 75 percent less energy than conventional strands and last 10 times longer (they’re unbreakable!).
• Install light timers or motion sensors in rooms like your bathrooms, closets, the garage, or even hallways to save on lighting energy costs by between 35 and 45 percent for those fixtures.

Heating/Cooling

• Adjusting the shades on your windows can help to reduce heat transfer. Keep the shades raised during daylight hours in winter months to allow the sun’s heat into your home, and lower the shades during the day in summer months to keep solar heat out. This could cut your heating and cooling bills between $10 and $100 annually depending on your local climate, efficiency of your windows and shades, and direction your home faces.
• Seal air leaks around your windows and doors, recessed lighting fixtures, ducts, plumbing and utility access points, water and furnace flues, electrical outlets and switches, and chimney flashing with caulking, weather stripping, and other weatherizing products. Energy savings will vary, but can be estimated with the Home Energy Saver Calculator.
• Install an ENERGY STAR programmable thermostat to save $180 in heating and cooling costs every month. These devices regulate your home’s temperature for you on a pre-set schedule.
• Replace old heating and cooling equipment with ENERGY STAR models to reduce your heating/cooling costs by $200 annually.
• Install a geothermal heat pump to heat and cool your home and save $600 in heating/cooling costs over the 20-year life of the system.
• Purchase an ENERGY STAR ceiling fan to reduce your energy costs by 50 percent and save more than $15/year on each cooling unit.
• Save up to 50 percent on energy bills by upgrading your old air conditioner with a new, more efficient model.
• If your heating ducts travel through uninsulated or unheated spaces like an attic or crawlspace, you could be losing energy. Improve your home’s efficiency by as much as 60 percent by insulating these ducts.
• Incorporate passive solar designs—large insulated windows on south-facing walls, thermal mass materials for absorbing heat, etc—and you could lower your heating costs by more than 50 percent.

Hot water

• Add an insulation wrap to your hot water tank for about $20. This investment will pay for itself in a couple of months, and will then continue to save you money for years to come.
• Install a tankless (also called on-demand) water heating to save between $160 and $200 annually.
• Taking a shorter shower will reduce the amount of hot water you consumer on a monthly basis. And since it takes energy to heat and store your hot water, a shower timer can reduce your family’s utility costs by $25 for every minute less each person takes to get clean.
• Install four faucet aerators and two low-flow showerheads to save $255 every year.
• Hot water used for showering adds to your monthly water heating bill, so using less water to shower will reduce that utility expense. A low-flow showerhead can cost between $8 and $50 and will save you around $200/year depending on your water and energy costs.

Whole house

• Replace old windows with ENERGY STAR qualified, high-efficiency, double- or triple-pane windows to cut heating and cooling costs by $125 to $340 yearly.
• Replace household equipment with ENERGY STAR models to save $450 every year in energy costs.
• According to The Carbon Buster’s Home Energy Handbook, a $150 tune-up can save the average homeowner 12 percent in heating costs, and save on average $385 every year.
• Add storm windows to your home to reduce heat loss during the winter by 25-50 percent.
• Buy a green-certified home to reduce your overall energy consumption from an average of 16,000 GJ to 6,400 GJ.

POWER-SAVING TIPS – LIFESTYLE

Transportation

• Remove weighty items from your trunk to improve your mileage by 1-2 percent for every 100 pounds removed.
• Take public transit instead of driving to work and you could cut your transportation costs by $8,000 annually.
• Opt to carpool with a fellow co-worker one day every week to shave $339 from your commute every year.
• Driving on underinflated tires will subtract 0.4 percent from your overall vehicle fuel efficiency. Doing a monthly check of your tires can save you 7 cents/gallon.
• For every 5 miles per hour you slow down on the highway, you’ll improve fuel consumption by 7 -23 percent and cut fuel costs by $0.17-$0.56/gallon.
• Stop idling your car and save $0.01/gallon for every two minutes your car is shut off.
• When looking for a new vehicle, purchase the most fuel-efficient in the class you’re interested in to save $300-$700 every year in fuel costs.
• Join a car share program and realize up to $6,500 in savings every year over owning and maintaining your own vehicle.
• Choose to telecommute to work just one day every week to reduce your gasoline costs by $1,000 every year.
• Choose a more vehicle that gets 30 mpg rather than 20 mpg to cut fuel costs by $3,050 in five years!
• Drive less aggressively (foot lightly on the pedals) and you’ll raise your gas mileage by as much as 33 percent, saving you between $0.12 and $0.81 per gallon.
• Maintain your vehicle by having it tuned-up regularly to improve fuel economy by 4 percent, which will save you $0.10/gallon.
• Reduce the total number of miles you drive each month by combining trips or choosing alternative forms of transportation (walking or public transit, for instance). Reduce the total miles by 5 percent to save up to $65 yearly on gas costs.
• Remove your unused roof rack or carrier to improve fuel economy by 5 percent.
• During your next oil change, make sure you get the recommended grade of motor oil to improve fuel efficiency by 1-2 percent.
• Your car’s a/c unit will use the most energy when on the maximum setting. Turn it down to improve fuel efficiency by 5-25 percent.

Outdoors

• Plant three trees in optimum shading locations around your home to save between $100 and $250 every year in heating and cooling costs.
• Replace your old pool pump with a more efficient, and properly -sized model to reduce energy consumption by about $100.
• Run your pump for less than 3 hours per day (which will still maintain healthy water quality) to cut this energy consumption by up to 60 percent.
• Install a solar pool water heater for between $2,000 and $4,000. You could receive a return on this investment (compared to a traditional fossil fuel heater) in as little as 1.5 years.
• Install a high-quality pool cover to reduce your pool heating costs by up to 90 percent, which will also cut your water loss to evaporation by 70 percent.
• If you use a portable spa that’s used once a week, decrease the temperature three degrees when not in use to save 5-10 percent in heating costs.

Consumables

• Shop online. Even if your product is shipped via air transport, this can reduce the fuel expended to get the item to you by 40 percent.
• Take books out from your local library rather than buying new books. You’ll pay $20 every year in taxes to support your library and could easily see a return on that investment by borrowing one or two books instead of buying brand new.
• Rent outdoor gear for your next hiking or camping trip. This will cost you much less than purchasing new gear and will save the energy cost of producing new gear that may only get used once or twice each season.
• Growing your own food requires less energy for transporting it to the store and then transporting it home. A $3 package of tomato seeds can grow $60 worth of tomatoes and cut your gas bill, too.
• Manufacturing disposable plastic water bottles requires significant infusions of energy. Choosing to carry water in a reusable water is cost effective and energy-saving, and could reduce your drinking water bill annually by upwards of $1,400.
• Although you’ll have to pay to power-up rechargeable batteries, and they cost more up-front to purchase, overall they will save on energy (it takes more energy to produce disposable batteries). An $80 charger and a $35 package of four rechargeable batteries could save you $670 in replacement costs over disposable batteries.
• Ruminating animals (cows, sheep, goats, etc) add significantly to climate change by emitting a powerful greenhouse gas: methane. Eat one less pound of beef weekly to save $109 yearly in food costs.
• Smoking adds pollutants to the atmosphere and your own body. Quit and you could save almost $1,500 every year.
• Instead of buying take-out food for lunch, bag your own lunch in reusable containers and save between $5 and $6 daily.
• The average American receives 41 pounds of unsolicited mail every year—on paper that requires the removal of trees and the use of energy to produce. Disposing of this unwanted mail costs our country $320 million every year. Cut your aggravation and paper-related energy use by contacting the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to have your name added to the “do not mail” list.
• Buying and trashing thousands of diapers per child adds a significant energy burden to the environment. The average baby will go through $2,000-$3,000 worth of disposable diapers, whereas a three-year supply of cloth diapers will cost anywhere between $300 and $800.

POWER-SAVING TIPS – BUSINESS

Lighting

• Convert your exit signs to use light-emitting diode (LEDs) bulbs. A typical incandescent exit sign will cost $28/year to run, whereas a compact fluorescent exit sign will cost $11/year and an LED exit sign, by far the most efficient, will cost only $4/year. Plus, they last 10 or more years, which will significantly reduce maintenance costs as well.
• LEDs (light-emitting diodes) can be used in a variety of light fixtures—from display lighting to task lighting to outdoor lighting. These bulbs produce no heat (so they reduce cooling costs), are unbreakable, last 35 to 50 times longer than conventional bulbs, and save upwards of 75 percent on electricity costs.
• Install light timers or motion sensors in various rooms throughout your building to garner energy savings: 65percent in locker rooms, 55 percent in large work rooms, 50 percent in rest rooms, 45 percent in file rooms, and 40 percent in small work rooms.
• Replace T12 lamps and magnetic ballasts with T8 lamps to reduce your lighting energy needs by 17-48 percent.
• Choose metal halide lamps (HID) that have pulse start options to reduce energy consumption by 20-30 percent.
• Install dimmable lights combined with daylighting designs to ensure electric illumination is only on when outdoor light is insufficient. This could reduce your lighting energy costs by 22 percent, and cut cooling demand by $1.13 per square foot.

Electronics

• Purchase an energy efficient copier that has a power-saving “sleep” mode enabled to save $170+ in lifetime energy costs.
• ENERGY STAR copiers are 25 percent more efficient than standard models and could save American businesses $3 billion in energy costs over the next five years. That’s similar to taking 4 million cars off the road.
• Choose a duplexing copier to save on paper and energy costs. Lifetime paper cost savings could be up to $920 per copier.
• ENERGY STAR computers use much less energy when they’re in standby and when their active than standard models. If all computers purchased in the US were ENERGY STAR, we’d save $2 billion every year in electricity costs, which would be like taking 2 million cars off highways.
• If you’re looking for a new digital duplicator for your business, opt for an ENERGY STAR model to cut energy consumption by 25 percent.
• If your business manages its one servers, go for ENERGY STAR models to cut energy use by 30 percent.  These models can save as much as 1,000 kWh or $500 over a five-year period per server.
• External power adapters used to power small electronics like laptops can suck huge quantities of energy. An ENERGY STAR model uses 30 percent less energy.
• Your mail room’s mailing machine may be costing you energy unnecessarily. Choose an ENERGY STAR model that’s 25 percent more efficient than standard models.
• Equip each workstation with ENERGY STAR systems, including monitor, computer, printer, and fax machine to save $115 in energy costs over the lifetime of each system.
• Small business owners and big corporate headquarters alike can benefit from purchasing all-in-one printer-scanner-fax machines with the ENERGY STAR label. These use 25 percent less energy and save $115 in energy costs over the course of their lives.
• Cell phone and PDA chargers turn nearly 90 percent of the energy they draw into heat. Have employees unplug them while they’re not in use. If just 10 percent of all cell phone chargers in the world were unplugged, we’d save enough energy to power 60,000 European homes every year.

Appliances

• An ENERGY STAR commercial dishwasher will save your food service department 25 percent in energy and 25 in water costs every year. On average, that saves companies $850 and $200 for electricity and water respectively per unit.
• Restaurant-owners take heed: ENERGY STAR commercial fryers are 15 percent more energy-efficient than standard models, saving most owners $600/year for gas fryers and $80/year for electric fryers.
• Cook with less energy by choosing an ENERGY STAR griddle. An electric version could save you up to $190/year in utility costs, whereas a gas model will save $175/year.
• Cut energy consumption for food warming by 60 percent with an ENERGY STAR commercial hot food holding cabinet. These appliances save the average user $430/year in energy costs.
• Put the chill on your energy consumption by choosing an ENERGY START commercial ice machine to save 15 percent on energy consumption (about $100 annually) and 10 percent on water consumption (about $10 annually).
• ENERGY STAR commercial ovens are 20 percent more efficient than standard models, saving most kitchens $190 every year in energy costs.
• Commercial kitchen owners can cut energy consumption and save money with ENERGY STAR commercial refrigerators and freezers. An ES freezer will put $120 back on the books every year and a refrigerator $170 annually.
• Get a big return on your investment by choosing an ENERGY STAR commercial steam cooker to save 50 percent in energy costs or about $550 every year.
• Make the chatter around the water cooler more sustainable with an ENERGY STAR water cooler. These use about 50 percent less energy compared to standard models.

Heating/Cooling

• If you’re installing a new HVAC system for your business, you’ll definitely want to explore ENERGY STAR light commercial equipment, which use 7-10 percent less energy. These could save a 12,000 square foot building between $36,000 and $48,000 over the life of the equipment.
• Install a cool reflective roof that’s ENERGY STAR qualified to reduce the temperature of your lower roof surface by up to 100F and cut your peak cooling demand by 10-15 percent.

Whole building

• Get your building or plant the ENERGY STAR stamp of approval to really get your energy savings into high gear.
• Green roofs absorb stormwater, provide natural habitat for wildlife and recreational space for employees, and can reduce heat gain by up to 95 percent, which reduces cooling costs dramatically.
• Recycling aluminum is 95 percent more efficient than mining new; recycling plastics uses 70 percent less energy than making new plastic products; making paper from post-consumer waste requires 40 percent less energy. So save energy throughout your building by starting a build-wide recycling program.
• Hospitals that opt for reusable products can cut costs and reduce medical waste by 70 percent. When the Staten Island University Hospital adopted this practice, they started saving $1,200,000 in waste management and close to $750,000 in disposable supplies.
• Get a building energy audit and implement the suggested changes to achieve upwards of 50 percent better efficiency of energy use. Buildings that achieve this level may qualify for tax incentives.
• Energy is used for pumping and cleaning water supplies. You can reduce your impact by installing efficient, low-flow faucet aerators throughout your washrooms. They cost between 50 cents and $10 and generally pay for themselves in two months.
• It takes about $400-700 to maintain one acre of lawn. Choosing a low-mow turf variety to reduce the amount of money you spend cutting your building’s lawn dramatically.
• Use an air filter to improve the indoor air quality in your building, which in turn will boost employee efficiency and productivity. An ENERGY STAR air filter will cut energy use by 50 percent and could save $16 or more in energy costs compared to standard models.

Waste and Recycling

• Significantly reduce costs for water at your next conference by offering water in pitchers rather than individual bottles. One MeetGreen conference saved $87,000 with this tip.
• Choosing to purchase milk and cream in bulk rather than in individual packets will cut costs for these products by 62 percent and 50 percent respectively.
• Switch from disposable paper plates and plastic cups to reusable dishes and flatware to cut your meeting and conference costs. The Ford Foundation did so and now saves $10,500 every year.
• Collect and recycle your waste to save on disposal costs and save energy that would otherwise have been used to manufacture something from new resources. The Oakland Coliseum and Arena now collects beverage containers, compostable materials, and garbage saving themselves $80,000 in disposal costs in the first two years.
• All water requires energy for purification and pumping. Reduce the amount your building uses by installing waterless urinals which could save you anywhere from $800 to $40,000 over the lifetime of each unit (depending on how much it’s used).

Travel

• Have your employees stay at Green Seal Certified hotels to ensure your company supports hotels that opt for products are in the top 25 percent in terms of efficiency.
• Both car and air travel are heavy polluting activities for getting to meetings and conferences. Choose to teleconference and you could cut your air travel significantly. Vodafone now requires that all employees justify their travel, a move that has saved the company 20 percent in just one year.
• Help employees carpool to work by offering incentives to those who do. This will save you money, too, since it costs between $2,000 and $5,000 to build a single-surface parking spot, and $10,000-$12,000 to build one spot in a three-story structure. Reducing the number of spots you need by encouraging carpooling can cut these expenses significantly.
• Parking stalls must be maintained at a cost of about 1.5 percent of the initial investment. Reduce the number of parking stalls you need and your maintenance costs, too by offering facilities to employees who bike, walk, or run to work. Divert five parking stalls from cars to facilities for bikers, a company could save anywhere between $10,000 and $60,000 annually.