Energy Conservation Tips

Here are a few low/no cost energy saving tips to help you save money on your utility bills.

Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer.
Don't place lamps or TV sets near your air-conditioning thermostat. The thermostat senses heat from these appliances, which can cause the air conditioner to run longer than necessary.
Plant trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning units but not to block the airflow. Place your room air conditioner on the north side of the house. A unit operating in the shade uses as much as 10% less electricity than the same one operating in the sun.
Using a programmable thermostat, you can adjust the times you turn on the heating or air-conditioning according to a pre-set schedule. As a result, the equipment doesn't operate as much when you are asleep or when the house or part of the house is not occupied. Programmable thermostats can store and repeat multiple daily settings (six or more temperature settings a day) that you can manually override without affecting the rest of the daily or weekly program.
Test your home for air tightness. On a windy day, hold a lit incense stick next to your windows, doors, electrical boxes, plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets, ceiling fixtures, attic hatches, and other locations where there is a possible air path to the outside. If the smoke stream travels horizontally, you have located an air leak that may need caulking, sealing, or weatherstripping.

Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Use task lighting; instead of brightly lighting an entire room, focus the light where you need it. For example, use fluorescent under-cabinet lighting for kitchen sinks and countertops under cabinets.
Turn off the lights in any room you're not using, or consider installing timers, photo cells, or occupancy sensors to reduce the amount of time your lights are on.

After the refrigerator, the dryer is the most inefficient appliance in the home. To reduce the amount of energy we use:

Keep the dryer in a warm part of the house. The machine won’t have to work as hard to generate and maintain sufficient heat.
Dry similar fabrics together. A load of thin, synthetic articles will be done much faster than a mixed load of heavy towels and light-weight sheets.
Take advantage of warm weather by drying clothes outdoors on a clothesline.
Run separate loads consecutively to take advantage of residual heat and use the Permanent Press setting to complete the tumble cycle with leftover heat.
Clean the lint filter after every load.

other appliances:

Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher's drying cycle.
Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.
Plug home electronics, such as TVs and DVD players, into power strips; turn the power strips off when the equipment is not in use (TVs and DVDs in standby mode still use several watts of power - up to 75% of the power it uses while on!).
Lower the thermostat on your hot water heater to 120° F.