Save energy. Save money

Conserving energy is easier than you might think. Here are a few simple tips.

1. Close your blinds. Window treatments help insulate your home from both the heat and the cold. Drawing the drapes and closing the blinds can lower your energy consumption with the flick of the wrist.

2. Use fans. In the summer, put fans around your house or apartment and turn the AC down. Fans cool people, not entire rooms. A breeze makes the room feel a few degrees cooler. Just be sure to turn it off when you leave the room. In the winter, a ceiling fan is great for pushing hot air down for near the ceiling to where the action is.

3. Unplug. Gadgets like cell phone chargers and microwaves suck energy and generate heat.  Keep them unplugged when not in use. Appliances in standby mode typically account for 5% to 10% of residential electricity use, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Plug these devices into a power strip that can be turned off when not in use.

4. Turn off. Just flip a switch to stop wasting hundreds of watts of power every day.

Use dimmers or decrease the wattage of bulbs. Focus on task lighting instead of general room lighting.

5. Adjust your thermostat. An air conditioner uses a tremendous amount of electricity when it runs. During the summer, you can realize major savings by raising the set temperature to 78 degrees For higher so the air conditioner will run less.

Likewise, turn the thermostat down during the winter (as a rule of thumb, every degree you lower a thermostat's set temperature in the winter will save 3% of energy costs over a 24-hour period.)

6. Watch the refrigerator. It’s a giant energy user. That’s why it should be operated at maximum efficiency. This means opening the door only briefly and adjusting the "Cold" control according to the manufacturer's directions.  Clean the coils to remove excess dust.

7. Use electrical appliances less. Only run an electric dryer with full loads or, even better, air-dry your clothes. Opt for cooking in the microwave instead of with an electric oven. And don't forget to turn off the coffee maker when the coffee is done. When buying new appliances, check the Energy Guide labels to be sure they are energy-efficient models.

8. Turn down the water heater. An electric water heater gobbles up electricity! Crank down the thermostat and save. Obviously, if you have a gas water heater, this tactic will save you gas, not electricity.

9. Change out bulbs. Replace standard incandescent light bulbs with highly efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. They use from about one quarter to one third the energy to produce the same amount of light (a 20-watt compact fluorescent will give you about the same light as a 75-watt incandescent).

10. Let the sun shine. Let Mother Nature help with the energy bills. To increase the amount of natural light that floods a room, bounce it off the ceiling and walls with the aid of louvers or operable blinds (light-toned ceiling, walls and floors work best).

See how easy it is to save energy?