Energy Conservation at Home (9 Tips from ENERGY STAR)

February 16th, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

It’s fun to write about all the breaking news on cleantech, get caught up in the policy issues, and examine cleantech growth around the world, but when it comes down to it, one of the best things we can do to live lighter is cut our home energy consumption. To help you with your home energy conservation efforts, he EPA’s ENERGY STAR communications manager, Denise Durret, recently wrote a guest post on just this topic for sister site sustainablog. I think it’s worth a review (and worth a friendly share, too!):

Keeping Home Electricity Use Down | Sustainablog (via sustainablog)

Home Energy Conservation is Easy — Just Do It!

Home energy conservation is simple, easy, and makes a world of difference. The tips above can mostly be set as habits within a few days, or a few weeks at the least. As for the products, consider what you’re buying when you buy and make sure to burn the product tips above into your mind! You can shop for energy efficient TVs, energy efficient refrigerators, energy efficient dryers, and efficient washing machines on our partner channel, Enervee.

And remember, such energy conservation decisions don’t only help the environment, but can also help you save a ton of money!

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Tags: computers, Energy Star, home energy, home energy conservation, quickies, save energy, tvs

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Bob_Wallace

” many of those old TVs are replaced by big, flat-panel versions that use double the energy”

How about we go slow on that claim? My sister recently bought a 55″ TV that pulls only 40 watts. My old 20″ CRT computer monitor pulled 150 watts. In 2008 the average 25″ TV used 150 watts.

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I’ve checked my newer power bricks with a Watt-O-Meter and they pull no power when the connected device is not being used. That includes battery chargers.

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If one wants a larger monitor than a laptop provides then using a netbook is a good alternative. My ASUS netbook pulls only 15 watts. I plug in a 20″ monitor (35 watts), external keyboard and trackball.

All the functionality of a desk top with a lot less power usage. Plenty of processing power for internet/word processing stuff. I can process RAW images fairly fast.

And it travels well. Hardly notice it in my pack.

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Missed here – light bulbs. It’s time to switch out the most used lamps to CFLs or LEDs. CFLs are the best value right now but LEDs are coming on strong. About 11% of residential power use goes to lighting. We could cut that by 75% and save money at the same time.
http://blog.sustainablog.org/ Jeff McIntire-Strasburg

Thanks for the share, Zach… I was thrilled that Denise was willing to do this for us!