The reasons for saving energy in your home are twofold. First, and foremost, it benefits the entire energy grid. If everyone is consuming less energy, less power needs to be created, which, in turn, is generally better for the environment. The second and more selfish reason is that it saves you money and everyone loves to save money.

Here are 10 great ways to save energy:

1. Replace the standard conventional incandescent light bulbs in your house with significantly lower wattage compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). They are available to replace most types of bulbs you would have in your home and as opposed to the 40-100 watts that a standard light bulb would consume, they will use only about 7-27 watts for equivalent light output. Even if you only replace the bulbs in high-traffic areas of your home where the lights are on the most, you will still have noticeable energy savings.
2. Do your electronics have a “sleep” feature? Use it. Most computers and some other electronics have a built-in feature where after a certain time of being idle they will automatically go to sleep, where they use minimal power, but can “wake up” rapidly if needed. On a computer, this is extremely helpful because it can turn off your monitor and spin down your hard disk when you walk away and are done using it.
3. Turn down your water heater. About 15% of average home energy bill is the cost of running the water heater. Turning this down even a little bit can save you at least a few dollars a month and isn’t really noticeable when you’re showering, because you’ll just turn the cold water down a little bit to compensate.
4. Staying on the topic of water, replace your shower head(s) and with low-flow shower heads and install sink aerators. They can be relatively inexpensive to buy, are easy to install, and pay for themselves pretty quickly with the savings on hot water. In our shower, we have a Waterpik that came with it and it’s great.
5. Here’s the last tip to involve savings related to hot water: Do your laundry with cold water. There’s detergent formulated specifically for cold water laundry and it does a good job. The combination of doing your laundry in cold water as well as the hot water saving techniques I mentioned above can save you a cool (pun intended) $60+ a year.
6. Buy products with the Energy Star^© logo. These products meet strict government guidelines for energy efficiency, so they’re pretty much guaranteed to shrink your energy bill as compared to the same product without the logo. You can get just about anything with this logo on it: refrigerators, TVs, cell phones, heaters, air conditioners, fluorescent lighting, and much much more.
7. Got a house with older windows and doors? Stop by the local hardware store and pick up some weather stripping for your doors and windows. During the winter, it’ll keep the hot air in and increase the efficiency of your heater and, likewise, will keep the cool air in during the summer and increase the efficiency of your A/C.
8. Check, clean, and/or replace your air filters on a regular basis. The dirtier they are, the more airflow is restricted, and the harder the heater or A/C will need to work to heat or cool your house. Not only does a dirty filter cause your equipment to work harder, but it’s likely going to shorten its life.
9. Install a programmable thermostat. It will allow you to automatically set the temperature of your house at comfortable levels while you’re home, while turning it down when you’re at work. From personal experience, I can guarantee that they’re easy to install for even the newest of homeowners.
10. Last, but not least: Turn stuff off! Not watching TV anymore? Turn if off. Done with the computer? Turn it off (or put it to sleep). Not using a room in your house at the moment? Turn off the lights. It’s not that hot outside? Turn off the A/C, open the windows, and get some fresh air.

I hope the above list is helpful to whoever reads it, if anyone even does. I will admit that I haven’t done all of these things in my home (yet), but I’ve only been a homeowner for a few months now and will slowly do my best to save any energy I can.