Saving Energy!

[Bigpineguy Retired]

Fight the Light! <br />
<br />
Don't leave lights on when no one is in the room. If you are going to be out of the room for more than five minutes, turn off the light. <br />
If you know of a light that...

[Bigpineguy Retired]

Outside the House

Remember how saving water saves energy? Use a broom instead of a hose to clean off the driveway, patio or deck - this will save hundreds of gallons of water each year.
If you only have a small lawn, consider getting a manual push mower. It doesn't use any energy except your own. Pushing the mower spins the rotating wheels, which spins the cutter. Consider it good exercise!
Don't use an electric or gasoline leaf blower. Instead, use a rake.
If you need to leave a security light on over night, change the incandescent bulb to a compact fluorescent. It will last months and maybe years and save you energy and money. Some compact fluorescent bulbs even come in yellow so they won't attract bugs.
Think About What Your Family Buys

If you buy things that can be used over and over instead of buying disposable items that are used once and then thrown away, you will save precious natural resources. You'll also save energy used to make them, and you'll reduce the amount of landfill space we need when they are thrown away.
Those same savings happen you buy things that will last instead of breaking right away. Well-made items may cost a little more to begin with, but they are usually worth the money because they last for a long time, and you don't have to replace them.
When your family goes shopping, think about taking bags with you. Only about 700 paper bags can be made from one 15-year-old tree. A large grocery store can use that many bags before lunch! Plastic bags start out as either oil or natural gas. Oil and natural gas are non-renewable resources. This means they can't be reused, and when they are all gone, they are gone forever. And throw-away bags add a lot of pollution to the environment. If plastic and paper bags are used once and go to landfills, they stay there for hundreds of years Some stores offer discounts for people who use their own bags. For every bag reused, they give money back - usually about five cents for each bag.
With your parents, pick a spot in your house to store bags that you get from the grocery store. These bags can be used to carry things to friends' houses or for trash linings. After bags wear out, recycle them.
Other Recycling Tips

Make a scrap-paper pad. Gather pieces of used paper the same size with the blank side up. Find a piece of cardboard the same size as the paper and put it at the back. Staple the whole thing together, and use it as a place to write down grocery lists or things to do.
If every American recycled his or her newspaper just one day a week, we would save about 36 million trees a year. You can save a tree for every four feet of paper you recycle. It takes half as much energy to make recycled newspaper as it takes to make fresh newsprint from trees.
Recycle your newspapers. (Check to see if recycling centers want them tied together or in bags.) Anything that comes with the newspaper can also be recycled (except magazines, which must be recycled separately).
* Recycle your old notebook paper. It is considered "white paper," and makes better recycled paper. "White paper" is writing paper, notebook paper, white envelopes, typing paper, index cards, computer paper, and white stationary.
Cereal boxes, egg cartons, wrapping paper are called "mixed paper." All these things can be recycled. Mixed paper can be made into paperboard, the paper that is used on roofs.