Taking steps to reduce your energy use can pay off—both
economically and environmentally—by reducing your utility bills
and cutting your household’s greenhouse gas emissions. Follow
these four easy steps to start saving. 1. Conduct a home energy
audit and make a list of potential projects to reduce your
household energy use. Many utilities will send out a technician,
often for free, to assess your home’s efficiency and provide a
report and recommendations for efficiency upgrades. If you’re
off the grid, or your utility doesn’t offer audits, you can
perform an energy audit yourself, using the online Home Energy
Saver program (see Access). 2. Estimate the cost, energy
savings, time and degree of difficulty, and greenhouse gas
reduction for each project. For this article’s projects,
financial savings in fuel in the first year are based on the
projected kilowatt-hours (KWH) saved, and multiplied by 10 cents
per KWH—my cost for utility electricity. The projected 10-year
fuel savings assumes a 10 percent rise in fu