CONSERVATION IN THE HOME

1. First, the biggest energy hog in the house is the refrigerator. It hasta work hardest in the summer, so tweak its performance: Dust off the radiator... those black tubes under it. (The worst place to put 'em!) The fan sucks in dust & the tubes catch it. Insulation is good, but NOT on your radiator!
   . . If you're buying a new one, the most important feature is not the price tag, but the tag inside that tells that model's electrical appetite. An efficient model literally pays for itself. A side-by-side is a crazy design. Very inefficient, & how ya gonna put a frozen pizza in there!? Saw it in half & fold it over!
   . . All the wattage that it takes goes into heat, sooner or later, so you pay again after that --thrice as much-- to pump it outside thru the A-C.
   . . You can insulate it more. You'd hafta cover fiberglass, to look good. Instead, I just save all the bags the newspapers come in, stuff a couple dozen more into each one, & stuff those around the (freezer first) box, between it & the counters. Don't block the fan-flow.
   . . You can set it for the warmest safe level.

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2. Air conditioning.
   . . Night-time cooling strategy: My folks opened the windows at night, "charged" up the basement with cool air, and let the furnace fan circulate it all day. Worked great. Now, it's different; you run the A-C all day. In the evening, it might feel cooler outside --the thermometer sez so-- but the humidity gets higher as the temp goes down. When you start the A-C the next morning, it hasta work hard for hours (with your $) to dry out the indoor air, & carpets, & furniture, etc.. That's before it can do much cooling. Better to keep the dry air sealed in the house, get a programmable thermostat & have it come on at dawn, when it's coolest out, & can work easiest.
   . . A gas range takes loads more electricity than an electric! Sound crazy? Hint: this applies only to an air-conditioned space. ... A gas range dumps a huge volume of hot gasses into the room, which your A/C has to work hard to remove. An electric confines most of its heat to the pot/pan. A microwave even skips heating the pan!

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3. When the forecast sez rain, switch off your sprinkler system! The city actually docks you on the sewage rate, too, based on your water usage. They figger what goes in, goes out....
4. Go flourescent. Replace those bulb-burners with cool new tubes that screw right into old sockets. They'll outlast a dozen bulbs, & remember, every watt a bulb burns into heat requires three more watts to pump outa the house.
5. Same for a Windows computer. The CPU is hot --run the Rain program. Want a new monitor? Consider a flat-panel, which takes 1/4 the wattage, or less. Should last longer, too.
6. Get a few electro-luminescent night-lights. (NO bulbs.) They're flat plates, & glow a soft blue. They consume essentially no electricity! They stay cold. No on/off switch! I have a dozen. They often obviate switching on a big light.
7. A front-loader clothes-washer costs more, but pays for itself. Clothes last longer. The machine lasts longer. They use half the detergent, & leave half the water in the clothes for the dryer to get out. Gas is the best clothes dryer. On its way in, run those big copper pipes around a gas water heater's exhaust-pipe, to pre-heat the water! --in northern winters, it comes in COLD!! Wrap those --and the whole heater-- in a fiberglass blanket kit. Don't block the vents.
8. New house-heater? Get hi-efficiency -- at least 90%. If yours --working well, even-- isn't at least 80%, calculate what 90% would save you. (Electric heat is just crazy!)
9. Find some fiberglass scraps, or cheap at a garage sale? Grab 'em, throw 'em in your attic, or tight around the freezer.
10. Electric is the best lawn-mower. A mower should last twenty years without any repairs! No pouring gas near a hot muffler! Never run out of gas. No oiling. No tune-ups. No smoke. Much less noise. Never fails to start! Instant stop, to talk to a neighbor. I even have an electric snow-thrower!
11. All this just might get you a better price when you sell the house! Some buyers wanna know how much it costs to run those meters!