There is also one more reason to do these money saving tasks. Cutting down on electrical power use is really efficient in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Regrettably, within the united states, most of our electrical power comes from inefficient coal plants. Coal is really a high carbon fuel, and compared to other power sources, coal-fired plants create lots of carbon dioxide relative to the quantity of power they create. If we're all concerned about climate change, we really need to be putting some of our efforts into shutting down coal plants. Instead we are on course to build more of them, a large number of them. Simply because of this, we all really need to aggressively try to trim our electrical power use if we wish to decrease gases. Many individuals are going to find a number of kilowatt hours that could be saved effortlessly and cheaply with minimal way of life modifications. We get our electrical power from a coal-fired plant, so all the projects we can do around our homes can substantially decrease the quantity of greenhouse gases we create. Keep in mind that the projects we save electrical energy on, decrease greenhouse gases by about 2 pounds of carbon dioxide per 1 kWh of power saved. For instance, putting our two house computers on a power diet, so to speak, saved nearly 1,800 kWh per year and 3,500 pounds of greenhouse gas.

Some tasks that may have a large impact right away would be to:

Add more attic insulation

Add more crawl space insulation

Purchase a brand new, energy efficient clothes washer

Purchase a brand new, energy efficient refrigerator

Install storm windows

Install thermal shades

Be sure to turn off everything!

Keep your utility bills so you are able to see the progress you are doing. Keeping these bills will also be helpful should you sell the house to show its improved energy efficiency.

Just remember to have fun at this and do not make it out to be a huge chore and always remember to keep track of your progress so you can be proud of the results, this will be your incentive to keep improving.