Want to go green this St. Patrick’s Day? Start by saving energy, which is a great way to be kind to the environment.
Here are 10 easy, zero-cost ways to add a little “green” around the house:
- Turn off lights when you leave a room or tuck yourself in for the night. Lighting an empty room is a waste of resources and money.
- Load up the dishwasher before turning it on. You’ll use less energy if you run the appliance only when it’s full. A caution, however: Don’t overload the dishwasher, as water needs room to get between the plates, glasses and silverware to do its best work.
- Wash clothes in cold water. Most of the energy your washing machine uses is for heating water.
- Take showers, not baths. Showers use less water than filling a bathtub does. And keep your showers to 10 minutes max to save even more water.
- Unplug appliances when you’re not using them. Appliances continue to use small amounts of electricity when they’re plugged in, even if they’re turned off.
- On warm spring days, turn the air conditioner off and open windows.
- Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120 degrees. That’s the safe temperature recommended by manufacturers.
- Close the damper of your wood-burning fireplace when you’re not using it. An open damper in an unused fireplace sends heated or cooled air from your home up the chimney.
- Move furniture away from heating and air-conditioning vents. If you block them, your HVAC system has to work harder to heat or cool your house. The harder it works, the more energy it uses.
- Switch the directions your ceiling fan blades spin: counter-clockwise for summer; clockwise for winter.