The cheapest way to save the Earth

2) Unplug. "Electricity tends to come from coal-fired plants," Rangan notes. A few simple steps can significantly reduce how much electricity you use:

• Turn off lights. Check; see below.

• Install dimmer switches. Not yet; it's expensive when you're not a do-it-yourselfer.

• Clean appliances. "Keeping appliances clean is the best way to go green," Rangan says. "Vacuum the coils behind the refrigerator. Keep vents and filters clean. When appliances are clean they don't work as hard." Um, well, my husband is looking into it.

• Unplug computers and chargers if you don't need them. Check.

• Read your electricity bill. Most bills show you your average daily energy consumption in kilowatt-hours (kwh). Check! When I scanned our bill and saw that in our old house we used just 9 kwh on average per day, versus 40 kwh in our new home, I ran around like a madwoman, turning off lights, unplugging cell-phone chargers and switching the setting on our dishwasher to "air dry."

Another terrific way to reduce your carbon footprint is to ask your utility company whether you can get all or some of your energy supply from renewable resources.

"It might cost a few more pennies per kilowatt hour," says Rangan, "but you are making an investment in cleaner energy." Check? Sort of. Some of our electricity comes from wind energy, but we could sign up for a greener package.

More from MSN Money

• Keeping money 'green': Your choices
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• Pay zero in heating bills
• How to fight spam, junk mail and sales calls
• Take the brown-bag challenge

3) Control your temperature. Heating and cooling consume about 45% of the energy in your home, according to an analysis by Consumers Union. Some tips:

• Use a ceiling fan with your air conditioner. By increasing air circulation, you can actually turn up your AC a few degrees without sweating it, says Rangan. Check; we have ceiling fans for the hot days and no AC at all, being in the mountains.

• Seal, repair and insulate heating ducts. Nope; need to hire a pro.

• When you replace your water heater (most don't last longer than 10 years), go for an energy-efficient model. Check; we plan to.

• Replace windows. Check; we just had a contractor give us an estimate. We can't afford the $2,500 to replace all our inefficient windows now, but we hope to by fall. Or maybe we'll go one room at a time.

Now, profit from your savings

The subtitle is "50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying," and Bach does deliver some excellent tips. Some of my favorites:

• Save $500 a year by not drinking bottled water -- and spare our landfills and oceans a deluge of plastic.

• Save $1,400 a year by opting out of junk mail and catalogs -- and shopping less. Bach asserts that Americans get 40 pounds of catalogs per person each year. That's a lot of trees and way too much financial temptation.

• "Green bag" your lunch instead of eating out, and save $5-$10 a day and 12 million plastic salad trays (my extremely scientific estimate). Bach says the yearly savings you'll reap by not paying for takeout and all its nonbiodegradable packaging is $2,250.

Published April 16, 2008

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