13 easy, inexpensive ways to go green

5. Cover the hot tub. Hot tubs lose heat even with the top on. Float a thermal cover ($26) under the hard cover and cut energy use by one-third.

6. Service the furnace. Have your furnace tuned every two years, and you'll save about 1,250 pounds of carbon dioxide and 10% on your heating bills.

7. Turn down the heat. For every degree you lower your home's temperature during the heating season, subtract 5% from your bill, according to the Alliance to Save Energy. An Energy Star programmable thermostat ($70) saves more than twice its price within a year.

8. Set the washer to cold. Use cold water to wash your clothes and save 50% of the energy you would otherwise use for hot water. Set your dryer on the moisture sensor, not the timer, and cut energy use by 15%.

9. Dim the lights. Install light dimmers, which cut electricity use by the same percentage that they lower the light.

10. Stop drafts. As your father would say, don't heat the great outdoors. Put weatherstrip around the frames of your front and back doors and save about $30 per year in energy costs.

11. Lower your water temperature. Set your water heater at 120 degrees. If your heater does not have a temperature gauge, dial down until the water feels hot, not scalding. (Before going too low, make sure your dishwasher has a booster heater, which gets the temperature back to 140 degrees, necessary for proper cleaning.)

12. Insulate pipes. Wrap precut pipe insulation around exposed hot-water pipes, including pipes traveling through crawl spaces.

13. Use timers on lights. Install occupancy sensors or timers on lights in areas you use only occasionally and for exterior lights, which tend to get left on during the day, says Crissy Trask, a green-living consultant in Spokane, Wash. Occupancy sensors start at $20 per switch, light timers at $7. Anyone with basic wiring skills can install them.

How the savings were calculated

Many of these calculations rely on figures provided by Jeffrey Langholz and Kelly Turner in "You Can Prevent Global Warming (and save money!)," updated to reflect an average electricity price per kilowatt-hour of 10.6 cents, the recent national residential average.

This story was reported and written by Jane Bennett Clark for Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine.

Published Oct. 5, 2007

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