"Efficiency is our largest untapped natural resource," says efficiency guru Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute. It's much cheaper to buy efficiency than energy, so here's a few ways to do that and save money this winter:

- Walk through your house with a lit candle or incense stick. Use it to find any drafts around windows or electric outlets. The flame or smoke will flicker where a draft comes through your wall. Use a caulk gun and a roll of duct tape to patch any holes you find in the walls, windows, baseboards and ductwork. If you were to put all these little holes, cracks and areas around the electric outlets together, you would have about a 3-foot-wide hole in your house, where your heating dollars would flow out.

A typical homeowner might need to invest $1,000 on his home to get it efficient, but he or she can save up to $300 on energy bills each year, states the institute's Home Energy Brief.

- Replace all appliances manufactured before 1994 with Energy Star-rated appliances. That buys about $120 worth of efficiency per year. Put all your small appliances and home theater equipment on power strips. That way you can turn off the strip and eliminate "phantom loads" - energy use by appliances that are plugged in, but turned off. Each little digital readout and blinking light creates a phantom load that can account for up to 20 percent of your energy use.

- A programmable thermostat costs about $40, but will save you up to $100 per year. Spend that on a front-loading washing machine and save 40 cents per load. This quickly adds up and offsets the cost of the new appliance. Using cold water in your washer will save you an additional 20 cents per load. Wash only full loads, using an all-natural detergent to avoid phosphate buildup in the soil and polluted streams.

- Gas clothes dryers are more efficient than electric, but nothing beats a clothes line. Save an additional $1.50 per load by using the sun to dry your clothes outside. If you use a dryer, pull your clothes out of the dryer immediately instead of ironing them. An iron uses as much electricity as 10 100-watt light bulbs. Make sure the dryer lint filter is cleaned between each dryer use to keep it as energy-efficient as possible.

- Keep your refrigerator away from heat sources (including dishwashers and ovens). Leave a few inches of space behind the refrigerator to ensure proper air circulation around the condenser coils, and vacuum the coils at least once a year. Keep the top free of clutter as well for better air flow. Don't keep your refrigerator or freezer too cold, which can waste energy. Recommended temperatures are between 37 and 40 degrees F for refrigerators. Keep the refrigerator and freezer full to better retain the cold. If your refrigerator is fairly empty, store water-filled containers inside.

- Run the dishwasher only when it is full (but don't overfill it). A full dishwasher run without a dry cycle is more energy and water efficient than washing dishes by hand. Choose the air-dry option instead of heat-dry. If your machine does not have an air-dry option, simply open the door when the final rinse cycle is complete. Check to see if your dishwasher has an internal heater (which heats incoming water to 140 F or higher). If it does, you can lower your home's water heater temperature to 120 F.

- When cooking, keep a lid on the pot to make it boil faster. Shut off the burner or oven a few minutes before it's done and let the residual heat finish the cooking. You can get double use from that boiling water by using it to steam veggies or to warm leftovers.

- You can also get double use from a hot oven by baking more than one thing. Throw in some muffins a half-hour before the roast is done. Don't bother preheating the oven unless you're baking something temperature-sensitive like scones. When you open the oven door, you lose 20 percent of the heat.

- If you haven't already, change all your incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents, which use 60 percent less energy and last 10 times longer. Brighten a room with lighter-colored carpet, wall coverings and window treatments. Daylight is the most energy-efficient way to light a room, so capitalize on it. Next to that is solar-powered LEDs, which are mainly for outdoors and use no other electricity. LED lighting is more cost-effective than compact fluorescents, as the bulbs last longer, but fluorescents are more energy-efficient. Put certain lights on timers and sensors so that they shut themselves off when no longer needed.

"Lighting a whole room so you can see what you're doing is similar to refrigerating a whole house to preserve perishable food," notes Lovins.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning sustainable artist and writer who lives in a green home in the Hudson Valley of New York.

© Copley News Service

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