1. Every night before you go to bed, walk through the house and turn off electric appliances and equipment that you usually leave on overnight, even though you don’t use it. Examples: Unplug your cable box, your phone chargers if they’re not in use and your TVs.
2. Unplug your home computers before you go to work in the morning, leave the house for an extended time or turn in for the night. It doesn’t need to run when it’s not in use. A simple way to do this: Plug your computer, monitors, external hard drive and printer into a single, surge-protected power strip, and just flip one switch.
3. Wash clothes in cold water. This saves your water heater from working to heat up water for load after load of laundry.
4. Turn off the lights. It’s one of those rules you hear over and over again, and it’s just as true now as ever.
5. Adjust the thermostat one or two degrees warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter. Chances are that you won’t notice the single-degree temperature difference but will notice the financial savings on heating and cooling.