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ANATOMY OF YOUR HOME ENERGY BILL AND HOW TO SAVE
This section looks at the environmental impact of our energy consumption, some simple ways to use less of it, and the many positive benefits that can result.
Home heating and cooling: 45 percent
In most households, heating and cooling account for the biggest single chunk of your energy bill. The good news is there are many ways to cut those costs.
Choose energy-efficient furnaces or air conditioners that are the right size for your home.
Properly insulate your home (especially the attic), including the duct system.
Contact your utility company for a free energy audit. If your utility company doesn't offer free audits, try the do-it-yourself tool, from the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Programmable thermostats, insulated windows, and ceiling fans can also help lower your energy bill. A programmable thermostat, for instance, can cut heating and cooling costs as much as 20 percent when you use it to reduce the temperature 5 degrees at night and 10 degrees during the day when heating (or raise it an equal amount when cooling). Watch how we test programmable thermostats and get recommendations on choosing a thermostat (full report available to subscribers).
Hot water: 11 percent
Overall, water-heater technology hasn't changed much in recent years. There are, however, newer, instantaneous heating models (with no tank) that can save you up to $50 a year in energy costs, although they cost more initially. Solar hot-water heaters are gaining in popularity as an alternative for or supplement to conventional water-heating units. For more information, visit the Department of Energy online or National Center for Photovoltaics.
Set your water heater to 120 degrees, it can save up to 10 percent in water-heating costs compared to a 140 degree setting.
Wrap an insulation blanket around your hot water pipes and storage tank.
Replace a showerhead that is more than 10 years old with a low-flow model. It can save up to half the hot water used for showering.
Washers and dryers: 10 percent
New high-efficiency appliances are much better for the environment and your family finances. These tips can also help:
Wash laundry in cold water, which can save up to $63 a year.
Consider a front-loading washing machine if you're in the market for a new one. Consumer Reports tests show that the most efficient front-loading machines can cut water consumption by about 25 percent compared with the worst ones we tested.
Lighting: 7 percent
You can reduce lighting costs by 67 percent by using compact fluorescents instead of incandescent bulbs. They cost less than $10 each but can shed as much light as a 100-watt incandescent while using only about 25 watts and therefore take less energy to do more. Compact fluorescents also last 6 to 10 times as long as standard bulbs. You can save even more by installing electronic photocell on-and-off switches and electric timers to turn lights off automatically when you don't need them. However, compact fluorescent bulbs do contain mercury should be carefully disposed. For more information, visit www.lamprecycle.org for a listing of state departments that can give you information on where to recycle your compact fluorescent bulbs locally or check Earth911.org's zip code searchable directory.
Refrigerators: 6 percent
Thanks to federally mandated minimum-efficiency standards, this former energy hog now has one of the daintiest energy appetites in the house. However, there are still ways to reduce its consumption:
Choose a top-freezer model (the most efficient) over a side-by-side model (the least efficient).
Icemakers add to energy consumption and potentially to repair bills. Models with icemakers are the most repair-prone according to Consumer Reports surveys.
Household electronics: 4 percent
Your TVs, DVD player, VCR, and all the rest each contribute to your household energy tab. Running a computer and a monitor 24 hours a day (and many people do) uses some 1,100 kilowatt hours annually. If electricity in your area costs 8 cents per kilowatt hour, for example, that translates to $88 a year.
Putting them on sleep mode could save more than 80 percent of that expense and cut CO2 emissions by up to 1,250 pounds a year, the EPA says.
Dishwashers: 2 percent
New high-efficiency appliances are much better for the environment and your family finances. This tip can also help:
Wash full loads in your dishwasher, skip the special cycles (like sanitize), and load the machine correctly (for example, heavily soiled items at the back and sides).
Miscellaneous: 15 percent
Products such as home-security systems, cell phones, PDAs, small wall-mounted vacuum cleaners, toys, and even those clocks built into so many appliances all consume energy.
AC power supplies (power cords with a bricklike appendage that convert AC power back to DC) used on all manner of devices consume a surprising amount of energy--more than 58 billion kilowatt-hours annually, much of that while the products they power are not even in use. That's equal to the annual output of 10 large power plants. It also translates into 40 million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year, according to Ecos Consulting, an environmental consulting firm.
Increasingly, many products consume energy even when they're off. According to The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), this standby power on many types of consumer electronics accounts for as much as 5 percent of total household energy consumption, or about 450 kilowatt hours per year, and costs the average consumer some $36 annually.
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