Conservation Checklist

Heating & Cooling

• Turn down your thermostat in cold weather. Every degree lower can save 2% on your electric bill. Use a programmable thermostat to lower temperature to 55° at night and when no one is home. Don't heat unoccupied rooms.
• Replace furnace and heat pump filters monthly. Consider an electrostatic filter that can be washed and reused.
• Close your fireplace or woodstove damper when they aren't in use.
• Insulate crawl space vents during cold weather. Be sure heating ducts are sealed and insulated.
• Get an energy audit from your electric company. Be sure they do a blower door test to identify holes and cracks that allow air to enter or exit your home. Seal air leaks. Maintain healthy indoor air quality in a controlled way (with an air exchanger or whole house fan). Use ventilation fans only when needed to adequately remove moisture and odors from your house.
• Check the R value of insulation in your home's ceiling, walls, and floor. Minimum standards are R-38 in ceiling, R-19 in walls, and R-38 under floors. Exceed these and super-insulate. Even when professionally installed, insulation is inexpensive compared to rising energy costs..
• Make sure your existing windows are caulked and sealed properly. When purchasing new windows, specify double or triple glazed, low-emissivity (low-e) windows. Consider insulated window quilts at night or in the winter to reduce heat loss. Minimize glazing on building sides not exposed to the sun. Even the best windows have only a fraction of the insulating value of a wall.
• Use passive solar techniques to maximize solar gain through south-facing windows in the winter. Use overhangs or awnings to reduce solar gain in the summer. An attached sun room can also be a good way to collect solar heat, if controlled properly.

Hot Water

• Reduce the temperature setting on your water tank to 120°. Be sure your dishwasher has a heating element that will heat wash water to 140° to properly clean your dishes. Use your dishwasher efficiently. Wash only full loads. Turn off the drying cycle. Allow the dishes to air dry.
• Take showers using a low-flow shower head -- only 50% of the hot water used for a bath.
• Insulate water pipes to prevent heat loss from hot water lines, keep water cool in summer, and prevent winter freezing.
• Insulate hot water tanks. Check the owner's manual of newer tanks to see what they say about adding an insulation blanket.
• After taking conservation steps, consider a solar water heater. They are effective even on partly cloudy days. In very cold climates a freeze-proof system is needed. Solar water heaters can provide all or part of your hot water year round

Cooking & Appliances

• Use energy efficient appliances. While super efficient models can be very expensive, extremely efficient models are available from major brand manufacturers at reasonable cost.
• Visit the Energy Star web site at www.energystar.gov for more information on widely available energy efficient appliances.
• Cook with a microwave oven. They use up to 75% less energy than an electric range or oven. Use a toaster oven for small cooking tasks.
• Cook with the sun. We sell Global Sun Ovens and use one on sunny days year-round. Make your own solar oven. Take a look at our copies of Heaven's Flame or The Solar Cookery Book to learn how.

Laundry

• Purchase an energy efficient washing machine. Front loaders help you conserve water AND electricity. Plus, they extract more water from clothes during the spin cycle so you use less energy to get the clothes dry.
• Wash clothes in warm water. Rinse in cold.
• Use a dryer that senses the humidity of clothes and turns off automatically when clothes are dry. Keep filter screens and vent tubes free of lint. Use a vent cap that prevents cold outside air from entering the vent when the dryer is not in use.
• Use a clothes line for drying clothes. One can even be installed indoors in a utility room or garage. We have a disappearing line over our woodstove.

Lighting

• Use natural daylight whenever possible. Clerestory windows and skylights can reduce your need for lighting dramatically. Solar tubes can bring light into the interior of the house without increasing heat loss. We sell Solatube light tubes.
• Put small windows in a bathroom or utility room for improved light and ventilation.
• Replace incandescent lights with compact fluorescent lights (CFL's). CFL's need only a quarter of the energy to produce the same amount of light as incandescent lights. CFL's can pay for themselves in under 3 years and last 10 times as long as incandescent bulbs. CFL's more closely approximate natural sunlight. CFL's are available for outdoor use, as floodlights, and for using with dimmer switches. Find the right CFL to meet your needs with the handy tool on Environmental Defense's website.
• Turn off lights when not needed!
• For a comprehensive discussion of lighting, see this excellent hand-out from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

Other

• Turn off your computer, office accessories, TV, stereo, and other appliances when not using them. It is a myth that some equipment can be damaged by by not leaving it on.
• Eliminate "phantom loads". Clocks, cordless phones, instant-on TVs and stereos, and other items consume power constantly, even when turned off! Unplug them or use a switched outlet strip or power cord switch.The entire output from one coal-fired power plant in the U.S. goes to providing power for phantom loads.
• Use an appliance power meter to test your appliances and phantom loads. Know how much energy you are using so you can make informed decisions when comparing efficiencies and reducing your energy use
• Use mass transit whenever you can. Island County makes this simple and convenient for Whidbey Island residents with free buses running Monday through Saturday. Check out their website at www.islandtransit.org
• Combine trips that require a car and take the vehicle that gets the best mileage. Keep your tires properly inflated. Make high mileage a priority in your next car purchase.
• Shop your local farmers' markets or participate in a CSA program. The average US meal travels 1500 miles to get to your table. Local Harvest has a marvelous website that makes it easy to find sources close to your home.
• Purchase renewable energy from your local utility. Check your utility company's website for information on its particular program.