First, we have to recognize how energy works. It is always trying to go from high to low. Whether it is warmth in your house trying to get outside into the cold winter air, or heat from the sun trying to warm up your air conditioned home, it always moves from a high energy state to a lower energy state.

Now, onto energy saving tips and a lower utility bill.

Insulate the attic and it will make a tremendous difference in the temperature of your house. I insulated my attic one fall and the difference was noticeable the very next day, and we weren’t trying to heat or cool anything.

Our R-12 ceiling insulation was supplemented with R-25 rolled insulation, giving us a two-fold increase in resistance to heat rising up through the ceiling in the winter, and heat coming down through the ceiling to heat up the house in the summer.

A small wood burning fireplace insert in the kitchen was capable of heating the entire upstairs of 2,000 square feet because we had much better insulation in the attic. This is why I call it the best of the energy saving tips.

After I finish some work associated with the ceiling, I’ll be having a company blow in more insulation to seal up cracks and small voids in the attic insulation. This will add to the insulation level and reduce minor imperfections that are likely to exits when using rolled insulation.

Of all the energy saving tips, insulating your attic will probably provide you with the highest sustained return on investment. It makes a huge difference in the comfort level and energy efficiency of your home.

Use window coverings that provide insulation to slow down heat loss in the winter, and heat gain in the summer. I don't like thick comforter style window coverings, but I do like the pleated shades that provide a diamond shaped hollow portion in the center of each horizontal member that acts as insulation as well as a sun block.

If you don't have insulated blinds, then use any type of window covering that will establish a "dead air" space between the window and the window covering. This will help slow down the energy transfer between inside and outside, with the window used as the place where high energy tries to go to a lower energy state.

Next, you’ll want to seal up cracks and openings around the house. This is one of the double duty energy saving tips. It keeps bugs and water and dust out of your house, and it improves the effectiveness of your insulation.

Insulation works because there is “dead” air trapped in the fibers and layers of insulation. Since the air isn’t circulating, it can’t transfer energy effectively. If you seal up your house to eliminate drafts, even in the attic, your insulation can more effectively trap air and keep it still so it resists energy transfer. This resistance of energy transfer is the R value you see on the insulation.

You can always replace your windows with newer state-of-the-art windows that have low emissivity (low-E)glass and gas insulation between the double panes. This won't be one of the more cost-effective of the energy saving tips as the price of those type of windows is high.

Ones that I have seen have an R factor of 7, and that is very high for a couple panes of glass. Consider that R-12 was once considered an adequate level of insulation for an attic. So, that means the best windows today are 60% as good as state-of-the-art attic insulation used to be. That's impressive.

Nevertheless, you might not ever recoup the cost of replacement windows in the form of energy savings. If you need to replace windows for another reason, or are building a new house, the state-of-the-art window makes more sense.

Install storm windows to provide another layer of insulation for your glazing. This is another of the double duty energy saving tips. A storm window helps insulate more effectively by trapping air, and it helps seal up windows that otherwise would leak air in and out.

I have dormer style windows that are old and leaky. You could feel the draft coming through the bad seals. The window has two parts, one piece of stationary glass on the top, and a dormer window on the bottom that swings out from the bottom.

The storm windows for these dormer style windows attach to the frame around the glass, so the part of the window that opens and closes (and leaks air) isn’t sealed at all by the storm window. Instead of spending thousands on new windows for the house, I ordered custom made “outside” storm windows from a local glass shop to cover the entire window frame.

This cost around $600 for the materials and labor to create 12 outside storm windows. That amount of money would have covered only one new large double pane state-of-the-art replacement window.

The outside storm windows now seal the entire window frame. Inside the custom made storm window is the regular window with its storm window attached to the glazing. This gives me a triple pane of glass on each window. On a cold day, the temperature difference between a single glazed and triple glazed window might be 8 degrees or more.

Better yet, since the custom storm windows fit to the window trim framing, they seal out the drafts that we used to have.

This is another of the double duty energy saving tips - seal up your windows for saving energy, and save a bundle by avoiding the cost of replacement windows.

Lighting

It is easy to implement – you simply turn off the lights when you aren't using them. If you are going to leave a room for a while, turn off the lights. This is especially true is they are incandescent lights since they are generally large energy consumers. Incandescent lights are probably better heaters than they are sources of light.

If you pay 10 cents a kilowatt hour, and you have a couple of bright incandescent lights in a few rooms of the house operating all day long, you're paying the electric company about $12 a month to do that. Lighting those same rooms in the evening, when it's dark just adds to the bill.

Having most of the house dimly lit might not give you the ambiance you are looking for, but unless you have a reason to have the lights on, you are just transferring money out of your pocket to the utility company.

Turn unnecessary lights out and keep that $12 a month in your pocket. This is one of the simple energy saving tips that can make a difference by just flipping a switch.

For flourescent lights, it is better to leave them on if you are going to be in and out of the room on a regular basis. If you are going to be out of the room for 15 minutes or more, or you tend to forget and leave them on while you go off doing other things, then turn them off.

Flourescent lights require a bit more energy to get them going, so you don't want to be turning them off and on during the day like an incandescent light.

You know that nightlights burn all night long as you sleep. Do we really need them? When you get up at night, your eyes are accustomed to the dark since they have been closed for hours. If there are streetlights nearby or a moon of any sort, then chances are good that you will have plenty of light to see by with your night vision.

Nightlights don’t consume all that much power, but the idea of something lighting up portions of your house while you're in bed with your eyes closed seems wasteful to me. It goes against my mindset of frugality. We believe nightlights are necessary because when we first go to bed, everything looks so dark – our eyes haven’t adjusted to the reduced light levels.

Once you get on the nightlight kick, you’ll have them in the hall, the kitchen, the bath, and who knows where. Then it will start to add something noticeable to your electric bill.

If you have a dark hall or room and someone in the family has to negotiate that at night and they aren’t sure-footed, or they have poor night vision, then the nightlights are worth the minor expense to have peace of mind that family members aren’t at risk. If you have visitors that aren’t familiar with your home, then using nightlights during their stay is also a good idea.

Another of the energy saving tips associated with lights is turn off yard lights unless you are expecting some company. Porch lights, coach lights and other yard lighting are great ways to add attractiveness to your home, but at a cost.

If folks complain that they can’t see your house at night, then tell them to come back during the day. Don’t worry about people not knowing whether you are home. They’ll see the lights on in other parts of the house and knock on your door if they are exceedingly brave.

If you have a party, a gathering of friends, or are expecting visitors, or if you are spending time outside, that’s reason enough to have those lights on. Other than that, the lights don’t provide you with much benefit, but you are paying for them. If you’re inside, so how can you enjoy them anyway?

Here is one of the energy saving tips for those who like lots of outdoor lighting – use motion sensitive lighting. It turns on the lights when there is a reason and turns them off when the reason goes away.

It makes sense until you realize that the front yard and back patio lights go on for several minutes at a time, multiple times during all hours of the night because a cat or a raccoon or opossum is wandering around out there.

If you have motion sensitive lighting, put it on a switch so you can turn it off. You’ll be saving energy during the middle of the night, and you won’t get concerned that the lights on at 3am every night indicate the presence of a two-legged prowler.

Start using compact flourescent bulbs for areas where you use lighting for long periods. The compact flourescent bulbs are more expensive, but they cost much less to operate than a standard bulb and have a long life expectancy.

If you ever want to see just how efficient a compact flourescent bulb is versus a standard incandescent bulb, just turn on one of each and lightly grip each bulb to see which one get hot first. The heat you feel from each bulb represents its inefficiency in producing light - it is producing heat instead.

Be sure to take your hand off the bulb that is heating up or you will get a burn along with a lesson in light bulb efficiency.

Air Conditioning

Well, one of the simple energy saving tips is to move your operation to the basement. Here, you'll enjoy much cooler temperatures without the need for air conditioning. Since the basement is normally underground, it doesn't have near the temperature swings that you will experience upstairs.

If you don't have a basement, you can opt for an air conditioning in only one room of the house. That would typically be the bedroom. Here, you can be lulled to sleep by the sound of the unit and stay comfortable while you sleep. Put it on a timer so it shuts off automatically after you fall asleep.

Whether you have whole house air conditioning, or just a room air conditioner, you can limit air conditioning use to the hottest and most humid times of the year, and use other techniques to stay comfortable during the more bearable times.

Another of the stay cool energy saving tips is to use a fan. There are two ways to use fans. First, you can circulate air in the room you are in by having a desk mounted fan blow on you, or you can use a ceiling fan to accomplish the same thing. Either way, moving air feels cooler because it helps make use of natural evaporative cooling of your skin.

A fan uses less energy than an air conditioning unit, so it is an energy saver. Fans are also something that you can use selectively. Run them when you are in the room, and turn them off when you go somewhere else in the house for a while.

The second way to use a fan is to push air out of the house during the evening and night when it is cooler, and leave several windows open on the other side of the house to let cooler air be pulled in. Then button up the house in the morning to retain cooler air inside until the next evening when the air cools down again.

Be sure when implementing this energy saving tip that you use the fan to push air out, and pull in other windows. This can cool a large portion of the house. If you push air in and try to vent air out through other windows, you'll only cool the room that air is being pushed into.

Following this energy saving tip will also allow you to cool a room without having fan noise in that room. Try pushing air out of a distant room and opening up a window in your room. You'll feel the cool air come into your surroundings, while the fan makes noise in a distant part of the house.

Of course, none of the energy saving tips about air conditioning would be complete without the admonition to keep doors and windows closed after you have reached a comfortable temperature to retain the cooler air inside. Get in the habit of passing through the door and closing it behind you, even if you need to talk with someone just outside the door for only a brief moment.

Did you know that you can recirculate air with your furnace to cool the house, even without using the air conditioner associated with your furnace? Moving air feels cooler because of moisture evaporating off of your skin. If you use the "fan only" setting on your furnace, it will move air around the house and make it feel more comfortable.

I installed an add-on air plenum and damper that allows me to redirect furnace air recirculation to pull cool air up from the basement and discharge it upstairs. The warmer air upstairs is then pulled down the stairs and through the cooler basement to be cooled and recirculated through the house.

It works great for a few days until the basement is warmed up with the heat that used to be upstairs. Then the effectiveness starts to drop noticeably. With better insulation in the attic, the effectiveness of this technique should last much longer.

Implementing this energy saving tip required an investment in a new air plenum, but since I use the air plenum primarily as an alternate means of heating the house, it was well worth the investment I made to have a sheet metal shop fabricate the new air intake structure for me.

If you are considering ground source heating, remember that you get ground source cooling right along with it. See the discussion of ground source heating above if you aren't familiar with the technology.

With ground source cooling, the same 50 degree temperature soil that heats your house in the winter can be used to cool your house in the summer. Instead of extracting heat from the soil, ground source cooling dumps heat from the house to the cool soil that absorbs it.

This energy saving tip requires a substantial investment, but it is probably a good option for someone that is considering new construction on a few acres of land.

Evaporative cooling is an energy saving tip to consider. It helps you beat the heat and save money.

There are several approaches to using evaporative technology. All employ the same basic concept; evaporating water requires energy to do so, therefore the air used to evaporate the water is cooled in the process. The cooler air is also damp as the evaporated water is suspended in the air.

Here are the variations on this theme:

• There are whole house evaporative coolers that mount on the roof and bring air in from outside and distribute it to a central location in the home. These are relatively common in smaller homes and house trailers.

• You can get a window unit designed to cool air in a large room of the house. They mount much like a window mounted air conditioner.

• There are free-standing units that resemble a large box fan on a stand. They blow air like a fan and evaporate water from a small reservoir for cooling.

In any case, you need to live in an area where the relative humidity is low. Places in the west like Nevada, California, Wyoming and Utah are probably good candidates for evaporative cooling. Areas of high humidity reduce the effectiveness of evaporative coolers because there is already so much humidity in the air. Additional evaporation of moisture in a humid environment is difficult.

Evaporative coolers use water constantly, and they are susceptible to corrosion. The water usage isn't large, but it is constant. Corrosion limits the life of the coolers as they are in a constantly moist environment. Unless special materials are used in the design, corrosion leads to water leaks in the reservoir and that wastes water and limits the effectiveness of the cooler.

On the up side, evaporative coolers are less expensive than air conditioners, of simple design and construction, and less costly to operate. They can cool your living space and help you save money on initial costs and recurring cost of operation.

Evaporative coolers typically have a reservoir in the form of a pan or tray, a simple float mechanism to regulate water level, a medium used to absorb and wick water so passing air can evaporate it, and a fan for moving air. If you must have cooler air, and you don't mind more humidity, then an evaporative cooler could be a good energy saving tip for you.

Here is another energy saving tip for outside comfort. Use evaporative cooling outdoors as well. Imagine lots of tiny spray bottles misting you on your patio or porch. If you install high pressure misting equipment, the tiny water droplets help cool the air and provide a comfortable environment that might otherwise be too hot to enjoy.

Eating and drinking establishments do this for their terraces and other places where outside service is offered in the summer. Again, this works best in environments that have low relative humidity.

Painting your roof white can be one of the best energy saving tips. It helps reflect the sun and keeps your attic cooler. If your attic is cooler, your ceiling will stay cooler. If your ceiling is cooler, your house will stay cooler.

Of all the energy saving tips, I know this one sounds a bit crazy, but it worked great for me when I rented a little cottage in California. The little homemade house didn't have much insulation in the attic, and there wasn't much of an attic to speak of, so the interior of the house got very warm from the sun beating down on the black roof.

There is a white paint used for the roofs of mobile homes to keep them from overheating, and that's what we applied to the roof of the cottage. It made a tremendous difference in the inside temperature.

If you try this, just remember to use something designed to paint the roof. Regular house paint won't cut it. You need roof paint. Ask someone that sells supplies for mobile homes.

I wasn't trying to cool the little cottage, but having the temperature drop 20 indoors was a great change from what I was trying to endure in that little summer sweat box.

Domestic Water Systems

If you have a hot water tank, you might consider replacing it with an on-demand water heater. A water tank heats and reheats itself all day and all night to keep a large volume of water warm for immediate use. It doesn't care if you are using it or not, it keeps heating it for you.

The exhaust on a gas fired hot water tank includes a flue that drafts air up through the tank and out the stack. This helps cool the tank continually, and thus encourages it to reheat the tank periodically.

If you replace your hot water tank with an on-demand water heating unit, it only heats water when you call for hot water. How about that for an energy saving tip; you use energy only when you need to use it.

The drawback of this type of heater is that it takes water running through the pipes to activate the unit and start heating, so the response time for hot water won't be immediate.

Also, on-demand water heaters usually can't handle more than one or two loads at a time. Lastly, they are considerably more expensive than a standard hot water tank. So, this might be a good energy saving tip, but it will cost more up front to implement.

If you need to replace your hot water tank anyway, you might choose to implement this energy saving tip, but I wouldn't toss out a perfectly good water heater until I had to.

Well Water Systems

First, if you have a pressure tank, don't set the pressure switch shut off too high in an attempt to get more capacity out of your system by . Sure, that will give you more water in the storage tanks, and it will give you higher pressure, but it will also make the pump run too long and too hard to get that higher pressure at the upper end, and only a little more water in storage.

It's better to set the pressure switch to turn on a bit lower. This will give you lower pressure at the low end, but it will expand your capacity without costing you near the energy that it will if you try to get more capacity out of the top end of your system.

Another energy saving tip - keep the filter clean. If you don't, the pump will work harder to force water through a filter that is loaded up with sediment. There is no sense making the pump work harder than it has to.

A good way to see the amount of work the pump is being asked to do is to have a pressure gauge on your tanks, downstream of the filter, and a pressure gauge upstream of the filter. Looking at the pressure on these two gauges will give you the differential pressure.

Differential pressure will show you how "loaded" your filter is. If you are seeing 20 psi differential pressure, your filter is getting dirty and should be changed soon. A differential pressure of 30 psi or more suggests that you're letting it go too long before changing it.

Since the pump has to push water through the filter anyway, you're going to get some differential pressure even with a clean filter, so find out what that is right after you change the filter. That gives you a baseline. I suspect it will be something like 5 psi.

Another energy saving tip - if you have a sand filter or particle screen on your system, flush (blow down) the screen periodically when the pump is running to keep it cleaner. Larger particles on these screens can clog your system flow and make the pump run harder and longer than necessary.

Again, use the two pressure gauge setup to check the differential pressure across the screen, just like you would do for the filter. This should show that you're getting a clogged line, but you have to figure out whether it's the screen or the filter that's causing the differential pressure.

All that clogged up the strainer enough to cut the flow way down and give me high differential pressure.

The photo on the right shows the strainer once it is cleaned up with a soft brush under running water. Use a soft brush when cleaning to avoid damaging the screening material. After cleaning and replacing the screen element, your water should flow through the screen and filter assemblies fast and smooth.

One last energy saving tip for well water systems - listen for how long and how frequently your system runs. Unanticipated pump starts and lengthy run times might be an indicator of clogged flow, system leaks or diminishing pump performance.

Catching a problem early is key to solving it more conveniently and inexpensively. And, you'll likely never run out of water unexpectedly.

Home Appliances

When the Pentium chip was introduced way back when, the word on the street was that the chip got as hot as a toaster. Chips today aren't any more energy efficient. Feel the heat from the exhaust fans of equipment and feel the underside of your laptop. The heat you feel is energy wasted while the machine operates.

Now think of the energy used to operate it while you're not using it, and the energy wasted in heat while it is operating, and you'll start to understand how much energy you can save by having computers and office machines on only when you are using them.

A good energy saving tip for the kitchen is to use the microwave instead of the oven, you'll use much less energy to cook your food. The microwave focuses on heating the food, while the oven heats the whole oven. You can't cook or reheat several dishes at once, but for most smaller applications, the microwave works very well and is much less expensive to operate.

The left over heat in the oven is clear evidence of how inefficient it is in heating something. The microwave doesn't exhibit anywhere near that much in leftover heat after the food is ready.

Another energy saving tip for the cook in the family is to use a toaster oven for small cooking tasks that require an oven or a broiler. Melting cheese on bread or fixing small snacks are tasks that a toaster oven can do more efficiently than a large oven. It is the same relative efficiency because the manner of heating is the same, but the volume that has to be heated is so much smaller, and that is where the efficiency comes in.

When possible, use the stove top instead of the oven. This is another of the kitchen related energy saving tips. The stove top heats a small pan instead of a large oven, so again, the volume being heated is reduced, and food is more directly heated whereas an oven heats a large volume of air first and then the food is heated indirectly by the hot air.

It is a good idea to keep refrigeration appliances full, especially upright freezers. When you open the door of a upright refrigerator or freezer, some of the cold air is replaced by warmer air from the room. If you have lots of items inside, it provides a thermal mass that can resist the warmer air as it attempts to heat up that internal space.

If the appliance is near empty, it is much easier for the warmer air to displace much of the cooler air and that will cause the appliance to turn on to cool the inside again.

A chest freezer is better at energy savings than an upright because the cold air inside is heavier and tends to stay there captured in the chest when you open it. Accessing the contents is more difficult in the chest freezer because things get piled on one another, whereas the upright allows you to put things on a shelves instead of deep in a chest.

I prefer the upright because of all the convenience the shelves provide. For me, the efficiency gained by the chest freezer just doesn't compare with the convenience of the upright. The choice is yours - implement this energy saving tip or pay a little more each month for the convenience of the upright freezer.

These energy saving tips for appliances are addressed in more detail in Kitchen Tips and Laundry Tips, but I include them here in summary form to keep all the energy saving tips "in one bag".

Energy saving tips for the oven and barbeque

• Let the oven coast about 10 minutes before removing food.
• Coast the barbeque for about 5 minutes before removing food.