The budget-friendly guide to green living: 18 ways to save water, energy—and money in your wallet

Better Nutrition, Sept, 2007 by Jen Boulden, Heather Stephenson

AS utility costs skyrocket faster than you can say, "My bill this month is what?" everyone's looking for creative ways to save water and energy. But you don't have to tear apart your plumbing or install solar panels to help the earth and lower your bills. There are lots of simple, low-cost ways to make energy consumption around the house more eco-friendly. These tips for each room add up to savings that benefit your budgetIand the world around you.

In the Kitchen

Air it out. Install aerators on faucets (a good thing to do in the bathroom as well). Aerators mix air with water to decrease water consumption. They also have the handy side effect of increasing the feel of water pressure and reducing splashes. Penny Bonda, rounding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council's committee for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Commercial Interiors, recommends Niagara Conservation's Swivel Aerator, which can be installed without calling a plumber.

Scrub in stages. When washing dishes by hand, don't send water savings down the drain. For double sinks, fill one side with sudsy water, turn off the faucet, then wash. Place soapy dishes in the second sink, and when that's full, rinse. Or simply wet dishes, add soap to the sponge, and then turn off the tap. Wash dishes until the soap runs out, rinse those, set in a dish rack, and repeat with remaining dishes.

Don't do the dirty work. When using a dishwasher, there's no need to prerinse plates before loading. Most dishwashers are now built to do that lob themselves. Research has found that prerinsing by hand doesn't get dishes any cleaner during the cycle--it just means more work for you. Also, run the dishwasher (and washing machine) only when full.

Downsize dinner. Prepare meals in 8- x 8-inch baking dishes or regular loaf pans (they're just the right size for four servings), then bake in the toaster oven for an eco-friendlier hot meal.

Put the freeze on energy drains. When it's chilly outside, cold-drink consumption goes down, but automatic ice makers keep chugging along. Switch to hand-filled ice trays, or turn the ice maker off when the bucket is full to keep it from running constantly.

Perform some strip-ease. Did you know that if you use a microwave less than seven minutes each day, the oven's clock requires more power than the oven itself? Automatic coffee pots and CD players are also major electricity drains when left plugged in. Not to mention cell phone chargers, which use only 5 percent of the electricity they draw to juice up a phone. The rest goes to waste while the charger is left plugged into the wall, according to the CarbonNeutral Company in London, an organization dedicated to cutting carbon dioxide emissions. The solution: Use power strips with on/off switches and multiple sockets. They make it easy to cut or set current flow to several devices at once, no cord-yanking or plugging necessary.

In the Bathroom

Stop the flow. By turning off the faucet between rinses while brushing your teeth or washing your face, you save up to 10 gallons per day.

Ditch the drips One drop of water per second from a leaky faucet can waste as much as 300 gallons each month (enough to take six baths or do eight loads of laundry), according to the Water Conservation Coalition of Puget Sound in Seattle, which promotes utility conservation programs. For loose taps that you can't completely close, call a plumber. For tight faucets that test your wrist every time you try to turn them off, lubricate the joint to make it easier to turn.

Rub-a-dub--just avoid the tub.

Everyone loves a nice, hot bath once in a while--the key words here being "once in a while." Go with a shower for daily bathing: A long, hot soak can require up to 50 gallons of water while a typical five-minute shower consumes less than 20 gallons. Tip: Use a kitchen timer to keep showers short and sweet.

Rinse with the right tap. Some health experts say that unless you're handling meat or work in food services, washing hands with cool water may be as effective at killing germs as washing with hot. Switching to the cold tap will cut costs (both water and energy--waiting for water to heat up takes even longer in winter) by up to 5 percent. And a brisk rub with a towel will heat hands in place of hot water; the fabric friction stimulates circulation for longer-lasting warmth.

Head off waste. Install new shower-heads: Those made after January 1994 are required to use no more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute. Older low-flow showerheads spray up to 5 gallons each minute.

Around the House

Lighten up. Incandescent bulbs may rule the sockets, but a mere 10 percent of the energy they use is converted to light. Replacing just 10 of these bulbs with longer-lasting compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) can spare the environment the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average SUV in a year, according to Environmental Defense, a New York--based nonprofit. And fluorescent bulbs don't mean your home has to look like a classroom: Brands such as O-Zone and Fresh2 have made that harsh white lighting a thing of the past, but still give better illumination than classic bulbs. Ask your power company about CFLs--you may be eligible for a free supply.