Save Energy and Money at Home

The energy we use at home accounts for about a fifth of U.S. global warming pollution. That means making smart choices at home matters.

Heating and cooling

This is a top home energy user, with the average household producing about four tons of heat-trapping pollution a year. It is heavily influenced by weather. For example, a relatively cold 1996 led to an increase in heat-trapping emissions compared to the previous year. But the next year, a warmer winter helped emissions dip bit. Warmer summers increase greenhouse gas pollution, too, from heavy air conditioning use. Despite the relative warm or coolness of the season, the U.S. emits a harmful amount of global warming pollution.

Even as the weather varies, your choices can help spew less global warming pollution.

• In summer, keep shades drawn to keep the cool in.
• In winter, open shades to let the sunlight to help warm rooms.
• In winter, keep your thermostat cooler at night or when the house is empty.
• Install a programmable thermostat to heat and cool rooms only when necessary.
• Plant trees around your house to cut cooling costs in summer.
• Insulate your walls and ceilings.
• Install a light-colored or reflective roof.

Appliances

After heating, refrigerators and freezers are generally the home's next two big energy eaters. Other appliances follow closely. Together, these items account for nearly eight tons of heat-trapping emissions per household per year.

• Upgrade to Energy Star products. Not all appliances are equal. Whether you're in the market for a new fridge, toaster or air conditioner, look for Energy Star choices, which offer the best energy savings.

• Size counts. When in the market for an appliance, make sure you buy what suits your needs. Items too large or too small waste electricity and your money.

• Unplug. Your electric meter is often adding up kilowatt hours when you don’t think you’re using an appliance. Unplug toasters and cell phone and other chargers when they’re not in use. Don't use air fresheners that have to be plugged in.

• Use power strips. Cable boxes and video game boxes, and to a lesser extent TVs and VCRs, use almost as much energy when they're off as when they're on. Make it easy to turn them all the way off—plug them into a power strip and turn off the whole strip.

Lighting

Lighting accounts for about 21 percent of commercial energy consumption and about 12 percent of home energy consumption. In terms of heat-trapping pollution, that means the lights in the average household produce just over a ton of carbon dioxide each year. Here are a few steps to lower those numbers.

• Use energy-efficient lights. Changing just one 75-watt bulb to a compact fluorescent light cuts roughly 1,300 pounds of global warming pollution. They also last up to 15 times as long and save you money. (Learn how to pick the best bulbs.)

• Turn off lights. A good chunk of lighting expenses is from rooms that stay unnecessarily lit.

• Use natural light. Open shades and use sunlight to help light rooms.

• Install motion-sensors so that lights automatically turn on when someone is in the room and turn off when empty.

Green Energy

Does your electric company sell energy from renewable sources, like wind and solar? More than forty states in the U.S. now offer cleaner energy. Find out more about home energy choices.

Other energy efficient choices for your home

• Use the energy saver cycle on your dishwasher and only run it when full.
• Wash clothes in warm or cold water, not hot.
• Turn down your water heater to 120°Fahrenheit.
• Clean or replace the air filter on your air conditioner.
• Install low-flow shower heads to use less hot water.
• Caulk and weatherstrip around doors and windows.
• Ask your utility company for a free home energy audit.

Drive Smart: Fuel Savings Add Up

Good driving habits

Watching how you drive can improve your car's mileage per gallon, cutting global warming pollution and saving you anywhere from $200 to $500 each year.

• Travel light and pack smart. Extra weight decreases fuel economy. Hauling an extra 100 pounds in your vehicle reduces fuel economy by up to 2 percent. Place luggage inside rather than on the roof or trunk to  minimize drag and increase mileage.

• Drive less aggressively. Aggressive driving—rapid acceleration and braking—can lower gas mileage by as much as 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent in town. Aggressive drivers are using an extra 125 gallons of gas and spending over $250 more than average drivers each year.

• Slow down. In highway travel, exceeding the speed limit by a mere 5 mph results in an average fuel economy loss of 6 percent.

• Know when to use the air. Air conditioning can decrease your fuel efficiency by as much as 12 percent in stop-and-go traffic, so consider cracking the windows. But at high speeds, driving with the windows open can decrease the overall efficiency of the vehicle.

• Don't idle. If you are stopping for more than ten seconds—except in traffic—turn off your engine.  Idling for more than ten seconds uses more gas and creates more global warming pollution than simply restarting your engine.

Maintain your car

Keep your vehicle operating in peak performance by following these recommendations.

• Keep your engine tuned properly. Checking spark plugs, oxygen sensors, air filters, hoses and belts are a few examples of maintenance that can save a vehicle owner up to 165 gallons of gas per year, resulting in potential savings of $380.

• Check the tires. Have your wheels aligned and keep your tires properly inflated. Low tire pressure wastes over two million gallons of gasoline in the United States—every day. For every pound of pressure below recommended levels, fuel economy drops 1 percent. Keeping your tires properly inflated means saving about a tank of gas a year.

Drive less

No matter how smart you drive, leaving the car parked always saves more gas and pollution.

• Combine trips. Consider running all your errands in the same area at once, rather than making separate trips. Cutting a 20 mile trip out of your schedule each week can reduce your global warming pollution by more than 1,200 pounds a year and save you over $100 in gas expenses.

• Telecommute once a week. Americans traveled 614.5 billion miles to and from work in 2001. If all commuters worked from home just one day a week, we could save 5.85 billion gallons of oil and cut over 65 million metric tons (roughly 143 billion pounds) of carbon dioxide each year.

• Carpool and use public transportation when possible. An average 2005 passenger car costs about 31 cents per mile in fuel, maintainance and depreciation to drive. If you share rides and use other means to get to work, you'll save yourself money, reduce congestion on the roads and cut your global warming pollution.

Neutralize Your Pollution

How does it work?

Even if you have already reduced your driving and electricity use, there's more you can do. You can neutralize the rest of your pollution—through offsets. When you buy offsets, you essentially pay someone to reduce or remove global warming pollution in your name.

For example, when you buy 10 tons of carbon offsets, the seller guarantees that 10 fewer tons of global warming pollution go into the atmosphere. While the pollution you produce yourself is the same, you get the credit for that 10-ton reduction.

Where can you buy offsets?

Shopping for offsets can be confusing. If you're not an expert, it can be hard to tell how much pollution is really being reduced or removed. 

We've done the work for you. All these offsets were evaluated by a team of experts and meet our standards for credible, high-quality offsets. The prices range from $4 to $8 per metric ton. Find out more about offsets and how these were selected.