Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) are more efficient in harnessing electrical energy to produce light compared to incandescent bulbs. This will allow you to reduce the total number of lightbulbs needed to light a certain space, such as the living room, and further reduce the wattage from, say, a 100W incandescent bulb to a 40W fluorescent bulb. Over the course of a year, you will end up using 60 percent of the energy for the same lighting performance. This in turn translates to a 300-pound reduction in equivalent carbon dioxide emissions. If 300 houses do this, a total of 9,000 pounds in carbon dioxide emission reduction can easily be achieved.
Most of the energy we use in our homes is spent on heating it up in the winter and cooling it down in the summer. Reduce the thermostat of your air conditioner two degrees in winter and increase it by two degrees in summer. Two degrees does not significantly alter the conditions in your living space, but it has considerable impact on your electrical consumption and the degree of work your heating and cooling systems must do to deliver the required temperature. Your home can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions just by performing this simple thermostat management.
Turn off all electrical appliances when they are not in use. Most people leave their homes with most of the appliances either set to standby or on. The standby function is not a substitute for turning your electrical appliances off. As long as it is plugged into the socket, an appliance will continue to consume energy despite being powered down. A television set on standby mode still consumes 10 percent of the energy it needs when it is turned on.
Avoid ironing your clothes on a daily basis. A more practical way that can help you save energy is to press your clothes on the weekend, when you have everything in bulk so you can efficiently utilize the heat from the presser. Pressing one shirt at a time means that the excess heat after pressing that shirt goes to waste, whereas combining all the pressing needs means you can distribute the heat more evenly per pressed shirt. The same is true for washing and drying sequences in your washing machine. Make sure to maximize the load so you get the most efficient use of energy.