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10 Easy Energy Saving Tips for Lowering Your Energy Bill Opening your power bill every month can be a frightening experience. It seems that with every month that passes by, the energy use in your home increases resulting in higher bills for you to pay. If your home isn’t operating as efficiently as it was designed to, then your home could be producing more energy than what is required in order to properly heat or cool your home. Below are ten simple tips you can follow to start lowering your energy bills today.

Does Solar Energy Really Work in My State? A lot of people think you have to live in a sunny state like California in order for solar panels to work, but nothing could be further from the truth. Solar is starting to take off even in famously overcast places like Portland and Buffalo. Here’s why solar works in event the un-sunniest states.

Don't Let It Escape: Home Thermographic Audits It could be leaking from your home right now. Escaping through cracks around your windows you can't even see. Your temperature-controlled air is like tiny dollars disappearing from your home and your wallet.

Energy Efficient Appliances Save You Money Appliances are getting more and more efficient with new technology and an understanding of how much energy can be saved. A refrigerator as new as 10 years old is already a dinosaur. It, along with your washing machine, are the biggest energy hogs in your house and should be replaced if they are too old.

Energy Efficient Guru Rebuilds Home to Green Standards Remodel or rebuild? That was the decision Brian Castelli had to make when he was ready to make his home of 32 years more energy efficient. Castelli, who is executive vice president of the Alliance to Save Energy, had spent his career helping others become more energy efficient, so it was natural that he wanted his home to be as green as possible. He'd done many upgrades on his mid-century home, but he wanted to further improve it. He talked to contractors and discovered the cost to remodel from the slab up would be comparable to tearing down the home and building from scratch.

Energy Efficient Wndows I love windows. There is very little wall space in my house for art! Not only do I like natural light during the day, I also like to bring the outdoors in. I installed a few windows about 12 years ago, when I first moved into this old ranch house. There were huge expanses of sunny, blank exterior wall, so I decided to bring in the winter sun as passive solar supplemental heat.

Futures Trading It’s hard to predict what products, technology, and systems will be important in the next 10 years, but green experts say the looming energy crisis can give us a pretty good idea.

Home Dehumidifying the Energy Efficient Way Using a dehumidifier in damp areas of your home can help to avoid problems such as moisture damage, mold and mildew. However, some people are hesitant to use a dehumidifier because they tend to use a lot of electricity. If you want to keep your home comfortably dry and yet save energy and money at the same time, here are some tips to help you dehumidify your home in the most energy efficient fashion.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - LEED LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Market Ripe for Green Loans Mortgages that encourage, and reward, home energy efficiency are out there, if you know where to look

New Ways to Use Less Energy at Home The share of homes being built in the U.S. with environmentally friendly features jumped to 16% of single-family starts last year from 2% in 2006, says McGraw-Hill Construction, a market-research firm in New York. Fueling the trend, industry officials say, is a desire to save energy at a time of high fuel costs. Indeed, in a recent survey, 93% of builders named increased energy efficiency as an important green practice—far more than cited any other benefit.

Resilient Design: Passive Solar Heat A resilient home is extremely well insulated so that it can be kept warm with very little supplemental heat — and if power or heating fuel is lost, there won't be risk of homeowners getting dangerously cold or their pipes freezing. If we design and orient the house in such a way that natural heating from the sun can occur, we add to that resilience and further reduce the risk of the house getting too cold in the winter.

Smart HomeOwner: Better Home, Better Planet Green Options Media’s growing network of environmentally-focused blogs provides users with a broad spectrum of information on and direction for making more sustainable choices in their lives.

Solar Energy: Viable, Affordable, Innovative Solar energy is a viable and emerging source of alternative power in residences and commercial settings in the 21st century. But, how does it benefit the homeowner after the initial costs of installation?

U.S. Department of Energy The Building Technologies Program (BTP) funds research and technology development to reduce commercial and residential building energy use. The program is working to achieve the goal of net-zero energy buildings, which produce as much energy as they consume. BTP works with national laboratories and industry partners to achieve this goal