Over the last few weeks I have continually been amazed at how many people leave their porch lights on all night. It’s not clear to me if it is an effort to show that someone is home and to scare off burglars or if our neighbors are trying to leave the lights on for the feral cats. Either way, it’s a huge waste of energy and a place where homeowners can cut down – even a few bucks a year – on their power bills.

Motion detectors when attached to lights offer a great way to reduce your home’s energy use by ensuring that the lights are only turned on when they are needed. It is by no means a new technology, but it is definitely a technology that should be used more.

A variety of motion detector lights are widely available at your local box hardware store, and likely your locally owned hardware store too. While they sell outdoor porch lights which have motion detector features already included, my home did not come with them. As one of our first projects on the home, we went to the hardware store to find an attachment which would make our lights motion sensitive. What we found required a simple installation which involved changing out our light switch and hanging a battery operated sensor on the outside of the house. The installation took less than a half hour and it works beautifully. Our porch light only goes on when you drive up our driveway or when you leave through our front door. Of course if you are in the market for a new fixture, it’s much easier just to get one that comes already hooked up for motion sensitivity.

Outdoor lights aren’t the only ones you should think about adding motion detection to. If you have a closet light that frequently gets left on, motion detection lights can really help. When the door opens the light goes on and stays on for a set number of minutes unless the sensor is presented with more motion. These sensors are available in as simple a product as a light socket which gets screwed into the existing socket or more complicated versions which require the installation of wall switches. Either way, these are essentially do-it-yourself projects which you can easily do to help reduce your overall power consumption.

By now, you have probably heard about ENERGY STAR, an energy efficiency labeling program operated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy – but have you heard about a new program water efficiency program?

WaterSense is a labeling program operated by the U.S. EPA and it’s your opportunity to better the water efficiency in your home and office. Every year, Americans spend upwards of $500 on water and sewer bills, but if we all make the effort to save a little water, we can reduce those bills by as much as $170 in each household and save more than 3 trillion gallons of water across the country!

You might not have thought about it before, but saving water actually reduces your carbon footprint too. It takes a lot of energy to make sure you water is well treated and drinkable before it enters your home. Saving a little water, saves a little energy at the treatment plant. 

Saving water for saving water’s sake is important too. Fresh water is a resource in short demand around the world. Every year, our groundwater and other naturally drinkable water resources are diminished either through contamination or runoff.

Saving water also helps reduce the amount of water being sent to our nation’s decrepit waste water treatment facilities. In most cities around the country, the treatment facilities for water are woefully unequipped to handle not only the quantity of water coming to them but many of the pollutants now found in that water. Many of our cities’ systems were built early in the last century without the anticipation of the significant population increases we have now witnessed and before many of the chemicals we now see in our products even existed. When a waste water treatment facility cannot handle the amount of water being sent to it, water overflows open and untreated water is allowed into our waterways. Reducing your water usage, even a little, helps reduce these events and protects our nation’s waterways.

Take the time to learn about a few simple things you can do to reduce your water use. From changing the ways you water your yard to fixing that leaking faucet, there are plenty of ways you can personally pitch in to improve your water efficiency. If you are renovating your home or even changing a faucet or buying a new toilet, take the time to find one that is WaterSense certified. Just look for the logo above.

Already purchased a WaterSense certified product or improving your water efficiency? Let us know about it in the comments.

Who has time to overhaul the whole house and go from “regular life” to green? Doesn’t Al Gore realize you have a life? Of course! So do it little by little! Take a moment, once a month even, and walk around your house to look for 3 things you could change to have your home be more environmentally friendly. Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Here are some things to look for:

Light bulbs- buy a pack of Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs). Have them on hand to switch out for the regular bulbs when they burn out. Did you know that if every home in the U.S. switched just one bulb, we would save enough energy to light 2.5 millions homes for one year??? That’s outrageous!

Where do you buy them? Target, Home Depot, and many local stores have them. Buy them online at Green Lights. They give 10% of their profits to green causes too! Double points for that!

Unplug things! Cell phone chargers are a major culprit! Don’t just unplug the phone from the charger, take that charger out of the socket! Chargers that are left plugged in are called vampire appliances. Did you know that 95% of the energy used by the charger is wasted? The charger doesn’t even know if there is a cell phone connected on the other end.

Use your drapes! Ok, this may sound hokey at first, but think it out…if the sun is shining through your glass windows, don’t you think it might heat up the room a little? And you have your AC on? Use your drapes- to keep the place cool away from the sun, or welcome the sun and use less heat!

Mind the gaps! Either check yourself, or call in a professional to make sure that there are no “leaks” in the house. Is everything insulated properly?

Turn off the water! No, we didn’t mean entirely! We aren’t that hardcore! But look and see when you can reduce water use! Does everyone in your house turn off the water when brushing their teeth? Did you know that the average person uses 2 gallons of water for brushing if the water is left running?

Use the SHORT CYCLE! Do you know that your dishes and clothes will get just as clean if you use the “quick wash” cycle? Unless you have feasted 3 days ago and let everything sit, you will be fine…try it! Test it out!

Is everything being recycled that could be? Would it help to put an extra can or box near the kids’ desk for recycleable trash?