Save money, save energy, go green

Energy efficient homes cost much less to heat, cool and light, compared to your typical home.

15 years ago I moved into a leaky, poorly insulated home, and knew I had to make the house more efficient. After some major upgrades and some subtle changes, I cut my household energy use in half.

Sure, we did a few major upgrades along the way – new furnace, new windows, bedroom upgrades. But smaller things helped too – things as simple as understanding where our energy budget was being spent so we could cut out the big wasters.

This site is my way to share my knowledge about energy efficiency. I’ll show you how to save energy and money, and still live comfortably.

Over many years of energy efficient home upgrades, I’ve learned that a systematic approach works best. Start by carefully studying your energy use, to find waste. Then focus your savings on what gives the highest return on investment.

Only after you know where the savings are, should you start looking at efficiency upgrades.

By the way, avoid gimmicks like rubber dryer balls that claim to save energy, or devices that attach to your power supply and promise huge electricity bill decreases. I not only don’t push such products on my site, I go out of my way to expose them.

Chances are you already have some idea of where you want to save. You can check out my sections on heating and cooling – those are probably the two areas where the most savings are to be had for relatively low cost. If you’re thinking of doing a home reno, or just upgrading things like your insulation or windows or exterior doors, go to my upgrades section where you’ll find many home reno efficiency projects discussed. Check the menus along the top for other main sections; there are over 150 pages on this site so there’s no shortage of energy savings to be had.

If you’re really not sure where to start, I suggest my home energy saving information section. You might want to start with the page in there on creating your own energy saving plan.

A note on advertising and affiliate links

Please note that this website is an independent, self-sustaining website maintained by just me, and I rely on advertising revenues to keep the website operating. I use Google ads on many pages, and I also derive income from links to products on Amazon (both text links, and, more commonly, photos of products available on Amazon). When you click on an Amazon link, if you purchase anything on the Amazon website after following my link, I make a small (typically 4%) commission on your purchase, which helps me cover server bills and the time I put into maintaining the site. (At this point, these affiliate and advertising fees translate into sub-minimum wages for me, but I am doing this mainly to help people live a more environmentally friendly life, not to make money – I’m keeping my day job!)