What do you recommend should be the next big step? Some criteria that come to mind that would make the next big step practical would include:
1.Saves money
2.Item can be bought, installed, and forgotten about
3.Involves minimal change in behavior.

Here are some possibilities:
insulation
window shades/curtains
energy star appliances
solar ovens
programmable thermostat

None of the above are so easy and simple to use or install as a light bulb.

Here's a second question: What's the easiest habit pattern to change?

A really big saver for people who shower is a low water shower head. When I'm home, I probably use less than 5 gallons of water to shower. On the road, I notice watersaving showerheads because I look for them, but the good ones aren't noticeable from a usability standpoint.

In our home, as we replace appliances we look for energy-star ratings. We have also insulated alot, and use heavy curtains over windows at night. And we've updated our home-heating equipment and completely changed our home-heating practices. We've chosen to buy and drive only four-cylinder-engine car and small truck. I want to add a reflective barrier inside the south-facing portion of our house's roof, to reduce summer heat gain (and avoid any hankering for air conditioning, which we do not have anyway).

As to lighting, I talked with people at a home-energy fair last year who sell and install LED lighting systems. These are 12-volt systems that use a transformer and surface wiring (unless they're going into a new home or new addition, in which case the wiring can be within the walls. People get these systems for hot-tub rooms, decks, etc. In our conversation, though, we all agreed that when LEDs are generally as strong and warm in tone as incandescent bulbs AND screw into standard 120-volt sockets, then there will be a real energy-saving lighting revolution. Even the warm-toned 12-v LEDs that are currently on the market seem nicer than full-spectrum flourescents.

Joel

Next, for those who have oil fired furnaces, will be buying biodiesel. No need to alter your heating system....many areas of the US already have suppliers who carry biodiesel mixes for home heating AND for transportation. Just call them and get on the schedule, that is easier than changing all your lightbulbs....and it is net-zero for CO2.

Buy a toasteroven. Whay heat up that big range just for a few pieces of popcorn shrimp? Using a toaster oven regularly instead of the range saves a bundle.

Using the microwave instead of the range top does the same to save kilowatts.

Use a clothesline. The dryer is one of the biggest users of either gas or electric in your house. A bit more labor intensive, but the savings are significant. (I can't seem to get this one into my family's head..LOL)

Ceiling fans. If you don't have them, get them. If you have them, spin them. All the time, all day and night. The amount of heating and cooling that collects against the ceiling and floors, and then leeches out, is huge. In the winter, a ceiling fan at its lowest speed, blowing air up, can save quite a bit in making the room comfortable at a lower thermostat setting.

Help to humidify in the winter by having plants in the house. It also helps clean out the stuffy air. Humid air in the winter helps make it more comfortable at lower thermostat settings. Put them outside in the summer when the humidity in the house is too high.

This list is endless......

I'm all for this one. I don't have one outside, but I do have one in my basement. I use it all the time and I think clothes last a lot longer. At least cotton doesn't shrink as much.

I was shocked when my parents told me the city council in the town they live in banned outdoor clothes lines. I guess they felt they looked too tacky.

Kevin

Regarding clotheslines and ordinances against using them. It's a ridiculous practise and should be outlawed. There is nothing unsightly about a line of fresh, clean wash and it shouldn't insult anyone's sensibilities. When I butted heads with my husband about installing a clothesline, I won. LOL. I waited until he was out of town, and bought the poles, line and concrete and installed them myself. I got the fold up unit so it wouldn't be in his way with the tractor when he mowed (his argument). When he was making bills out to post he mentioned he didn't know why our electric bill dropped nearly forty dollars a month. So, I told him. That has been ten years ago, and I imagine the savings are even more now, plus I love the fresh, clean smell of our laundry. We're talking five hundred dollars a year here, and a major energy savings for the earth.

I haven't seen room-type LEDs, but do use led nightlights and flashlights. Seems like rechargeable batteries, or solar batteries, and/or the mechanically charged flashlights like this one http://www.endtimesreport.com/LED_flashlight.html might be helpful.

Laundry drying -great in hot sunny climates, and good for humidifying the house inside here in the north, especially with a wood stove. Maybe getting rid of anti-laundry line ordinances would be a visible and practical activist step?

I'd like to see how much electricity a ceiling fan uses vs. how much fuel(of whatever kind) it saves in heat?

The toasteroven idea seems very practical.

We have saved a bundle with thermal window coverings!

My next entry for consideration is for a hotbox, or even just wrapping a stew, hot cereal, etc, in a couple of towels and leaving them to cook slowly for several hours. (No energy used, once the pot has been brought to boiling.)

Folks this list we are working on is really the best one I've seen. Please, keep your thoughts coming!

I know people who live in modern highly insulated houses full of energy saving appliances who consume vast amounts of energy anyway. Meanwhile, I live in a 130-something year old house full of old appliances and use very little energy. I might not have much insulation, but I keep the house at a moderate temperature and turn the heating down very low whenever I go out. My gas oven pre-dates energy ratings, it's from the 1950s, but I always prepare and cook multiple things at once, and I always use the lids on pans to save energy. If you have a pan with a glass lid you can see for yourself what a difference it makes. I never use a dryer. My fridge is pretty old too, but it's a small one and I keep it in a cool place. Same for the washer, it's from the 70s, but I always use it with a full load on a cool wash. Modern biological powders work just as well at low temperatures.

We do a lot to conserve energy, but the only devices we use to help us are low energy bulbs. Everything else is lifestyle. We certainly don't sit in the cold or dark either, which is the vision many people have when you talk about energy conservation. I always try to stress that we don't use less energy, instead we waste less energy.

Unless control of the household appliances and heating is taken away from the people who live in it, which is hardly practical or appealing, how can people save energy through technology when so much of it is about our habits rather than the device itself?

lots look at the idea with closed minds and narrow vision.

but it can be done and to suit every climate zone.

modern macmansion type homes are power pirates.

len

Lets see... Yes I have a clotheslines both in my basement and in the back yard for warmer weather.
Every fixture has a CF bulb, Outside lighting is LED, my dryer vents IN the basement during winter months. We have a setback 2 thermostats.

When we get cold rather than putting the temperature up.. we go down to the basement and put a load of wash in. We have the optional air flow box that will let the heat either vent in the basement or out side. So, we get the wash done and heat the house all in one...

In my attic we made the 4th and 5th bed rooms. (One is used as kids Play room) and because there was NO current heat I added a heat panel in each room. They are both controlled by a setback thermostat in the room that is used as the bedroom. The heat panels are the Econo Heat ones (more info avail at http://www.eheat.com/ ) anyway... Everyone asks me what I think of them.. YES, I would recommend them.

Another thing I bought was a Honeywell TE653ELW. With it we can see the actual Humidity and temperatures in and out of the house. It's great way to know when to open the windows...

Here is a link to where I bought my LED bulbs from...

http://cgi.ebay.com/66-LED-Energy-Saver-Household-Light-Bulb-110v-4-2-Watts_W0QQitemZ130084531558QQihZ003QQcategoryZ3201QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I have never understood people where I live who own a dryer. we get so little rain and even in winter its not hard to get clothes dry on an outside line, or just use an inside line like people used to over here. A clothes dryer is something I refuse to own, but so many people here own them and use them because they cant be bothered taking clothes out to the line! its insanity

I remember some talk about making insulation compulsory but there were concerns about the cost of it for first home buyers. I'm not sure what happened but we have a minimum energy rating for new houses these days so insulation would be one of the ways to achieve that. What really annoys me is the houses in upmarket older suburbs that have been extensively renovated and still have terrible energy ratings. (It's compulsory to include the energy rating in "For Sale" ads.) Maybe they could make it compulsory for people doing renovations and extensions to spend a certain percentage on energy efficient improvements. I'm not talking about placing a large financial burden on people who are adding on a garage or sunroom. But when an old doublebrick house on a large block gets two or three extra bedrooms, marble bathrooms, timber kitchen, ducted vac, swimming pool, etc, etc, you do wonder why they couldn't find the money for a solar hot water system or double glazing. Having said that, there have been some very intelligent old house makeovers.

Watching less TV would have multiple benefits (I started a TV Turnoff week in my town several years ago - it has become a big success.)

Curbside compost pick up (some cities have this, but not many.)

I wish there were an easy way to stop junk mail!!

As for your second questions "What's the easiest habit pattern to change?" That's a tough one. We have curbside pick up of paper, containers, and yard waste - and still only about half of the people bother to separate waste.

Maybe taking shorter/fewer showers? People seem so obsessed with being clean. Most of my dd's friends have a bath every night, dirty or not, and most people I know shower everyday and would think it disgusting not to. Honestly, most folks don't get that dirty working in an office, and it is not even healthy for skin or hair to be washed daily. I don't know how you could possibly market this - but I do remember a sixties slogan "Shower with a Friend!"

When we were shopping for a sofa we found one we liked the look of but after sitting down we soon started to feel the frame through the foam and it was only available in a choice of two colours of some sort of unspecified fabric with no care instructions. The salesman's attitude was that it was ideal for the family room, let the kids jump all over it and spill things on it and then throw it out. Our first sofa was a cheap first home buyers one and we got over twenty years use out of it!

We've made progress with recycling some things but we are still a throwaway society. We've got energy rating labels and water efficiency rating labels (and
Australian Standard labels, Heart Foundation ticks, cigarette packet warnings, etc) so why not something to remind people of the true cost of their consumerism.

By the way, a few years ago when we were shopping for a tap we were on the lookout for one with a good water efficiency rating. The scheme was new and most taps didn't have the sticker yet. One salesperson fobbed us off with "It must be a European thing, you don't need to worry about it, it's not relevant in Australia".

And how about requiring that any new products that run on electricity justify being released on the market. I mean did we really need plug-in air fresheners?

oh thats a great idea! I would love to see the return of more manual type appliances, and youre right macbirch, I dont know if those air freshners use much electricity but the whole idea is wasteful.

I agree that we do need to move away from manufacturing cheap rubbish and get back to more production of quality products that last and that get repaired, instead of the use for a few years, throw it out and buy another products which are so prolific. what a waste of resources.

Im very big on buying second hand, if its already been made and someone threw it away to buy something more shiny and new, I'll buy it, take it away, fix it, reuse it, I dont mind at all. People throw out perfectly good things everyday and we need more people to take up the second hand challenge and go the second hand way when they can and put some of these things back to use and out of the dumps.

Requiring items to be priced with the cost of disposal/recycling included would help cut consumption, too. Part of the problem we have is that, in too many purchases, the initial purchaser saves money by buying a cheap disposable item and skips on the costs of disposing of it. If that cheapo CRT TV came with two surcharges -- one to cover the extra electricity it uses over an LCD TV and another to cover the cost of disposing of the device when it's dead -- people would be paying more of the real cost of that device and would be more likely to choose an LCD TV (which still would come with a surcharge, but ....).

Pricing that way would encourage people to think about their purchases. Devices with low percentages of easily-recyclable materials would have greater surcharges levied on them. That big Dodge Durango would have surcharges based on the recyclability of parts, its fuel mileage, and the damage it does to the air (CO2/NOx emissions) and roads (based on weight). Those overpackaged kid's lunches would be priced based on the carbon cost of providing "meat" and all that plastic packaging. Legislating that people buy only what they need will fail miserably. But making sure they are paying the freight (literally) for what they buy can help them make better economic choices. Wouldn't hurt, either, to make "green the new black". A country that can establish classes based on what brand is on the backside of one's blue jeans and make pariahs out of people who smoke certainly can make it "cool" to conserve.

This is one that really bugs me. In the last few months I've had a few electronics die and I know it would cost more to get them fixed vs. just buying something new. You just don't know with these things if the problem is a simple fix or something major, but you really can't afford to take the chance since most repair places charge such a huge amount to even take a look at the thing.

Kevin

My husband and I got talking along similar lines the other evening. We were talking about the neighborhood where I grew up, and I mentioned the shoemaker on the corner. My kids were all confused - "shoemaker??" I told them that in the "old days", we actually brought our shoes to be repaired and didn't just throw them away and get a new pair. That got me to wondering when was the last time I saw a shoemaker's shop around. It just may have been the one on the street I grew up on all those years ago.

Dee

Speaking of electronics, I wonder how many puters end up in dumps?

Dumped computers are horrible toxic waste sites. Try to find an office supply store that recycles them. Some do it for free.

But first drill a few holes through your hard drive.

That's because small electronics (and even larger electronics and computers, FTM) are no longer designed to be repaired. They're designed to be cheap to manufacture, which encourages the use of non-replaceable attachment methods, the combination of functions. For example, many computer manufacturers put sound, video, and network circuitry all on the main system board (which probably is more accurately named the only system board), etc. This makes it difficult for you to upgrade subsystems (another savings for the manufacturer because now they don't have to provide logistics and tech support for that) and also means that a failed video chip leaves you with a repair that's beyond what it would cost to buy a (newer, faster) cheaper computer.

The lack of provisioning for repair makes it much more expensive/time-consuming to go in and try to fix things, which makes repairs by skilled technicians expensive. And considering that the price of these items is holding steady or even going down year after year, you get the situation we're in now, where frequently the work is done to provide an estimate and the client treats the product like the non-functional refuse it now is.

People would rage - most people look at their commute in terms of time spent on the road, rather than miles. It may seem a bit draconian...but the stiff smoking regulations in California made me quit (17 years 3 months ago...)

Let's bring the speed limit back down to 55.

However, I live on an island where there is only one place that the speed limit is as high as 55- everywhere else it is lower! Folks have adapted very well, especially since if one doesn't pay attention to road speed signs one is apt to go over a cliff or slide out on the ice. Hitting deer is also a real and constant problem.

It took a lot to get everyone in the 1970's to go to a lower speed limit, but it worked to reduce consumption, and it also lowered the fatality and injury rate very significantly. In an energy descent situation, where current emergency medicine supplies and facilities may not be as available, this would be a huge savings also.

Great idea! It may not be popular now, but it would sure work to help make the transition!

Regarding fix-it shops, this would be a good line of work for those wanting to find energy-descent jobs. When I was a kid we had shoe repair shops, doll hospitals to fix toys, mending stores (you can still find some of these),lamp repair shops, and even a place that repaired silk and nylon stockings for women.

Another topic being discussed right now is charging people directly for the rubbish they throw away. I don't object to this as such, it just has problems. The likely outcome is a dramatic increase in rubbish being dumped in inappropriate places as people try to avoid the charges, which ultimately causes the general public more expense and environmental damage, which cannot be a good thing. I'm convinced that as all items purchased will eventually have to be disposed of, then it seems fair to apply a disposal tax when it is sold. Pay for its full life cycle up front.

And I don't think we should look for the cheapest disposal options either, we should pay for the rubbish to be disposed of properly and safely somewhere as local as possible. Sending waste electrical goods to China or India for dangerous toxic processing is not a good thing, no matter how cheap it is. Nor is shipping vast quantities of plastic bottles half way around the world or continuing to dump TV sets full of lead in to landfills because it's cheaper for consumers. We should pay the full cost for safe disposal of waste items. If anyone objects to paying for throwing away their rubbish then they can just buy less things.

That is very true and something that goes on in Mpls all the time because we have a very generous trash removal system. People from the suburbs bring in their furniture, appliances, etc. and dump it in our alleys because they would have to pay to have it removed in their communities.

Most computers contain a low quality power supply that turns a significant amount of energy in to heat. The efficiency varies, but the average power supply is never going to go much above 60% efficient, and may average somewhere as low as 40-50% even. More efficient power supplies are available now, they average over 80% depending on load. I'm planning on installing one and expect it to save between 70-90 kWh a year. Potentially more, I don't actually know the average efficiency of my current power supply (cheap and old) so I just took the highest realistic rating of 60% for the maths. At this rate it will save me about £40 a year, so pay for itself within 12-18 months.

The added advantages are the computer will be quieter and a more stable power supply makes for a more stable computer too.