ENVIRONMENT

In the home or in the car, energy use costs money and the planet. Here are some bright ideas for saving both:  

1. Drive sensibly. Speeding, quick acceleration and heavy braking wastes petrol – potentially lowering your petrol efficiency by 33  percent. It also makes you look like an idiot. 
2. Combine errands into one trip. Several short trips, each one taken from a cold start, can use twice as much fuel as one trip covering the same distance when the engine is warm.
3. Replacing your old air filter can improve mileage by as much as 10 percent and protect your engine.
4. Reduce drag by placing items inside the car or boot rather than on roof racks. A loaded roof rack can decrease your fuel economy by 5 percent.
5. Consider buying a laptop for your next computer upgrade; they use much less energy than desktop computers.
6. There is a common misconception that screen savers reduce energy use by monitors; they do not. Automatic switching to sleep mode or manually turning monitors off is always the better energy-saving strategy.
7. Unplug battery chargers when the batteries are fully charged or the chargers are not in use.
8. Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher's drying cycle. Just the way nature intended your dishes to dry.
9. Speaking of drying, don't over-dry your clothes. If your machine has a moisture sensor, use it. As well as preserving energy, this will preserve your clothes.
10. Adequate insulation in your attic, ceilings, exterior and basement walls and floors can save you up to 30 percent on your power bill.
11. Insulate your hot water pipes, which will reduce heat loss and can raise water temperature 1 to 2 degrees centigrade hotter than uninsulated pipes. This allows for a lower water temperature setting.
12. Take a shower instead of a bath. Bathes uses the most hot water in the average household.
13. Planting shrubs, bushes and vines next to your house creates sitting air spaces that insulate your home in both winter and summer. Give at least half a metre of space between full-grown plants and the wall of your house.
14. Install fluorescent light fixtures for all lighting that will be on for more than two hours each day.
15. Turn off kitchen, bath and other ventilating fans within 20 minutes after you are done cooking or bathing to retain heated air.

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