Solar Landscaping Lights are an excellent way to be versatile & save electricity. These lights will increase visibility and safety at night without the hassle of running electric lines and the expense of keeping them lit. They can be installed anyplace in your yard, driveway and even on your dock. Prices range, but start out at $19.99. Visit www.mysolarshop.com for a wide variety of solar products.

Energy Star Products

With the U.S. Department of Energy & U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now putting their seal of approval on over 50 products, it makes the consumer's job a lot easier. Most think of appliances earning the Energy Star ranking, but now heating and cooling, home electronics, office equipment, lighting and other products have approved products. Visit the Energy Star website and consider making the designation a requirement for your next purchase.

Watt Stopper

Save energy by controlling your desktop equipment. This power strip consists of 8 outlets. Six are controlled by occupancy sensor and the other two are uncontrolled. So, your computer information is safe, but the unnecessary equipment will shut down when you are out of the room. All strips have surge suppression, a lifetime warranty and $25,000 connected equipment warranty. Visit www.wattstopper.com for more information.

Kill A Watt

Just plug a Kill A Watt EZ into an electrical outlet, then plug any appliance or device to find out how efficient it really is... or isn't. Large LCD show power consumption by the kilowatt hour. Click here to order.

Vacancy Sensors

Vacancy Sensors are a great energy saving device. The sensors use passive infrared technology to detect occupancy and automatically turn off lights when no one is in the room. The sensors replace any standard wall switch at a cost of $40 and with a simple installation.

Wind Power

Residential wind power is now here! It is economical, dependable, quiet and safe. Turbines can be hooked up to the grid with a licensed electrician and are stackable. They run about $3,000 but many states offer rebates and/or incentive that can offset the price. Visit www.pacwind.net to purchase one for your home!

Buying paints with Low VOC is better for the environment and healthier for the painter and anyone who comes into contact with that room. Traditional household paints contain cancer-causing toxins that can still be released into the air years after drying. Low or zero VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paints are easily obtained. Sherwin-Williams and Pittsburgh Paints are a good choice or look for the greenseal or SCS (Scientific Certification Seal) label. This is one product you will smell and feel the difference as you are using it.

Programmable Thermostats are an excellent way to save on high heating costs. These devices allow you to program the temperature in your house throughout the day. So, while you are at work or the kids are at school, you save energy by lowering the temperature. Set it to heat up before you return and you'll never now the difference... until you get your heating bill! Energy Star estimates that a programmable thermostat can save up to $150 each year! These thermostats are even easy to install by just attaching the three color-coded wires at your current thermostat location.

Green Drying

Re-usable dryer balls can reduce drying time by 25% and soften clothes without the use of fabric softeners. As the clothes tumble in the dryer, the balls lift and separate the clothes to allow better air flow.

How about outdoor drying? Forget those unsightly clothes lines, try this bamboo towel and clothes dryer. Practical, ecological and downright good looking! (but, please, no underwear! Your neighbors just don't need to see 'em) Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet!

Compost

Yard and food waste make up 30% of waste in the United States. Instead, turn your waste into a rich fertilizer for your vegetable or flower garden.

Put grass, leaves, sawdust, dead plants and old potting soil from outside into your composite heap. No weeds! From your kitchen use items such as coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable and fruit scraps, egg shells, bread and more. No meat!

Composting no longer requires an unsightly pile in your yard that requires back breaking turning. Instead, use a tumbler composter as pictured at right. Add your items and give it a turn frequently. In about 6 weeks, you will have a rich soil that will feed your garden.

You can even manage your kitchen scraps easily with an under sink container (top). The filtered top even eliminates odors.

Drop the Gym Membership and Mow the Lawn

Remember the old push mowers? Well, they're back and mowing your lawn is greener than ever!. No gas needed -- no loud engines -- and the newer models are light, easy to maneuver and more efficient than ever!

Green Shopping

Paper or Plastic? How about neither?
Reusable shopping bags are the friendliest way to shop! Use them over and over again and keep the plastic out of the landfill and out of your cupboards!

Bottled Water doesn't need new bottles!
Find refillable jugs at your local retailer and save! Filtered water in these jugs is just .33¢ compared to about $1 per gallon in the one-use jugs. Even refill those single 12-oz. bottles instead of buying new ones at $1.00 /bottle! Save on manufacturing and recycling costs as well as space in the landfill.

Rechargeable Batteries

Rechargeable batteries will require a larger initial outlay of money, but will definitely save you money in the long run. These batteries can be restored to full charge up to 500 times. That's 500 batteries you don't have to buy and 500 batteries kept out of the landfill.

Rechargeable batteries are easier to find than in the past. Battery manufacturers such as Energizer are producing the batteries and chargers and selling them right next to their alkaline competition. Chargers are available as electric, solar and even car adapters.

Go one step further and find a place to recycle the rechargeable batteries near you at www.call2recycle.com

Rainbarrels are an excellent way to 'go green.'

Plants love it -- Unchlorinated rainwater has no added chemicals and is usually soft and free of dissolved minerals.
Conserving water is always smart
Control stormwater runoff
Save money
Store water for any electrical outages

A search for 'rainbarrels' will offer a wide choice of online vendors or even plans to build your own. Most of the barrels, themselves, made from recycled materials.

It is as easy as changing a lightbulb:

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.*

ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs:

Use at least 2/3 less energy than standard incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light, and last up to 10 times longer.
Save $30 or more in energy costs over each bulb’s lifetime
Generate 70 percent less heat, so they’re safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
In addition to other quality requirements, must turn on instantly, produce no sound, and fall within a warm color range or be otherwise labeled as providing cooler color tones.
Are available in different sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture, for indoors and outdoors.

*Information taken from the Government Energy Star website.