Happy Earth Day! Since I know only one other person besides us went and watched the really awesome documentary I posted yesterday, I’ve made a list of some of the easiest and most effective things we all can do to use less energy in our very own homes besides things like unplugging cellphones, switching your light bulbs to CFLs, or such.

Home Energy Saver

When people ask me what the best thing to do to make their home more efficient and save money is, I tell them to go to this site. Enter your zip code, answer a few (or several, depending on how accurate you want it to be) questions about your house and they’ll run a yearly simulation, predict your energy use, and tell you the best things you can do to decrease your energy use as well as your estimated return on investment. And they aren’t just pulling numbers out of the air, trust me, I know.

Wash your dishes in the dishwasher

Yep, it uses less of your energy as well as less energy from your utility company. Just don’t rinse them before putting them in the machine. I promise it will still work. Scrape, not rinse.

Dry your clothes on a clothesline

With the weather getting warmer out, you can now utilize that time you would have spent washing dishes to get some fresh air and hang your clothes on the line.

Use the toaster oven as an oven

It uses half the energy of your regular oven, so if you’re cooking something small enough to fit, this is your best option. This is especially useful during the summer since it won’t heat your house as much as an oven.

For more information

EnergySavers has a great site with all sorts of ideas on how to use less and pay less. And you’re always welcome to shoot me an email or leave a comment. I can go on about this stuff for hours, you have no idea what sort of restraint I had to use to keep this post this concise.