I’ve done lots of research and writing on energy efficiency and have tried to incorporate much of what I’ve learned in my life. It’s a work in progress; I still use my fuel-efficient car (48 mpg on the highway) more than I’d like, though the brief surge in gasoline prices certainly became a motivating factor to drive less. And frankly, the price of all our resources should be a lot higher because a) they’re precious and finite and b) it’s the only realistic way most people will be motivated to take action.

Whether you believe in global warming, and humanity’s contribution to it, it’s impossible to dispute North American society is shamefully wasteful of our energy and water. Unfortunately, shame is unlikely to spur most folks to change their profligate ways. So I’ve come up with a top-10 list of things you can do to significantly cut your energy/resource use, without really having to change the way you live. For example, if you bought resource-efficient toilets, showerheads and a front-loading washing machine, you’d practically cut your indoor water use in half, without noticing anything more than a short-term dent in your wallet.

Some of these solutions are cheap or free. Others, like buying an energy-efficient refrigerator or washing machine, are considerably more expensive but don’t cost much more than an inefficient one if you’re thinking of replacing an aging appliance – plus they’ll save you lots in operating costs over their 15-year-plus lifespan. If you can’t justify some of the purchase prices or the thought of junking/recycling a big appliance/vehicle, you can always reduce your use, i.e. showering every other day, driving one less day a week, not flushing every time you pee.

1.     Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact-fluorescent lights (CFLs) – There’s really no excuse any more. CFLs have come way down in price – a typical bulb costs about $3 – their light quality is significantly improved, they’re getting smaller and they consume about 75 per cent less electricity and last about 10 times longer than a 50-cent incandescent bulb. In other words, it should pay for itself in less than half a year and provide annual energy savings of $8, per bulb, for many years thereafter. All you have to do is unscrew the old incandescent bulb and screw in the new CFL. Start by switching the five lights you use the most and add from there.

2.     Replace your showerhead with an energy-efficient model – This is another relatively cheap, effortless action with big results. By replacing a standard, 2.5 (US) gallon-per-minute (9.5-litre) showerhead with a 1.5-gallon (5.7-litre) model, you can cut your hot water shower use by 40 per cent, without changing your showering habits or noticing any difference in water pressure, if you buy a good model. Depending on the features you want, prices range from about $30 to nearly $100 (I got a top-of-the-line, 1.5-gallon Bricor model, though they’re harder to find in retail stores). Again, it can pay for itself in months. And if you replace a pre-1992 showerhead (upwards of four gallons a minute), your savings will be exponentially greater. Better still, learn to cut your 10-minute shower to five minutes or, for the hard core, take a “navy” shower – turning off or pausing the water while you apply soap and shampoo. When I do the latter, the water’s only running for about a minute. If you need added incentive, consider a family of four that takes daily 10-minute showers with a 2.5-gpm showerhead uses the same amount of treated water in six months as an average person drinks in a lifetime.

At the same time, unscrew your old faucet aerators and replace them      with low-flow models – about 7 litres (1.5 gallons) per minute for      bathroom and 9 litres (2 gallons per minute) for kitchen (about $4      each). They use half or less the water of older aerators, again with no      discernable change in performance.

3.     Buy an energy-efficient refrigerator – A bigger-ticket item - $600 and up for an 18.2-cubic-foot model – but with a huge impact. When I bought a sub-400-killowatt-year fridge five years ago, I cut its electricity use to about one-quarter of what the 1980 behemoth consumed, saving me about $120 a year. The newer model is also much quieter, keeps veggies crisp longer and eliminates the frost buildup in the freezer. While you’re at it, unplug that ancient, energy-guzzling beer fridge in the basement.

4.     Turn down your thermostat at night and when you’re away – For every one degree Celsius you lower the house temperature, for a minimum of eight hours, you can save two per cent on your heating bill.  For example, if you set back your thermostat from, say, 21 to 16 degrees C. at night and when you’re at work, you could save more than $200 over a six-month heating season. If you don’t want to make these adjustments manually every day, install a $50, programmable, electronic thermostat.

5.     Buy a low-flow toilet – Toilets can use upwards of 20 litres per flush and are typically the biggest water user/waster in most households. Buy a six-litre model (sometimes for as little as $100, often defrayed by a government rebate) and you’ll cut that per-flush volume to nearly one quarter. For a bit more money, get a dual-flush model (three- and six-litre buttons, for liquids and solids, respectively; some new models use as little as 4.8 litres for solids), and you’ll nearly cut that use in half again. The myth that low-flow toilets don’t work properly is no longer valid. Unfortunately, water is vastly under-priced in much of North America, so you may not notice a huge change in your utility bill, but you’ll feel good knowing you’re helping save our planet’s most precious resource.

6.     Reduce your gasoline consumption – It’s tough to break our addiction to the automobile, so as a first step here are a few tips to cut your gas use without reducing car use: 

• Stop idling (modern cars, for one thing, don’t need to be warmed up, even in winter) and you can save well over $100 a year in fuel costs. Put another way, idling gets you zero miles per gallon.
   

• For every 10 kilometres per hour you cut your highway speed, you’ll reduce your fuel consumption by about 10 per cent, plus probably feel more relaxed. Note: In a recent, short experiment on a busy Alberta freeway, I set my cruise control to the 110-kph speed limit; in about 10 minutes, 40 vehicles passed me and I passed five, three of them big trucks. Put photo radar on our highways and we could a) cut speeding and b) help pay for more energy rebate programs
   

• Aggressive driving habits – “jackrabbit” starts from stops, speeding, darting in and out of traffic and braking hard – can increase fuel consumption by as much as 37 per cent and increase some toxic emissions fivefold.  Thus, simply retraining your right foot to be gentler can result in big fuel savings… and fewer accidents.
   

• According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, you can improve your mileage by as much as 10 per cent by replacing a clogged air filter and by about three per cent by keeping your tires properly inflated.
  
  Once you’ve mastered these habits, try commuting one day a week by bicycle, bus or carpool or work that day at home. Also, try combining as many errands as possible in one trip. I mean, do you really need to go to the mall on both Saturday and Sunday?
  
  If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, buy the smallest, most fuel-efficient model that meets your everyday needs. And take a look at the growing list of turbo diesels, which get terrific mileage and, under new regulations, pollute less.

7.     Replace your old washing machine with a front-loading model – If you’re buying a new machine, this is a no-brainer. As Europeans have long known, front loaders clean better, leave clothes drier and less damaged and, most important, use about half the hot water and electricity of top-loading models. A typical family of four will save $150 in utility costs and more than 33,000 litres of water per year. Prices have also come down, starting at less than $800.

8.     Make a “renewables” donation to offset your energy use – Many utility companies now allow customers to pay, say, $5 or $10 a month to support wind power projects and help offset their coal-fired power use. Also, more airlines allow customers to purchase credits for renewable projects, like tree planning, that offset the carbon impact of their flights. Still, it makes an environmentally-conscious person pause before buying a round-trip flight between Calgary, Canada and Sydney, Australia, which produces about 2.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per passenger – more than half the five tonnes of greenhouse gases the average Canadian generates per year from all their activities.

9.     Improve your house insulation – In a typical northern-climate home, some 15 per cent of the building heat is lost through the roof. A quick solution, often for well under $1,000, is to have cellulose insulation blown into the attic, bringing the rating up to about R-40. For a much cheaper fix of about $20 or $30, install or replace weather stripping around doors and caulk air leaks around windows, electric sockets and plumbing fixtures. The air leaks in an older home can add up to a hole a large dog could crawl through.

10.  Replace an aging furnace with a high-efficiency model – This is the biggest-ticket item, other than buying a new car, on the list, with an installation price of around $4,000 or $5,000 (though rebates are often available). But considering a furnace accounts for up to 60 per cent of all the energy consumed in an average Canadian house, the impact can be tremendous, cutting your heating bills by at least 25 per cent. While you’re at it, install a DC variable-speed motor and save roughly 30 per cent of the power used to run the furnace fan, which is typically the second-largest consumer of electricity, behind only the refrigerator, in most northern homes.

For more information on energy-efficiency actions you can take, check www.climatechangecentral.com (I’ve written these action sheets).