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During the past 20 years, the author has watch China move from being a developing country into an industrial superpower
Money Moves, 5/24: Chocomize Co-Founder Fabian Kaempfer talks with Bloomberg’s Deirdre Bolton about the business of customizing chocolate
The president's campaign has a new rule—no cell phones allowed
In honor of remote control inventor Eugene Polley, we recognize other influential but neglected inventors who have felt the sting of stolen glory
Forget Adderall. Traders now pop chia seeds to stay focused and energized
The Italian automaker and others are adding hybrid technology to elite cars
The storied bridge that links San Francisco and Marin County changed the face of California
Schools cultivate ties with startups before they're big successes
Dave McClure's traveling venture capital show scours the world for promising startups
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|  | JUNE 1, 2004
By Amey Stone and Carol Vinzant Lean, Green Tips for Energy Savings [Page 2 of 2] Do some creative landscaping. Farmers used to do simple planting to make their house warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. They'd plant evergreens on the windy side (usually west) and deciduous trees on the sunny side (usually south). That would offer shade in the summer, but let the sun warm the house in the winter. Modern studies have proven that tree planting can save a quarter of a household's heating and cooling costs. One study showed that planting evergreens on just the west side reduces heating costs by 25%. Meter your old appliances. For roughly $100 or less you can get a "Watts-Up" or "Kill a Watt" plug-in power meter. Find out which household appliances are the biggest energy hogs.Make a game out of it, and you may even convince your spouse to stop using the energy-wasting remote control (The Energy Dept. estimates that Americans waste $3 billion a year powering home-electronics gear that's turned on but not in use.) Sell your surplus power back to the electric utility. Already got solar or a hydroelectric generator? "Net metering" programs allow customers who produce more electricity than they need to sell the surplus power back to the utility (although usually at a lower rate than what you pay for power). "Your meter sort of runs backward," explains Ellen Morris, president of consulting firm Sustainable Energy Solutions in Glen Ridge, N.J. "You're actually giving back to the grid, and they credit you." The programs vary by state. California offers good advice for everyone and benefits for state residents at www.fypower.com. You can check what your state offers at this Energy Dept. list.. For ways to generate your own power, check out Home Power Magazine. It's not just solar -- you can also buy a windmill or a hydroelectric generator designed for home use. Put in a geothermal heat pump. This is more of a construction project -- best done when you're upgrading your entire heating and cooling system, or, better yet, building a new home. It works this way: A series of underground pipes essentially move heat out of your home to the cooler ground in the summer. And in the winter, they pull the warmer air from the ground into your home. "Basically it makes it less work for the traditional heating and cooling system," says Morris. They're pricey, costing about $7,500 for a typical house. Yet, they use 25% to 50% less energy than conventional heating and cooling systems, according to the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium. The investment is recouped in 2 years to 10 years and the systems should last 20 years or more with little maintenance. Do your own energy audit online. A neat Web tool can make this exercise a lot more fun. Check out Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Home Energy Saver. It helps you estimate energy consumption and suggests savings opportunities like putting in storm windows, insulation, and caulking. Such projects may not have the cool factor of running your car on corn oil, but for most of us, they're the bread and butter of energy conservation.
 Stone is associate editor for BusinessWeek Online. Vinzant is editor of BusinessWeek Stock Trader. Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
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