As Congress meets today and tomorrow to grill the principals before Friday’s vote on the $700 billion “emergency” Wall Street bailout plan (which has been in the works for months but strategically dumped on us all as an “emergency”), oil companies have instituted “rolling shortages” all over the Southeast. Some areas have been out of gas for more than a week and a half, and the situation is not expected to ease until Monday at the latest. Some gas – a single tanker at a time – is being delivered to stations along the Interstates and is being strictly rationed unless it’s diesel, one station per county.

State police are managing the gas lines to prevent violence, which did break out last week in the Nashville, Tennessee area when people started cutting in line. Food prices are rising so fast the stock boys at the grocery stores can’t mark up the goods fast enough, and the specter of looming fuel shortages for winter heat – or price increases that will force people to do without – is beginning to look very scary.

Bailout or no bailout – and despite the launch of FBI investigations of Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG – the United States may well be fully in the clutches of major economic depression before winter even hits. Whether or not that translates to global recession isn’t much of an issue to regular people, as we here in our own homes wonder how we will survive. This post and several following posts in a new series will take a look at the steps citizens should take as soon as possible to ensure their families will make it through the next 6 months. If depression goes on longer than that, additional strategies will be necessary, some already compiled as series in this blog and available under the “Our Most Popular” header on the left side of the page.

Here in Part 1 there are two broad categories of concern citizens will have to work around in order to do for themselves, particular to not freezing, not starving, and not getting indefinitely detained or killed. Considerations must start NOW.

Things to Plan Around:

1. Availability of home heating fuel/gasoline.

It is quite likely that there will be rolling gas shortages throughout the next year. We can also fairly assume there will be drastic fuel oil shortages in the northern tier of the country, and that many will unfortunately freeze to death in their homes or die of carbon monoxide poisoning from kerosene heaters, or fires from badly planned fireplace/wood stove installations.

If you live in an area with ample woods with standing or down dead or a brisk firewood market for purchase, or availability of wood stove pellets, get yourself a wood stove. These come in all sizes and thicknesses, some need more protection to floors and walls than others. You will also need stove piping and must plan a way to get the smoke outside your house (can be through a removed windowpane if necessary). Stoves are often available reasonably cheap and in good condition through Craig’s List or other re-sale sources. Do your homework, install it correctly. If the electricity goes out or fuel oil is unavailable, your family will still be warm. AND you can cook on it!

Resource: NASD: Proper Installation, Operation and Maintenance

2. Deployed Troops, Curfews, Travel Restrictions, Rationing.

Beginning on October 1st – next week – the US Army’s Third Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team – all 6500 to 8000 troops – will be re-deployed within the borders of the United States for various police functions. Regular police forces are being deployed for crowd control and peacekeeping functions as well, in managing protests, gas lines and runs on banks, grocery stores, etc. Expect to be challenged every time you go out, be thankful when it doesn’t happen.

Important: In case of travel restrictions, try to gather your immediate family in one place, preferably the place among your extended network best situated according to all considerations. Schools may be shut down due to lack of fuel for transportation and/or heating, if you have college-bound offspring, consider taking a couple of semesters off unless things at the college look stable. Don’t be afraid to call the admin and ask pointed questions, either. You won’t want anyone near and dear to you to be stuck someplace where they have no resources.

What this means is you need to do what stocking up you can immediately, and plan for obtaining the rest of your needs in possibly creative ways. If you have money socked away, withdraw enough to get you through if the bank goes under, all of it if they’ll let you have it. Store ready cash in freezer bags in the freezer. Purchase as much staple supplies as you can possibly afford, NOW before there are serious shortages and before the prices double or triple.

What food supplies you will need to obtain, along with other tools and supplies, will be supplied in Part 2 of this series. Please stay tuned!

Links:
Southeast Gas Update
FBI investigating companies at heart of meltdown
Long Term Capitol
Craig’s List: Great Resource or Scary Place?
20 Ways to Live on Almost Nothing
It’s Better Than Cheap… It’s Free!

Posts to This Series:

Part 1: Roadblocks and Interference
Part 2: Food: Eating What You Can Get

Last month I asked the question, Is It Depression Yet? and linked quite a few opinions of economic pundits about when the recession no one in DC cares to admit we’re in will turn into a full-fledged depression.

In going down the list of ominous signs that we’re going down for the third time, the key ingredient apart from a burst credit bubble was rising oil prices. Well, this last weekend gasoline went over $4 a gallon, and diesel was pushing $5. So while families and workers in cities can start taking mass transit to work and school and just stay home this summer instead of driving to the Grand Canyon, the price of diesel – which runs all our shipping fleets, trucks and trains – is going to cause swift inflation in the price of food as well as everything else that is transported from here to there. It is no longer a wild conspiracy theory that oil will go to $200 a barrel, now projected by the end of this year and possibly right around election time. It could hit $150 this month and no one will be shocked.

Thus I read with interest an article in the June 9 New York Times entitled Rural U.S. Takes Worst Hit as Gas Tops $4 Average. A survey by the Oil Price Information Service did a survey which showed that the price of gasoline has its biggest impact on rural areas, particularly in the Southeast, and that for the people euphemistically called the “working poor” the cost of just getting to work and to the store is quickly eating as much of their income as food and housing. Since their incomes are not rising and aren’t likely to rise, the situation for people in rural areas of the south, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas will soon become a choice between food and transportation.

In that previous post asking what signs will tell us we’re in a depression (since our dear leaders in Washington will never admit it), the moment that transportation becomes effectively unaffordable for people who have no other transport options, depression is upon us. Now, the millions of rural or suburban Americans who have to quit their jobs because they can no longer afford to get to work will not show up in the unemployment figures the government releases each month. Because if you quit your job rather than getting laid off, you won’t be getting any unemployment insurance payments. So the government figures – always low by a large factor due to not counting anyone not receiving benefits, will be low by much larger factors. When we can safely multiply the government figures by tens (where 300,000 lost jobs really means more like 3 million jobs lost), denial among the political class won’t be fooling anybody in the real world.

Mine is a rural family. Worse, we live in the hard-hit Southeast. Even worse than that, we live in Appalachia, which is and has always been an official “economically depressed region.” Jobs are scarce and getting scarcer, and commutes can be long. Outside actual cities of 100,000 or more mass transit is nonexistent. I work from home (which is nice), but daughter works in retail, grandson will be starting college this fall (and must drive unless he can share an apartment with a friend close to campus), and hubby’s job involves considerable travel in the region. The boss tells him that if gas goes to $5 a gallon he’ll have to simply close it down.

So what I’ve been doing is looking at some possible alternatives that don’t involve selling the property at cut-rate price and moving to some dingy city we’ll hate. My ‘vintage’ diesel Mercedes has been parked for months now, is probably going to be the first vehicle to go. Daughter’s will be second. We have to keep the pickup truck because this is a rural homestead and we need it. We’ll just have to keep it parked most of the time.

I’m thinking our best bet is some motorcycle type of thing. Because while a bicycle would be a healthful alternative, this is the mountains. No one in their right mind wants to bike 15 miles to work on steep mountain roads (where you’d end up walking it instead of riding it). So it looks to be your basic Barley Harley scooter or glorified Moped that gets about 100 miles per gallon. With that sort of mileage you can put up with some rain and wind, and spend a bit more time getting to and from (can’t use the interstate!). Turns out that you can buy a used scooter for a few hundred dollars, but it may need repair and that’s usually a few hundred dollars too. Yet fairly reliable transportation for under a thousand dollars is a pretty good deal, and the cost of running it saves a lot on gasoline. There are also brand new scooters for under a thousand dollars, which might be a wiser investment.

I’ve discovered that you can also buy saddlebags, trunks and baskets that would allow me to use the scooter to do minor grocery shopping or carry some things while traveling. This is quite a plus. A good ski outfit and well-styled rain gear will get me through rough weather, but do they make any helmets with windshield wipers?

So if rising prices are cutting deeply into your way of life, you might want to check around your area and some of the information and supplies sources listed below to see if there’s a good alternative for personal transportation in your future. Or, I suppose, we could spend the money on a horse and convert the little Honda into a carriage. How about a donkey and cart? I figure that if America wants to be a Third World country (parts of it already qualify), we might as well look like one.

Links:

Rural U.S. Takes Worst Hit as Gas Tops $4 Average
Go Motor Scooter Blog
Motoscooter Muse
The Advantages of Scooters
Motorscooter Economy

As we start moving into summer I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some economic predictions made way back in 2007 by an “informed” opinionator over at Sustainable Living’s Natural Hub, a Q&A piece entitled Timing of a depression triggered by high oil prices.

An Overview of unfolding recession as the oil economy fades was published in 2006 explaining the various factors that would mark a worldwide recession due to increasing oil prices. Some of its indicators have long since come and gone, others have been with us for years already, and some of the predictions have come true in these last few months. For those of us living in the real world, recession and ‘stagflation’ have been facts of life for years despite the mainstream news media’s reluctance to actually use the word when reporting on where speculators have taken futures on oil and food supplies lately. They won’t use the ‘D’ word either [depression], but here’s a list of signs that it’s already upon us.

Sign 1. “For there to be a deep recession, there first has to be a credit bubble – a high level of personal indebtedness in the community.”

Well, this one’s sure a no-brainer! Hopefully most readers of this blog have made real efforts to minimize or get out from under personal debt over the past few years (exempting mortgage issues), or were never deeply in debt in the first place. Those who consolidated credit card and other installment loan debts by refinancing when the mortgage boom was on may be facing serious issues with that mortgage now, but that’s such a huge issue that if mortgage debt is the biggest of your worries, you’re doing pretty well.

Sign 2. “Will the collapse of the housing bubble trigger a depression?”

The speculative real estate frenzy was maintained by artificially low interest rates maintained by government need to sell federal junk bonds to overseas investors (mostly China) in order to finance oil imports and maintain massive military costs for its 2-front wars. The “housing bubble” has officially collapsed.

This expert claims that the collapse is enough to trigger deep recession, but not enough to trigger a depression. For that, you need something more…

Sign 3. “Will rising oil prices trigger a depression?”

Short answer: Yes. The expert opinion prognosticating how this would work is positively eerie looking back from here inside the deepening worldwide depression (complete with global food crisis). Check it out…

“First, the credit bubble has to collapse [done]. Next, oil has to become structurally expensive [done]. A reasoned guess post-credit-collapse would be when oil both reaches and maintains a price of close to $US80 a barrel [it's at ~$120 a barrel now and still rising]. …At the point of oil settling at or over $80 for a year or longer there is likely to be structural (oil component of goods price adjustment) inflation of 10% – 20%. At this point, if price movements in 2005 are a guide, petrol may reach close to $US4 a gallon at the pump [it's well over $4 a gallon for diesel with no indications it will ever come down]. This will make petrol effectively unaffordable for many low income people who have no other transport options (chiefly a USA condition).

Huh. This expert put off the scenario in his own mind until 2015, but we already know that expert economists like to pretend things are always better than they really are. So for a final sign of depression…

Sign 4. “How many months or years will a deep recession last before it becomes a depression?

Most of us at the lower end of the economic scale know by our own community and regional experience that the government isn’t reporting real unemployment figures, and isn’t even counting most of the people who are unemployed at any given time (number-fudging, basing reports entirely on who’s getting unemployment money this week). This expert suggests that when we reach 25% to 30% unemployment, when part-time workers have less work than they want, when there are “few business start-ups,” when tax take no longer equals expenditures, when food prices have doubled and when the trend is “no end in sight” for those conditions, we will be in a depression.

It is very difficult to find real figures for unemployment and underemployment in the U.S. these days. TNTalk figures that rates are routinely underestimated by 150%. Which as of April 2008 would put real unemployment at very nearly 15%. Another source places the total defacto unemployment rate at a firm 13.3%. If we add those part-timers (people who have gone from full employment to inadequate part-time jobs), we may already be at 25% for all practical purposes of making ends meet in working class America.

We are there, despite government figure-fudging on unemployment. The trigger events this expert cite will be; a) when oil is so expensive that most low income earners can’t afford to run a car, b) when food and retail prices in general have risen by 20%. These conditions – if they do not already prevail in your locality – should affect a majority of the population by summer. 2008, not 2015.

The whole essay is worth reading for its historical value if nothing else. The wildly errant projections of when all this may come to pass seem positively infantile considering this was written just a year ago. Gold has risen, the dollar has fallen and keeps on falling, oil is over $100 a barrel and NOT coming down, the credit bubble has burst, millions are threatened with immediate homelessness, oil is too expensive for truck fleets, trains, shipping and home heating, and jobs are few and far between.

It behooves concerned citizens to ignore what government Pollyannas are telling us month to month, instead arranging our affairs as if reality on the ground is the reality we must deal with. Because it is. We cannot expect experts in or out of government to tell us the truth, or to help anybody out of their increasingly untenable situations. Further postings to what people can do while living inside a real world-wide economic recession will be forthcoming, so stay tuned!

And don’t forget to plant some ‘maters and peas, even in patio pots if that’s all the room you’ve got. Nobody will be able to afford those at the grocery store this year!

Links:

Is It a Recession? Or a Depression?
Overview of unfolding recession as the oil economy fades
Timing of a depression triggered by high oil prices
Sustainable Living: The Fading of the Oil Economy

Perhaps many readers have become aware of the looming worldwide food shortage, there was a story on NPR’s The World just Monday night (March 31) about rising tensions in the bread lines of Egypt. London’s Guardian reported this past November that the crisis can be attributed to climate change (crop failures and ag diversion of rice and wheat crops) and fuel shortages – both the increasing price of petroleum fuels for transportation and agriculture as well as the diversion of staple food crops like soybeans and corn toward biofuels production.

Soaring grain prices are now exploding into full-fledged food riots in many corners of the planet, while Americans are stunned by rising prices every time they go to the grocery store. As of December, 2007 the UN Food and Agricultural Organization reported that 37 countries face immediate food crises, and 20 nations had imposed some form of food-price controls. Reuters lays additional blame on panicked speculators trading on global futures markets in the wake of recession fears fueled by the increasing defaults among Wall Street’s investment banks and stock market gamblers.

But there is hope on the horizon, particularly for those of us who were smart enough to purchase diesel powered vehicles, despite the ruinous and increasing costs of gasoline. That hope is a new source for producing biodiesel (which can run the entirety of our transportation system, including passenger cars if GM can be persuaded to come off their new diesel they’ve been sitting on in joint patent with the EPA).

Ride Lust reports that a new process to produce biodiesel from algae – thus leaving staple food crops for people who eat staple foods – may be ready to hit the market. Green Fuel Technologies has begun construction on a “Closed Water Algae” bioreactor facility that will feed from the smoke stacks of a local power plant. PetroSun has also announced that their many acres of algae ponds will be going commercial today – April 1st!

The Closed Water System technology uses energy from the sun and carbon dioxide from industrial smoke stacks to feed the algae growth, thereby ‘closing’ the carbon dioxide loop from fuel use to fuel production. This is an exciting development. Biodiesel is readily available in my locale because the nearest city requires all its mass transit and truck fleets to run on biodiesel, thus it’s available from several area stations. The problem is that it’s still more expensive than regular diesel, and goes up at the same rate as petro-diesel. That is mostly due to greed, of course, since I’m not dumb enough to believe any producers or dealers are actually pouring the excess profits into greater R&D or production. But one day soon regulators will step in, producers will recognize the gold mine doesn’t need seeding, and distributors will remember that they’ve plenty of underground tanks at truck stops that could fuel the shipping fleets. And the price will go down.

If biodiesel development can be made to go with switchgrass, algae and agricultural green-waste instead of actual food humans need to survive, basic staple food prices should go down too. Even if the financial sector goes into deep depression, you can’t have bread lines when there’s no bread. And nobody can make a market killing if nobody’s got any money to spend. So in addition to growing your Victory Garden this year to supplement your own family’s food supply, we should all be cheering these alternative biodiesel sources and technologies, helping to support production and getting in line for demand. Governments aren’t going to fix our problems. We’ll have to do it!

Ford Prodigy, cutaway view of a ‘concept’ car we could someday be able to buy… maybe. Or not.

The 100 miles per gallon car. One that carries four adults, has all the safety features that protect in accidents but weigh a lot. Peter Diamandis’ X Prize Foundation has turned their focus from space travel to automobiles. The automotive X Prize went live in April of 2007 at the New York Auto Show with a $10 million award to the winning designers of a production-ready vehicle capable of exceeding 100 mpg.

It’s not that hard to get 100 miles per gallon if you don’t mind a seriously “minimalist” vehicle. Heck, if you make it lighter than a motorbike and gin it up with solar cells, it’s not that hard to get 1,000 miles per gallon (downhill, with a tailwind, driver lying flat). But the solar cell idea isn’t that bad, now that we hear there are new plastic coatings that will generate even in low-light situations. And what about a hood scoop to use the wind of forward motion to help charge those batteries too?

Here’s hoping that a 100 mpg production vehicle that meets all safety and practical criteria does get invented. That of course won’t necessarily convince Detroit to actually make any of them, and it’s a sure bet that any designers who use the $10 million to gear up their own factory will be held to a strict quota on how few of the vehicles they’ll actually be able to produce per year (corporate welfare to Detroit). Heck, GM is still sitting on their new diesel engine (joint patent with EPA) developed years ago, that can get 60+ mpg on biodiesel. They’ll never deploy it until America demands it.

Meanwhile, Toyota’s selling more hybrids than Detroit is selling anything, though the tax incentives have sunset and the import lid is still screwed on tight. What does it take to convince these old robber barons that we need the technology they’ve been sitting on just so nobody can have it? When do we get our 100 mpg hybrids? At what point do we taxpayers quit bailing them out of their stupid decisions and let them die the death they’ve so richly deserved since the 1970s?

Other sources tell us 100 mpg hybrids already exist – but you have to build them yourself. Guess I need to get me and my ‘vintage’ diesel Mercedes into an auto shop class down at the local community college, see if I can’t convert it into an SVO-Electric hybrid using that hood scoop idea and some nice new solar cells the college can probably order at cost… we could all learn the mechanics and details, open a conversion shop, and have about half the locals in 100 mpg’s before 2010!

Links:

Progressive Automotive X PRIZE
Popular Mechanics: 100 mpg Available Now!
Edmunds: Automotive X Prize Seeks 100-mpg Car
MSN Money: 100 mpg Car is Coming

This is the second installment of the 20 ways to live on little-to-nothing. Obviously, not all of these alternatives will appeal to everyone. But perhaps some will appeal to some.

6. Personal Housing for the Gypsy Tread-Lightly

If your lifestyle doesn’t require thousands of square footage consider the advantages of an RV or travel trailer. No, not one of those $200,000 new fancy jobs, but one just “big enough” and in desperate need of some handy TLC.

Getting “free” will take more ingenuity that most people have to spend, but getting “cheap” is entirely possible. Unless you’re a serious mechanic, travel trailers are a much better option than RVs or old city buses that probably need totally rebuilt engines. A trailer can be moved as regularly as necessary (many state and national forest sites have 2-week limits) so long as you’ve something to haul them with.

7. Take Advantage of Gypsy Food Sources

If you move around quite a bit, you’ll have more opportunities than most people to take advantage of wild foods along the back roads and byways of your travels. Did you know that your basic cattails are a regular supermarket of goodness? Or that acorn flour makes great bread or breakfast mush that’s extremely healthy? Did you know that violets, tiger lilies and nasturtium flowers make a very tasty salad?

There are apple and pear trees that have escaped old homesteads, often right beside the road. In some producing regions you can glean fruit from orchards after main harvest. Grapefruit, oranges, peaches, apples, sometimes cherries and grapes as well. Truck and grain crops can sometimes be gleaned as well, allowing you to pick vegetables that weren’t ripe for the main harvest and will otherwise be left to rot.

8. A Place Of Your Own

Free land? In the 21st century? Believe it or not, there are towns in the Midwest offering land for free to people willing to build new homes within 2 years. Of course, this means you’ve got to invest in building a new house, and that’s certainly not zero cost! Do not be fooled – the US Government [BLM] stopped offering free land in 1976. You can’t just go claim some.

Yet an industrious and/or well-connected professional caretaker could end up with space enough to put a home in exchange for simply living there to take care of things! That way you don’t have to “stuff-less” or rootless, your home is your own. This takes some diplomatic skills and might take years to work yourself into, but there are people who got their property (including yard and garden!) for free on a corner of someone else’s property.

9. No-Cost Housing for the Handy

People might be surprised at what’s available out there for those willing to do the work or bargain with others for the services. Older houses on acreage that’s being subdivided for development are often given away rather than simply torn down, but you’ll have to move it to where you want it. Those who can build and re-build can often tear them down and keep everything for rebuilding on their own property. Which is often much cheaper than moving a farmhouse…

Careful inspection to decide the best relocation option is required. If that house will fall apart two blocks down the road, you’ll be better off just taking it down and hauling it off in pieces. Building materials, bathroom fixtures, plumbing, wiring and electrical box equipment, kitchen cabinets, cabinets and even sinks are often available for free where a developer is tearing down older dwellings to make way for new too.

10. Powering Your Living Space

Cost of electricity is always going to be with us, it seems. Still, there are alternatives out there that a handy person could make good use of. There are ways to obtain free solar panels that would make a real dent in a traveling home or even a stationary one. If you’ve some land of your own or you end up in a community of like-minded people, think about developing a diversified alternative system.

Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Items 1-5
Part 2: Items 6-10
Part 3: Items 11-15
Part 4: Items 16-20

In addition to the good ideas in this video, there are other things you can do through the year to save energy. For instance, I use the gas grill for canning in the summer. Canning is an energy-intensive project even if you grow your own as I do, which can make your home grown cost more than just buying canned goods at the store. The gas costs less than electricity, heats more efficiently (it’s nearly impossible to get my canner boiling on my electric stovetop!), and it’s outside – doesn’t heat the house.

For all-day type soups, stews and beans from dry in the winter, I put the pot on top of the wood stove instead of in the crock pot or on the stove. Cooks just fine, doesn’t boil dry if it’s covered adequately and set properly, costs nothing!

Here are some of the best ways to conserve energy and water that are being touted at present. Some of you can put to good use right now, and some of you will want to seriously consider through the coming year as your income allows you to replace things or renovate for a more efficient lifestyle. If you can save a couple thousand dollars a year on your electric and water bills, you’ll have that much more money to spend or save! Check ‘em out…

1. Time Your Energy Usage. It may surprise some people, but the time of day that you use energy has a significant effect on the costs you pay for the privilege. What you want to avoid is using energy during “peak” hours, when drains on the grid are highest. Whenever peak usage goes beyond what can be provided by your local utility, that utility is forced to purchase excess energy from other utilities at a premium. Do a little research on your local utility’s web site by searching “usage” and “peak,” time your laundry, bathing and baking to when demand is lowest.

2. Downsize Your Appliances. Do your laundry loads not take up enough room to justify the water anymore? Get a smaller, more energy-efficient washer! Consider hanging laundry outside to dry if you can, or use in-utility room drying racks for dress clothes, delicates and sweaters. Dryers are notorious energy-hogs.

3. Save Water! Municipal water supplies are under increasing pressure as droughts become longer and more serious, to the point where wasteful water usage is becoming an environmental ‘sin’. Ways to conserve are many. Take shorter showers, turn the water off while soaping. Get rain barrels and put your gutter rainspouts into them. You can drain from the top to make sure they don’t overflow, install a spigot at the bottom to which you can attach a hose. Use this water for your garden, lawn or car washing. Install low-flow toilets, and pressure-increasing shower heads. Wash and rinse clothes in cold water, as full as your machine allows. Naturalize your lawn space with low-water plants native to your area or rock gardens – saves on mowing too!

4. Turn Your Electronic Gizmos OFF at Night. That’s computers, VCRs, DVD players, stereo/radios, any gizmo that has a red light showing it’s really ‘on’ when you aren’t using it. Even in ‘sleep’ mode they consume electricity, and there’s no good reason for it. Turn off bathroom space heaters when you’re not bathing – you can use the toilet when it’s a bit chilly, it won’t hurt you!

5. Keep Your Thermostat Settings Reasonable. No more than 68º in the winter, no less than 75º in the summer. Humans can handle both temperatures just fine. Wear a sweater when it’s cold and very little when it’s hot. Keep the air moving with fans and your house will seem cooler/warmer at these temperatures by eliminating cold and hot spots.

6. Consider Alternative Heating and Cooling Technologies. If you live in an area with less than 75% relative humidity, an Evaporative Cooler (water cooler) can keep your home comfortable while saving you lots of money on air conditioning. If you have to air condition in order to sleep at night, consider a window unit in the bedroom. If your house traps heat in the upper story, install window or attic vent fans to blow the hot air out while pulling cool air in from the slab or basement. Moving air (ceiling fans, vent fans, floor fans) will make your house more comfortable in all seasons.

7. Replace Light Bulbs With Compact Fluorescent or LED Bulbs. The cost is reasonable because these bulbs last a year or more and use much less electricity than standard incandescent bulbs. New LED technology is on the way too, which will likely end up conserving a vast amount of energy every year.

8. Make Good Use of Drapes and Blinds. These can prevent heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. Plan your lighting to make up the difference, or think about installing skylights in rooms where a lot of light is desirable. Heat rises, so a good insulated skylight won’t let too much heat in and won’t allow too much heat to escape in winter.

9. Insulation and Weatherstripping! Adding extra insulation to the attic and making sure your doors and windows are well-sealed helps a lot to save heat and cooling costs. This is old advice, still as good as it was 20 years ago. Be sure to have your home tested for radon first, particularly if it’s a masonry home on a slab.

10. Ignore That Fireplace! A cozy fire can make you feel warmer psychologically, but most fireplaces waste way more heat than they provide. An open flue sucks heat right out of your home, and leaves cold spots you’ll be tempted to compensate for by turning the thermostat up. Resist! If that fireplace takes up a whole wall (as mine does) consider decorating with a mirror where the opening used to be, a nice collection of scented candles in front that you can light for effect.

11. Replace Old Appliances With Energy Efficient Models. High energy efficient models are now becoming more readily available on the second-hand market, as they have been increasingly marketed to new buyers for some years. If you can buy new, get the one with the highest rating possible, and don’t buy more than you need – do you really need that double-door monstrosity of a fridge, or can you make do with a smaller one and get an efficient chest freezer. Learn to use ice trays or a standard ice maker, they work just fine.

12. Replace Your Old Cookware. For range top use, pots and pans that readily conduct heat will save minutes every time you turn on the burner. There are some really good, naturally non-stick sets available now that will serve well for many years. Also keep your range top drip pans clean. Use the reflective (not-enameled) variety, they will reflect more heat to the pan. Use the right size pan for the burner. If your oven is self-cleaning, don’t clean it very often.

13. Turn the Hot Water Temperature Down! The temperature of your hot water straight out of the tank should not scald you (or anyone else). 120º is as hot as it needs to be for any task. If you have to compensate too-hot water with cold water, your thermostat’s set too high.

14. Get a Tankless “Instant” Water Heater. Heating water as you use it is more energy efficient than keeping a 30 or 50 gallon tank full of water hot. There are some good models available, and even some microwave in-line heaters in development. Big energy savings!

15. Use Small Appliances When You Can. Making a big pot of soup or beans-from-dry in a crock pot instead of on the electric stovetop saves electricity. Baking a few muffins, a loaf of bread or some biscuits in a toaster oven instead of in your oven big enough for two turkeys saves a lot too. If you’ve an energy efficient microwave, use it for heating single or double servings of leftovers instead of your regular oven or stovetop. A microwave uses 75% less energy than a range oven.

Useful Links:

Brighter LED Lights Could Replace Household Light Bulbs Within Three Years

Aquabarrel Rain Collection Systems

Suburban Links: The Water Page

Rainwater Harvesting Guide

In-Line Water Heaters on ThomasNet

Tankless and Instant Water Heaters

Energy Saving Appliances (Heating and Cooling)

Consumer Energy Center: Small Appliances Save Energy