Winterizing your home can help save the environment–and save you money too.

If you think reducing your carbon footprint is important, you are going to want to reduce the energy usage of your home. Home energy usage accounts for a large portion of the overall energy consumption in the United States, that means reducing your energy consumption, by winterizing your home, can have a big impact–both on the environment and on your wallet.

And according to the U.S. Department of Energy,  heating is by far the biggest energy hog, accounting for 40 percent of home energy usage. It just takes more energy to bring your home up to a comfortable temperature in the winter than is does to cool in the summer. Also according to the U.S. Department of Energy, by regularly turning your thermostat back 10 degrees for 8 hours (like when you are asleep or at work), you can save five to 10 percent a year on your home heating bill.

There are other ways you reduce your energy consumption besides cutting back your thermostat, just read on for some easy ideas for winterizing your home you can implement this season.

Tips for Winterizing Your Home

1. Home Energy Audit – Invest in a professional home energy audit to learn how to make the most of winterizing your home. A home energy audit can help you determine how much energy your home uses, where your home is losing energy, and which problem areas and fixes you should prioritize to make your home more efficient and comfortable. A home energy audit is a great first step for making energy-saving home improvements.
2. Furnace Maintenance – Clean and replace furnace filters regularly and schedule furnace maintenance yearly to keep your furnace running efficiently.
3. Rooms/Spaces Not in Use – One easy tip for winterizing your home is to close off rooms that are not in use regularly, like guest bedrooms and storage areas. Don’t heat spaces you don’t need to heat. Also, keep closet doors closed–there’s no need to heat your clothes!
4. Water Heater – Insulate your water heater to help it run more efficiently–especially if it is in the basement or other unheated space.
5. Space Heaters – Avoid using space heaters as they can be real energy hogs. If you must use a space heater, make sure to use one that is rated as an Energy Star product.
6. Weather-stripping – Install weather-stripping around doors and windows to provide extra insulation and keep out drafts is another easy fix for winterizing your home.
7. Thermostat – Installing a programmable thermostat can help you better manage your energy usage and help you save money on your energy bills. You can program to automatically lower when you are are at work and asleep.
8. Seal Air Leaks – Sealing off air leaks in your home will help keep the warm air in and the cold air out. Apply caulk around windows, apply insulation to attic hatches, and adding foam insulation behind electrical outlets are all examples of how you can better control air leaks.
9. Ceiling Fans – If your home has ceiling fans, use them. Ceiling fans aren’t only for cooling, but when the direction is reversed, they can help push warm air trapped up at the ceiling down where it is needed.
10. Window Insulation – If you can’t afford to replace those older windows, cover them with window insulation kits to help manage drafts. If you have storm windows, use them too. Windows and doors are among the most common ways energy is wasted int the home.

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Image: House in Winter via Shutterstock

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Small ways to save energy that make a big difference.

You love your air conditioner, really you do. But you don’t love the whopping energy bill you’re left with afterward, or its environmental impact.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, your AC accounts for 21 percent of your annual energy consumption, averaging out to about $239 per year. The result: 1.5 tons of CO2 emissions per household from air conditioning alone! Yikes. Depending on where you live, turning off your air conditioner entirely might leave you feeling a tad… well, boiled, which just means you’ll have to be thrifty with your energy in other ways.

Here are 8 ways to save energy that will put a little more coin in your pocket (plus, you’d really be doing the environment a solid):

1. Use the weather to your advantage

For example, on cool mornings open the windows and let the air circulate for as long as possible. Once it starts to warm up, close your windows and curtains. This will help keep the cool air contained and block out direct sunlight. The same trick applies to cooler evenings too. The less you have to run your air conditioner, the better.

2. Use fans strategically

Make sure your ceiling fan is running in the right direction and blowing the air downward. Setup stand-alone and tabletop fans where you spend most of your time, and spritz yourself with water to keep your body temp down. On breezy days, maximize the natural breeze by facing one fan inward on the side of your house receiving the wind, and another at the opposite side of the house facing outward.

3. Unplug unnecessary devices

Unplug all electronic devices and appliances you don’t use on the regular. Even though something that’s plugged in is turned off, it’s still using energy. Called idle energy, it costs the average American household $165 per year! You know what to do.

4. Invest in a programmable thermostat

Programmable thermostats can cost anywhere from $25 to $250, but they’ll save you oodles of cash over the long-term. The more expensive ones even include the option of adjusting your settings via your smartphone!

5. Go with the flow

Your air conditioner isn’t going to be able to do its job properly if your vents are covered with furniture, drapes and other kitschy doo-dads. Do some rearranging to ensure your vents aren’t obstructed so the cool air can circulate properly.

6. Change your air filter

If your air filter is clogged, it makes your air conditioner work harder, which is a huge waste of energy. If it’s been over three months since you’ve changed it, it’s time for a switcheroo.

7. Buy a smaller air conditioner

Cooling the primary area of your home with a window air conditioner uses up way less energy than an entire central air system. Determine the most important space in your home to keep cool, and purchase an air conditioner specifically for that space.

8. Turn off the lights

No, it’s not just the name of a vintage Nelly Furtado song. While today’s lightbulbs are much more efficient than the bulbs of yore, they can still produce as much heat as they do light—not cool when you’re already living in a pressure cooker. Keep room temperatures down by turning as many lights and electronics off as possible (you know, without feeling like you live in the 1800s).

What are your favorite ways to save energy?

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Nanowire Clothing Could Help You Stay Warm and Save on Energy

Woman cooling herself image via Shutterstock

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Clean energy at its dirtiest: Pornhub’s “Wankband” produces green power by putting chronic masturbators to good use.

Because when I think Pornhub, I think staunch environmentalists: Better known as the Fitbit’s creepy uncle, the “Wankband” is a (hopefully waterproof) device that allows you to save the planet and charge your smartphone by—you guessed it—masturbating. Finally, moms across the country can make their teenage sons useful (in fact, there were a few in my day who would have been able to feed energy back into the grid).

“It’s well known how incredibly fast we run out of our natural resources and, what’s worse, how much they pollute in order to create energy,” says Pornhub’s promo video. “At Pornhub, we realize that by offering our users millions of hours of adult content, we are part of the problem. That’s why we’re going to show men how they can save the planet while doing what they do best.” (And the Nobel Prize goes to…)

The device contains a valve with a small weight inside, and the upwards-downwards motion of masturbating causes the weight to move up and down as well, which generates energy you can store for a rainy day. There’s a USB port on the side of the “Wankband,” so you can plug your tech devices into it and charge them using the power stored.

“Turn your jobless roommate into a productive person,” the clip says. “And now, when your partner catches you in the act, you can simply say that you’re trying to save on the electric bill. The possibilities are endless.” Nope, there’s only one: Divorce papers.

It says the device is unisex and will work for women just as well as men, but they’re not really clear on how that’s possible, since the motion that charges it is more dude-friendly. If you start seeing a bunch of women around your neighborhood with sprained wrists, I guess that answers our question. Of course, as Pornhub so eloquently puts it, you can “do your part with your part” by signing up to be one of their be(a)ta testers (ha). You know, for science.

Is the “Wankband” a realistic way to produce clean energy? Of course not. If it’s anything like those flashlights you have to shake for an hour to get a few minutes of light, I’m not so sure guys will end up with a charged phone so much as a really large bicep… and possibly carpal tunnel.

And I’m sure this has nothing to do with the fact that in order for men to put the “Wankband” to good use, they’d have to watch more porn. Nah, because that would be ridiculous.

I will say though, the brand’s humblebrag video is good for a giggle:

What do you think of this er, interesting way to produce clean energy?

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Highly-insulated clothing could help you not only stay warm, but cut down on energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

As I’m writing this, I’m wearing fleece pyjamas, a sweater, a hoodie, and I’m tucked in a blanket so tight it’s like being wrapped in sausage casing. Why? Well, as you may have noticed, it’s effing cold outside – and since turning on my vintage electric rads will lead to an epic hydro bill, I’ve settled on the sausage casing approach.

But it’s looking like we’ll soon be able to stay warm and save on energy without wearing our entire wardrobe (“Hi, I’m Chandler. Could I be wearing any more clothes?”). Scientists have developed a nanowire coating for clothes that generates heat by trapping our body heat more effectively than our current outfits. Not only would this help us save some serious coin, but cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. Snoopy dance, anyone?

Most strategies to reduce indoor heating costs focus on improving how buildings are insulated, such as upgrading the quality of the insulation itself or installing low-emissivity windows. Regardless of these upgrades, many of us are still guilty of wasting energy by heating empty spaces and inanimate objects for the sake of convenience.

A team of researchers led by Professor Yi Cui and PhD student Po-Chun Hsu at Stanford University decided to do things a little differently: Instead of focusing on heating our surroundings, they focused on a new strategy called “personal thermal management,” where we heat ourselves instead. The study, which was published in a recent issue of the journal Nano Letters, reveals that clothing dipped in a solution of metallic nanowires (AgNWs), can help a person stay warm to the point of eliminating the need to heat their home at all. (Sign. Me. Up.)

The best part about the AgNW-coated clothing is that it reflects over 90 percent of a person’s body heat back to the individual, as opposed to our clothing now, which only reflects back about 20 percent of our body heat. The clothing can also provide Joule heating if connected to an electricity source, such as a battery. Researchers found that as little as 0.9 V can raise the clothing temp to 38 °C, which is 1 °C higher than the human body temp of 37 °C.

Since such a small amount of the solution is needed to achieve the highest level of warmth, the nanowire clothing would feel practically identical to normal clothing, making it a convenient and cost-effective way to stay warm. You also wouldn’t have to treat it any differently than you do your regular clothing: The researchers found the clothing maintained its electrical properties after multiple wash cycles.

How much you’d save on energy varies depending on how cold it is outside, how long the winter season is, and how big your home is, but the researchers calculated an estimated savings of about 1,000 kilowatt hours per person per year – which is about how much electricity an average U.S. home consumes in one month.

Do tell: Will you be shopping for nanowire clothing to stay warm?

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Image: Woman in winter photo via Shutterstock

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