Elton Sherwin

These simple products have helped us reduce our home electric bill by over 40% in the last two years. If your utility company has installed a smart meter at your home, you should be able to view, track, and analyze your electricity consumption at an hourly level.

This is an indispensable gadget that allows you to find and measure your home's energy hogs; it is the workhorse of energy detectives. The Kill A Watt discovered that our $15 rechargeable flashlight, which had been plugged in to the garage wall for 20 years, was using over $30 a year in electricity. You can put it on anything with a plug (TV, refrigerator, PC, etc.) and discover how much power it is using right now, or leave it on for a few days and it will project your monthly and annual costs.  I prefer the EZ model, which is sometimes a bit more expensive. I have two of these and constructed a spreadsheet for all the appliances in our house. This makes for the core of a great middle-school science project.

This smart power strip eliminates standby power (vampire power) for some devices. When used with a TV, this power strip turns off DVD players, VCRs, game units and sound systems when the TV is turned off. When used with tower PCs, this smart power strip turns off printers, scanners, monitors and speakers when the PC is turned off or in a low power mode. If you manually turn your PC on and off, plug your monitor into a white socket, if your PC automatically goes to sleep, then you may want to put the display in a red plug.  

I have installed four smart power strips, two on PCs, one on a TV and one on a stereo system. Three went in effortlessly; one, on a PC, required some adjustment. I have one friend who has struggled installing his on a PC. Notebook PCs, MacBooks, TiVo’s, Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) and many satellite and cable boxes should plug into the red plugs (always on) so it won’t help with them.  

We tested eleven brands before choosing these bulbs. Previously called n:vision, Home Depot recently upgraded and rebranded as EcoSmart. These bulbs are the workhorses of our house. We primarily use the versions in the green package, which create light almost indistinguishable from incandescent bulbs. These bulbs use 75% less electricity, so a 60-watt bulb actually only uses about 15 watts of power. Also available in 40, 75, 100, 120, and 150 watt equivalents; more expensive for the higher wattages.

The bulbs in the red package create a whiter, some would say harsher, light. We use them in colored lampshades. Some people prefer this whiter light, particularly people with glaucoma.

Sometimes these bulbs are available in four packs or on sale. They last 4 to 10 times as long as incandescent bulbs. Also available in 40, 60, 75, 120, and 150 watt equivalents; more expensive for the higher wattages. While a $9 150-watt bulb may seem expensive, it pays for itself just in bulb replacements, not even counting the electricity savings. 

We use this 90-watt equivalent floodlight in our kitchen ceiling above the granite counters.  It uses 23 watts of power and replaces 50 and 75-watt halogen floodlights. We leave every third light as the original halogen flood to mask how long it takes these bulbs to come to full brightness.

We use these bulbs in clear bathroom fixtures. The spirals are hidden inside. We mix them fifty/fifty with incandescent bulbs to mask how slowly they turn on.  Why not use these all the time, as they look more normal? Because they take longer to get to full brightness. So we only use them when they are very visible. 

We use these floodlights in our hallways, but leave every third bulb as an incandescent, again so the hallways brighten up quickly. Figuring out which bulbs should be CFLs and which should be incandescents can take some trial and error.

I try to avoid using dimmable CFLs whenever possible and have taken out several dimmers. We have four of these floodlights installed. They are OK, but the light is not full spectrum. If you have lots of ceiling cans on dimmers, test carefully, and I seriously recommend removing some of the dimmers. I have purchased many dimmable CFLs that were unusable. 

Amazon says, “The Black & Decker Thermal Leak Detector helps you increase the efficiency of your home's insulation by finding weak areas that can lead to higher heating and cooling bills. You'll instantly identify problem areas around drafty windows and doors, and uncover hidden leaks and insulation "soft spots" around your home.” I have one and it is pretty nice. I’m not sure if it has saved me any money, but it is quite accurate. 

We have this timer installed on our guest bathroom fan and I'm thinking about installing one in all our bathrooms. Thirty minutes is the perfect time for fans and lights in a bathroom. This switch is intuitive and very easy to use for family and guests of all ages.