With the rising cost of energy, you may be looking for a few extra bucks to pay your monthly utility bills. However, there's no need to succumb to searching for spare change in the sofa cushions. In fact, there is plenty of extra cash to be found throughout the house by making a few simple, smart, energy-efficient home improvements.

To help ease the pain in your pocketbook, Lennox Industries, a leading provider of energy-efficient home comfort systems, offers the following low-cost, practical tips and advice for how you can find $500 in energy savings in five different rooms of the house.

• $215 in the Living Room. Replace your five most frequently used incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs for a savings of $65 each year. These bulbs use less energy and can last up to 10 times longer. In addition, install an ENERGY STAR qualified programmable thermostat, such as the Lennox ComfortSense™ 7000 thermostat, which can help control the temperature while you're away from home or at night when you're sleeping. When used properly, these thermostats can save as much as $150 per year in energy costs.
• $145 in the Bathroom. Replace your existing shower head with a new 2.5-gallon-per-minute (low-flow) shower head. The new water efficient shower head coupled with a 10-minute shower will save five gallons of water over a typical bath and up to $145 each year on electricity used to heat the water.
• $74 in the Laundry Room. To save hot water, and the $24 to $40 in fuel that it takes to heat that water each year wash your clothes in cold water. Be sure to choose a laundry detergent that is formulated for use in cold temperatures. Save another $34 each year by cleaning the lint trap in your clothes dryer before every load of laundry, which will help increase the drying efficiency of the machine
• $36 in the Basement or Utility Room. Lower the temperature on your hot water heater from 145 degrees to 120 degrees. The only place you'll notice the difference is on your utility bill. In fact, this slight reduction in temperature can save the average homeowner between $36 and $61 each year.
• $35 in the Kitchen. To keep your hard earned money from literally going down the drain, be sure to repair faucet leaks at the kitchen sink. Hot water leaking at a rate of one drip per second can waste up to 1,661 gallons of water annually and up to $35 in electricity or natural gas.

TOTAL SAVINGS: $505 (or more in some cases)

 

Getting Rid of Bad Air 

One of the most effective ways to improve the air quality of your home is to get rid of contaminants at the source. There are a variety of solutions for this, including:

• Healthy Climate^® air cleaner, which attacks contaminants as they are circulated through your heating and cooling system
• Moisture control and mold
  prevention
• Regular cleaning with
  chemical-free products
• Adequate ventilation