Vince Maiorana of Orinda called to let us know he saved something in the neighborhood of 30 percent on his PG&E bill in January and February of 2006 in these ways: “At night, we had the furnace down to 64, 66 degrees. We have good insulation in the roof, and all the windows are double-paned.”  Also, many of the house’s windows face south and catch the sun. “The important thing is, we wanted to see how much we could save if we changed our lifestyle. And we did. It was an experiment and we won.” Congratulations, Vince, and thanks for the tips! If you have more energy-saving ideas, feel free to click on the comment button and share. (Photo: aNantaB)

Maybe you’ve learned that sealing off a room shaves a cool - er, warm - $10 a month off the heating bill, or just bundling up in sweaters around the house helps keep the thermostat lower. What do you do to keep heating costs down during the winter? Share your ideas here and we’ll scoop them up and drop ‘em in a story next week for the world to read. Low-tech is fine, or spare no expense. All ideas welcome! (Photo: midnightcomm)

If you’d like to see what it’s like to use an energy-saving compact flourescent bulb, here’s a chance to do so for free. Pacific Gas & Electric is giving away a cool (and we do mean cool, as in “help slow global warming by saving electricity”) million of the little puppies in October, which happens to be Energy Awareness Month. The first giveaway was Read the rest of this entry »