Find $500 in five rooms.

Simple energy-efficient home improvements can lower your utility bills

No need to look for spare change in the sofa – there are plenty of ways to put money in your pocket by improving your home's energy efficiency. With the rising cost of energy, these practical, low-cost tips can help you find $500 in energy savings in five different rooms of your house*.

• Find $215 in the living room. Replace the bulbs in your five most-used fixtures with compact fluorescent bulbs to save up to $65 each year. These bulbs use less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and can last up to 10 times longer. Installing an ENERGY STAR® qualified programmable thermostat, such as the Lennox ComfortSense™ 7000 thermostat, can save as much as $150 per year in energy costs when used properly. In the summer, for example, programmable thermostats automatically raise the temperature while you're away from home or sleeping to avoid wasting cooling dollars, then bring it back down to your comfort level when you want it.
• Uncover $145 in the bathroom. Replace your existing showerhead with a new 2.5-gallon-per-minute (low-flow) showerhead. Take 10-minute showers instead of baths, and one of these efficient showerheads will save five gallons of water and up to $145 each year on the energy used to heat the water.
• There's $74 in the laundry room. To save hot water – and the $24 to $40 in fuel it takes to heat that water each year – wash clothes in cold water with a specially formulated cold-water laundry detergent. Save up to another $34 each year by cleaning the lint trap in your clothes dryer before every load of laundry to help increase the drying efficiency of the machine.
• Discover $36 in the basement or utility room. Lower the temperature on your hot water heater from 145°F to 120°F. You'll notice the difference only in your utility bill. This slight reduction in temperature can save the average homeowner between $36 and $61 each year.
• There's $35 waiting in the kitchen. To keep your money from going down the drain (literally!), repair any leaky faucet in 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.

>Your total savings? Up to $505 (some homes may save even more). To find more ways to save energy, reduce your monthly utility bills and stay comfortable year-round, visit www.lennox.com.

Source: James and Morris Carey.