1.  Curtains can help heating and cooling costs.  Open blinds or shades facing the sun to allow the sun to warm your home and keep them closed on shady days and at night to keep the heat inside.

2. During the summer, you can close the "fresh air intake" valve on your air conditioner to save energy.  Re-cooling the air inside your house is easier on your unit than cooling hot air from outside and reduces the electricity used.

3. Appliances of a feather flock together?  If you keep your refrigerator near your oven, both will have to work harder (i.e. consume more energy) to work efficiently; however, if you separate them, they are not counteracting one another and will use less energy to do their job.  Likewise, heating appliances, such as your oven and dishwasher, can feed off of each other's energy in a positive way to use even less energy.

4. Separating your clothes by weight before drying can help reduce drying time and conserve energy.  If you combine heavy and light fabrics, your dryer is likely to run longer than necessary.

5. Tuck your hot water heater in all of the time.  Wrapping a fiberglass blanket or an insulating jacket around your water heater can reduce water heating costs by as much as 10%.  You can also insulate hot water pipes to reduce heat loss from the water heater to your faucet.

6. It may pay to avoid washing dishes!  Hand-washing actually requires more hot water than your dishwasher.  Just make sure your dishwasher is full to maximize the benefits since your dishwasher is set to wash the same amount of dishes whether they're available or not.

7. When baking, avoid opening your oven door to check on your food as much as possible.  This lets hot air out and requires more energy to reheat to the correct temperature.

8. Use fluorescent bulbs.  They only use 25% as much energy as regular bulbs.  If you can't tolerate fluorescent lighting, use energy saving bulbs with halogen gases that use less electricity while burning.

9. Install shower heads with a lighter water flow.  These are usually inexpensive and prevent a lot of excess hot water usage.

10. Take a hike! Maybe not literally, but try to cut back on using your car.  Walk to the corner store instead of driving.  Carpool with a friend from work or take the bus.  Also, the next time you're in the market for a new car, look at a hybrid or at least consider the gas mileage of the car you would like to purchase.  Saving gas means saving money and the environment!