rnrnrnrnrnrnIt\'s been economically challenging for a lot of us this year. Some of us lostrnour jobs, saw the worth of our 401K\'s get cut almost in half. We saw foodrn and fuel prices skyrocket and saw the world financial system tumble to itsrnknees. It has been called as close to the 1929 depression as we can getrnwithout actually being there. Well there are a lot of differences betweenrnthen and now, but we have nothing of this magnitude to compare with otherrnthan then. rnrnWe are at a time where we need to conserve. Even the wealthy are cutting backrnon extra spending. All of us are staying home more now and choosing not torneat out as much. My family and I have cut back and limited ourselves torneating out only once a week now. I have the ability to work at home so I havernchosen to work 3-days a week at home to conserve time and fuel. I have feltrnthis recession crunch more than any of the other ones through the last 20rnyears. I think this is because I am older now and more in tune with myrnsurroundings. I pay more attention to world news and events than I use too. rnI think we need to start conserving and doing our part from now movingrnforward, financial/world crisis or not. This has been a wake-up call for me. rnrnOne thing my family and I are doing this year is to for go our family vacationrnand spend the extra time using our swimming pool. I am going to plan some extra curricular activities including volleyball and basketball tournaments in the pool. I am just going to center some extra fun activities so our kids, their friends and us can have loads of fun. rnrnReducing our carbon footprint is another way of saying \"conservation\". Most ofrnour energy needs are directly related to fossil fuel consumption, which is arncarbon-based product. It\'s going to be the way that we have to live forrnmany more years. We have build and live in a world, creating anrninfrastructure with oil that we can\'t unravel easily. We use it for all ofrnour transportation needs. Its how we drive to work, how we transport all ofrnour consumables. We heat our houses, lubricate all of our machinery, andrnmanufacture all of our plastic products. This list can go on and on. We arerna carbon-based society and cannot get away from that factâ€.rnrnSo this is why we need to conserve, to reduce our carbon emissions. Thingsrnthat we can do that can make a direct difference. rnrnReplace all of your incandescent bulbs with compact florescent bulbs. Startrnrnwith replacing one or two every week. They use a 1/3rd the energy ofrnincandescent bulbs, so imagine the saving throughout your whole house. I havernthem inside and out. rnrnMake sure you get a programmable thermostat. I turn down my thermostat 5rndegrees during the days when I am not at home, and at night when I amrnsleeping. 1 degree of temperature reduction equals 5% cost of heating yourrnhouse according to the \"Alliance for Energy\".( http://www.ase.org )rnrnMake sure all your storm windows are closed. I live in an older home, so whenrnHalloween comes around, mine are checked and buttoned down. rnrnMost of our appliances run on low voltage and require step-down transformersrnto run. You notice this when you plug in the appliance with the plug endrnbeing square and bulky. When you are not using that appliance, unplug it.rnObviously we can to that with everything (ie alarm clocks), but I bet many ofrnus can unplug a many of them.rnrnInsulate your water heater if it is older than 2004. The newer ones have arnsufficient amount of the stuff.rnrnCover your hot tub when not in use. We all have those hard covers that wernpurchased or came with when we bought. But those floatable plastic solarrncovers we use on our pool work great on hot tubs underneath the hard cover.rnYou can cut your energy used to heat that by a 1/3rd if you do this.rnrnMake sure your furnace is serviced every two years will cut down helping yournsave up to 1250 pounds of carbon emissions per year. WOWrnrnSet your clothes washer to cold and leave it. A 50% energy savings can be seenrnif you use only cold water to wash.rnrnDim the lights when you don\'t need the brightness. Cuts electricity by thesame percent of the lower light.rnrnFell for any drafts around your windows and doors. Install weatherstrip wherernneeded. On a few of my windows I install that clear plastic film which isrntransparent and comes off easy for spring and summer. rnrnLower you hot water heater, 120 degrees is ideal. rnrnInsulate all of your exposed hot water pipes. Keep all of that heat generatedrnto stay there until it comes our your faucets. rnrnUse timers on lighted areas that you only use occasionally including exteriorrnlights.rnrnThese are a few things that I do that save a lot of money and help to conservernand contribute to our great world. It\'s not hard at all, it just take arnlittle conscience effort on our parts.rnrnrn
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