Learn More About Home Energy Efficiency
Using less energy is very much connected to understanding how you are actually using energy in your home. Learn more about how you use energy. Look at your bill from PG&E and understand it. There are many simple and easy things that you can do to reduce the amount of energy that your home is using. Here are some good sources to help you gain a better understanding of your energy usage:

• Download Rocky Mountain Institute's Home Energy Briefs. (These require a donation but may save you a lot of money in the long run.)
• Flex Your Power: Lots of great information about home energy use.
• Follow the Energy STAR guide to help you pick products that use less energy.
  

Common Sense Home Energy Efficiency Habits to Adopt
We are all busy and preoccupied with many things but this is the time to change your own habits and help others in your family to develop good energy-saving habits. Here are our top suggestions for quick energy savings (save between 10 and 15% on your electric bill when you do these things!):

1. Turn off the lights when you leave a room! It is surprising how often we don't do this!
2. Plug related devices (stereo/hifi, computer/printer/monitor, etc.) into a single powerstrip and turn off the strip when you are through with the use of those devices to power off everything with one switch.
3. Change your standard lightbulbs to the new Compact Florescent Lights (CFLs). They come in a great variety of shapes and colors and they really save energy and produce warm light.
4. Think twice about illuminating the dark, when you don't really need to. We all love the look of having extra lights on all around our home at night. If it weren't so wasteful, we'd keep doing it, but we are limiting that as much as possible, since it is actually hurting the environment.

Consult with Home Energy Efficiency Experts
How is your home doing? Ever wonder whether you are spending more on heating and energy in your home than you need to? Is your heating system working as efficiently as it could be? Are you getting the full value of the heat that your heater produces? Most of us don't have a great way to evaluate how efficiently our conduits spread heat throughout our homes. This is a good reason to get the help of someone who can test the performance of your systems for you. These are the options:

• Do as much as you can by reading and learning and at least capture some of the "low hanging fruit" of home efficiency improvements.
• Hire a consultant to advise on what your home needs. These individuals provide testing, typically for a per/hour fee, but do not provide the additional services, so you know the results are objective.
• Hire a full-service firm, to evaluate your home's systems' needs and provide the necessary expert work that most homes do need.

We have had requests for referrals to experts who can provide these and other home efficiency services, so we are "hanging a shingle" for experts and consultants who we hear can provide these services locally. Click on our Home Efficiency Professionals page to get information about some local service providers.

Replace Windows/Improve Wall Insulation
Not the easiest or cheapest suggestion but you know if you have leaky windows and walls, because you can feel the cold air coming in, especially during the winter! Consider the value of replacing these things and saving on your heating bills year after year. These types of improvements pay for themselves in future energy savings!

Consider Solar Power
Most of us pay our electric and gas bills without much reflection about how that money is spent. Solar, however, can help you turn this regular expense into a valuable capital asset—just as you can turn rent expense into equity payments towards property you own. Current state rebates, federal tax credits, and utility rate structures make buying a solar power system a cash-positive investment. If you are paying more than $200 per month, you may be a good candidate for solar. (With solar, you might pay $150 per month for your system, $35 to PG&E and be mostly paying off your own clean energy generation facility that adds value to your home)!

• Go Solar California Initiative: As part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's 3.3 Billion, Million Solar Roofs Program, California has set a goal to create 3,000 megawatts of new, solar-produced electricity by 2017 - moving the state toward a cleaner energy future and helping lower the cost of solar systems for consumers.
• California Energy Commission's Consumer Guide to Buying a PhotoVoltaic System