Winter. For many of us, the season means hot chocolate, winter sports, exercise indoors, and the classic American pastime—movie night. So, if you find yourself caught in a chilly day, and are in the mood for popcorn and a good flick at home, check out the following movies that have environmental or clean energy innuendoes/themes:

• Back to the Future—In parts II and III of the popular series, the DeLorean time machine was powered by the Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor. In the end of the first movie, we see Dr. Emmett Brown putting a banana peel, beer (and the can), and other waste products into the Mr. Fusion unit, and in turn, suggesting that the car's flux capacitor is run on biomass energy. Another interesting tidbit is that the cool DeLorean car that was featured in the series is actually being made in real life as an electric vehicle.

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If you're like me, it sometimes feels overwhelming standing at the store and staring at a big wall of light bulbs, trying to understand all the lighting choices. With new lighting standards taking effect this year, now's a great time switch to energy-saving incandescent, CFL, and LED light bulbs, which are available in most hardware and home improvement retailers. They all are more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, and upgrading 15 of the inefficient incandescent light bulbs in your home could save you about $50 per year.

I've learned that when I'm shopping for light bulbs, it's most important to compare lumens to be sure I'm getting the amount of light, or level of brightness, I want. More lumens means it's a brighter light; fewer lumens means it's a dimmer light.

The brightness, or lumen levels, of the lights in your home may vary widely, so here's a rule of thumb: [More]

This week, Elizabeth shared her retail adventures in the clearance section of a store where she picked up some LED light strings at bargain prices. Whether you use them for holidays or every day just because they're irresistibly cheerful, light strings are an excellent example of LED products.

LED holiday lights have many advantages over ordinary incandescent lights:

• Running LED holiday lights on one 6-foot tree for 12 hours per day for 40 days can save 90% or more energy when compared to traditional incandescent holiday lights


• They last longer; they have an operational life span of roughly 20,000 hours, enough to last for 40 holiday seasons
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Ah, January. It's still cold and it's still dark all the time, but now all the cheerful Christmas lights have come down so there's nothing to break up the monotony. What's there to do?

Well, while it's a little late now, you might want to go do some post-holiday holiday shopping. Yes, I know. That sounds insane. Everyone is thoroughly sick of holiday shopping. You've spent enough money already. I know.

But I was out wandering through the stores during the first week of January when I happened to pass by heavily discounted holiday products. And in that great wasteland of 50% off products and half-empty shelves, I found a vast collection of LED Christmas lights. [More]

Happy New Year to all you Energy Savers out there!

Now that 2012 calendars are up and we (hopefully) remember to use ’12 instead of ’11 where necessary (does anyone write checks anymore?), it’s time to think about the New Year’s resolutions we made and are (hopefully again) still keeping.

For instance… if you’ve been putting off getting an energy assessment of your home, why wait? Now is a good time to find out if you have cracks, leaks or other places where heat is escaping; you can start making your home more energy efficient today. [More]

It's that time again. It's "X shopping days until Christmas," you're maybe a touch stressed from trying to get a lot of work done despite holiday parties and shopping trips, and, to top it off, it's cold out.

If you're reading this, you're probably familiar with our Stay Warm Save Money seasonal campaign. We've been sending out energy saving tips for the changing season for years now; we hope you've been able (and willing) to take advantage of that information. [More]