Spring is officially here, and many parts of the country have been enjoying spring-like weather for a few weeks already. I, for one, was ready for it, especially after enduring many a cold winter night in our drafty old row house in northwest Washington, D.C. With the warmer weather, I expect to see the upward pressure on our energy costs ease, but I don't expect our energy bill to drop a whole lot, because we ran a pretty energy-efficient ship this winter.

Back in January, my housemates and I got serious about improving the air seal of our house. We hung a plastic sheet across the archway between our kitchen and mudroom, which was where we were losing most of our heat downstairs. I also installed plastic window covers on the inside frames of the windows in the sun room off of my upstairs bedroom. That room is not well insulated and had been our biggest problem area on the upper level of the house. Reducing the draft in that room and keeping the door between the bedroom and the sunroom closed made a huge difference keeping in the heat. With those simple improvements, which cost less than twenty-five dollars, our home stayed considerably warmer, and we rarely, if ever, had to change our automated thermostat settings. [More]

The month of March represents many activities to celebrate: St. Patrick's Day, the first day of spring, the beginning of Lent, Daylight Savings Time, the month Coca Cola was invented, and most importantly, NCAA brackets! Now, with the understanding that it is unfair to place a higher importance on any of these things as its relative to each individual's beliefs, the one concept many of us forget is that there is life beyond March Madness. In fact, there is so much life that we must act now to preserve the wonderful resource that's been given to us for this life: our energy environment. [More]

Our 1970's-vintage house always seemed a bit too welcoming when howling winter winds swept up Colorado's foothills. Each year, the annual road show staged by Jack Frost and his Chillers would take center stage in our home despite our best efforts to keep these rowdies at bay.

There were plenty of reasons why this happened. Instead of playing the role of picky bouncers, our doors acted more like enthused Middle School kids at a Justin Bieber concert, welcoming the arctic Canadian travelers though gaps in the doorjambs and frames. The leaky windows were no better, taking up the rattling chorus and forcing us to crank up our thermostat. I'm surprised someone from our utility company wasn't outside selling custom "It's Cool to be Cold" T-shirts for this expensive draft-a-palooza. [More]

On Monday, Elizabeth discussed her south-facing windows and her difficulties balancing the nice daylighting advantages with the excess heat that can come through these windows in the summer.

How do you use daylighting while reducing excess heat from windows?

Each Thursday, you have the chance to share your thoughts on a question about energy efficiency or renewable energy for consumers. Please comment with your answers, and also feel free to respond to other comments. [More]

You know, back when it was cold out (and, this being Colorado, that was last month), my south-facing windows were awesome. They let in tons of light and kept the entire place snug and warm. I barely even needed to break out the blankets!

But Colorado's weather likes to mess with you, so it recently decided that it was done with the 50s and jumped right into the 90s. And those lovely south-facing windows that kept my house so warm in the winter are still keeping my house warm. Unsurprisingly, I appreciated this somewhat less.

So when I checked out the Energy Savers Tips page for Windows I was not surprised to hear that it suggests keeping your south-facing windows unshaded in the winter and using curtains in the summer. But there are a lot of other things you can do, too—by installing awnings or sun-control films, you can also reduce the amount of solar gain (which, during this time of the year, is better known as smoldering summer heat.) [More]

I am lucky enough to be able to work from my home one or two days per week. I always enjoy these days; not only do I avoid my stressful commute, but I always get a lot of work done without the regular distractions of the office. More offices are allowing their workers this kind of flexibility, but it can present some challenges when it comes to saving energy and keeping your costs down.

There are clear energy-saving advantages to working from home—avoiding a commute and saving fuel being the biggest—but working at home also means that you may be using MORE energy at home than you would otherwise. This is simply because you're there, running the heat (in the winter) and using electricity. But there are a few things you can do to minimize your energy use while working at home. [More]