Go Green This St. Patrick’s Day

Want to go green this St. Patrick’s Day? Start by saving energy, which is a great way to be kind to the environment.

Here are 10 easy, zero-cost ways to add a little “green” around the house:
1. Turn off lights when you leave a room or tuck yourself in for the night. Lighting an empty room is a waste of resources and money.
2. Load up the dishwasher before turning it on. You’ll use less energy if you run the appliance only when it’s full. A caution, however: Don’t overload the dishwasher, as water needs room to get between the plates, glasses and silverware to do its best work.
3. Wash clothes in cold water. Most of the energy your washing machine uses is for heating water.
4. Take showers, not baths. Showers use less water than filling a bathtub does. And keep your showers to 10 minutes max to save even more water.
5. Unplug appliances when you’re not using them. Appliances continue to use small amounts of electricity when they’re plugged in, even if they’re turned off.
6. On warm spring days, turn the air conditioner off and open windows.
7. Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120 degrees. That’s the safe temperature recommended by manufacturers.
8. Close the damper of your wood-burning fireplace when you’re not using it. An open damper in an unused fireplace sends heated or cooled air from your home up the chimney.
9. Move furniture away from heating and air-conditioning vents. If you block them, your HVAC system has to work harder to heat or cool your house. The harder it works, the more energy it uses.
10. Switch the directions your ceiling fan blades spin: counter-clockwise for summer; clockwise for winter.