the cold wash/rinse is something i have been doing for years with no losses in clothing cleanliness. also turn off the shower when you’re lathering with soap. (got started on this because of severe drought, never stopped.)

turn off your dishwasher’s heat dry setting- just pull the drawers out and let the dishes air dry. since it uses hot water, they don’t take long to dry by air.

CFLs are great too, they are becoming more and more versatile. we got 3-way CFLs last year and have no more worries about floor lamps overheating to top off the deal.

finally, i am going to buy one of these for our entertainment center when we have a little extra: http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Shop/Bits-Ltd./Item/LCG5/

Also, check with local utilities for rebates — our water-saving washing machine earned us a $200 rebate.

-Daniel
http://www.youngandfrugal.com

I second the whole-house fan. And insulated curtains help a lot in maintaining home temp in winter and summer.

Also, check your utility’s website regularly. They offer lots of goodies. I was able to get them to pay for 50% of the cost of blowing insulation into my home.

And who knew Energy Star had a podcast?

A couple months ago I took over my parents’ house as they went to work overseas. I immediately went on a conservation spree. Replaced the heavily used lights with CFLs, unplugged various things that had vampire electrical loads (30 watts for the stereo in the garage, 50 watts for the TV out there!). I’ve always been a bit nutso about turning lights off when not using them, so that was already a help.

I’ve also always been very careful about water usage. I grew up in Southern CA with a drought and water rationing, short showers at less than full flow is the norm for me. Not running the dishwasher or laundry until having a full load. Oh and yeah, definitely do the cold wash/cold rinse when you can. Maybe a warm wash/cold rinse, but very seldom.

I’ve also taken to line drying my clothes when I can, at least those that do well with it. Even been doing it indoors during the winter.

And as for the summer? One of the best investments my parents did with the house was to install a “whole house fan”. During the cooler evenings in the summer, open the windows and turn on the fan. It draws in the cool air and exhausts into the attic, cooling the attic down as well in the process. Come morning, get up and shut the windows. When other folks have their A/C running 24/7 in the summer, we might be turning it on for 2-3 hours in the late afternoon. We’ve often had the house 15-20 degrees cooler than outside during mid-day just from using the whole house fan.

I live in a rental house, and I wish it made sense for me to invest in a new refrigerator/washer/dryer/heater/etc as my energy bill is monster. But I don’t know how long I’m going to be here and I have no urge to move all these shiny new appliances, so for the time being, that’s the price I pay.

http://www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/

You might also look into using a clothesline instead of a dryer, now that spring is almost here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/garden/12clothesline.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Finally, there are a few energy meters that you can use to audit your household, such as the “Watts Up” and “Kill-a-Watt” meters. You plug the meter in and the device (refrigerator, computer, etc) into the meter and it’ll tell you instantaneous power requirements and aggregate numbers over a long period of time for devices that cycle (like a fridge or AC).