California is facing another drought, and so are many other states.  Water use may be curtailed causing water rates to go straight up. Summer is when our water bill goes ballistic with >$100 months commonplace. Gardens use a lot of water. Lawns can easily use 50-80% of  a household’s water. Our garden uses close to 75% of our water, probably because we conserve so much. Drought Tolerant Plants, drought resistant plants, and Xeriscaping, help you by saving water in garden.

Xeriscaping

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New LADWP rebates have been added for 2012.

Local utility LADWP – LA Department of Water and Power Energy has cash rebates and ways to go green and save money. Here are some LADWP – LA Department of Water and Power Energy Efficiency Rebates:

• Free water conservation showerheads and aerators
• LADWP Energy efficient appliance $65 rebate – Qualifying Energystar Refrigerator,  $85 High Efficiency Clothes Washers – Expires December 31
• $50 back on Refrigerator or Freezer recycling
• $2/sq ft of Energy star Window products, $0.30 per sq ft of cool roofs
• Solar Energy rebates
• $50 for Energy star Air conditioner, Upto $120 per ton for central air conditioner or heat pump
• Up to $200 on Whole House Fan
• $80 per weather based irrigation controller, $25 per station. $3 per rotating sprinkler nozzle
• Up to $300 for Energy-Efficient Natural Gas Furnace
• $500 for Energy-Efficient Variable Speed pool pump and motor
• $100 for a high efficiency toilet

If you live in California, be sure to check out the up to $8000 Energy Upgrade California Energy Efficiency Rebate

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New rebates have been added.

Utility Company Long Island Power Authority, LIPA has a bunch of programs and incentives to help save energy and money.

• LIPA Cool Homes air conditioning and heat pump rebates up to $700. Exp 12/31
• Free Programmable thermostat and installation
• Refrigerator and Freezer Recycling – $50 rebate and free pickup. For each additional appliance picked up at the same time as the refrigerator pickup, you will receive a voucher code for $20 (max of 3)
• Energy Star Rebates – $0.50 – $2.50 on CFLs, $20 on Dehumidifiers, $100 on Furnace fan motors, $200 on variable speed pool pumps, $125 on 2 speed pool pumps, $100 on refrigerators
• Solar Energy Rebates – $1.75/watt rebate up to 10 kW with a maximum of $17,500, must be ready to sign up when blocks free up. Grid-connected PV systems only.

Questions, call 1-800-692-2626.

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Save up to 10% easily on cooling or heating costs by reducing air leaks and weatherizing your home.  Gain yearly savings up to $400 when you seal and properly insulate heating and cooling ducts in your home.

Add weather stripping around windows and doors to reduce air drafts.  Caulk or use expandable gap filler foam around air ducts, plumbing openings, wall openings, etc.

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Powerstrips and Surge protectors have evolved into the green era.  They help combat phantom power draw by Power Bricks aka Wall Warts, and other electronic devices. Lawrence Berkley National Labs estimates that 10% of residential power use is wasted toward this as most homes have 40 products constantly drawing phantom power or vampire power even when the device is off.  Save over a $100 a year by fixing this problem.

The new 3rd generation Smart Powerstrip helps you save power if you use a desktop or laptop computer for about $35.  It also works great for TVs. Green Powerstrips have finally started to appear.  You can Measure Energy Usage with a Kill a Watt Energy meter to quantify the power use and savings.

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Digital timers are a very useful in your quest to save money on your energy bill. You can program them to turn devices on and off. More advanced ones allow you to setup different times for different days. Most electric utilities have the lowest rates between midnight and 7 AM, use a timer to schedule appliances or pool filtering during those hours. Intermatic makes a lot of these timers.

We use this outlet plug timer to control our Internet connection.  It is set to turn on at 7 AM in the morning and off at 10 PM at night, seven days a week.  The Cablemodem / DSL modem, ATT Microcell,  Ethernet switch, and Wireless router are controlled by the timer.

We found  powering on/off these boxes far too tedious. Many an evening we would forget to power things down.  Installing a timer like this make it automatic.

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