Conserving Heating Fuels

The upcom­ing win­ter promis­es to be a painful one for mil­lions of con­sumers across the coun­try. Dra­mat­i­cal­ly high­er prices for win­ter heat­ing fuels threat­en the pock­et­books of many con­sumers and could deliv­er a mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar blow to the nation’s econ­o­my. Even in warm-weath­er parts of the coun­try, ris­ing fuel prices will have an impact on con­sumers by dri­ving up the cost of elec­tric­i­ty and nat­ur­al gas used for hot water and oth­er purposes.

The most effec­tive way to reduce the impact of this winter’s heat­ing fuel cri­sis is to move as quick­ly as pos­si­ble to reduce our con­sump­tion of energy.

Two easy ways you can save mon­ey and heat­ing fuel are:

• Installing a low-flow show­er­head (many of which can be pur­chased for less than $20) can save mon­ey in just one year – and guar­an­tee addi­tion­al cost sav­ings in future years.
• Reduc­ing house­hold drafts – which can be done with the invest­ment of a few hours and a few dol­lars for sup­plies – can cut heat­ing ener­gy use by as much as 5 to 30 per­cent. See the Depart­ment of Ener­gy’s Do-It-Your­self Home Ener­gy Audits.
  

[Thanks to PIRG for this advice.]