Montgomery County Climate Action Initiative

10 Simple Things You Can Do to Reduce Your Impact on Climate Change

1. Regulate your temperature.

• In the winter: dress appropriately for the weather, put an extra blanket on the bed, and set your thermostat to the lowest possible comfortable setting.  Many sources suggest 68 degrees helps to decrease energy use and home heating bills.  During the heating season, keep the draperies and shades on your southfacing windows open during the day to allow sunlight to enter your home.  Close them at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.   

• In the summer: set your thermostat to 78 degrees and use fans to circulate the air.  Fans help to create a cooling effect, allowing you to raise the temperature on the thermostat and use less energy to cool the home.  Try ventilating your home at night when the air is cooler.  During the cooling season close the window coverings on southfacing windows during the day to prevent solar gain.

• Clean air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed; make sure they're not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.  Cleaning or replacing filters on furnaces once a month, or as needed, keeps your heating system running efficiently as possible.

• Turn off kitchen, bath, and other exhaust fans within 10 minutes of cooking or bathing to avoid loosing more conditioned air than necessary.

2. Turn your hot water heater down.

• About 15 percent of an average home energy bill goes to heating water.  You will save energy by turning the hot water heater down to 120 degrees.  This will keep the unit from heating water more than is necessary to operate household appliances. 

• For more savings, and when washing laundry in a top-loading machine, use cold water to save up to $63 a year – detergents formulated for cold water get clothes just as clean.

3.   Tailor your lighting.

• Change your lights: look for energy-saving/ENERGY STAR qualified light bulbs and fixtures when replacing burned out bulbs and buying new fixtures.

• Turn off the lights you are not using, and consider installing timers, photocells, or occupancy sensors to reduce the amount of time your lights are on.

• Focus task lights where you need them rather than brightly lighting an entire room.  For example, use fluorescent under-cabinet lighting over kitchen sinks and under cabinets.

• Consider using 4-watt mini fluorescent or LED nightlights.  Both lights are much more efficient than their incandescent counterparts and are cool to the touch.

4.  Getting around town.

• Rather than drive, take a walk for short errands in your neighborhood.  You’ll be multitasking as walking is also good for your fitness. 

• Try public transportation to get to and from work, school, and other activities.  Visit www.montgomerycountymd.gov/commute to learn more about public transit options as well as ways to reduce travel.  

5.  Be a conscience driver.

• Avoid "jack rabbit" starts and aggressive driving.  Flooring the gas pedal not only wastes gas, but also leads to drastically higher pollution rates.  One second of high-powered driving can produce nearly the same volume of carbon monoxide emissions as a half-hour of normal driving.

• Follow the speed limit!  Driving 75 mph instead of 65 mph will lower your fuel economy by about 10 percent, and can dramatically increase tailpipe pollution in many vehicles.

6.  Take a load off.

• Carrying an extra 100 pounds in your car reduces fuel economy by about 1 percent. Take a few moments to unload your cargo area.

7.  Mind your manners.

• Be careful not to spill gasoline when refueling.  Gasoline fumes are toxic and carcinogenic, and they cause smog.  Spilled gasoline can pollute the water and poison wildlife, and it's very flammable!

8.  Lend a hand.

• Many communities sponsor events to plant trees and clean up trash in streams or parks.  Sign-up to help out for a morning or afternoon and “green” your community.

9.  Buy clean energy or renewable energy certificates.

• Clean energy is energy produced by releasing little or no greenhouse gases.  When you buy clean energy you are voting with your dollars to increase the amount of energy generated from renewable energy sources.  Generating clean energy offsets the energy that is produced from fossil fuels and helps to decrease the greenhouse gases released into our air. 

10.  Tell a friend. 

• Let people know you are concerned about climate change and what you are doing to make a difference.  Share these tips and encourage others to do simple things.  Together, we can make a big difference. 

This is a short list of ideas to decrease your impact on the environment.  If you want to do more, check out these web sites for additional energy savings ideas:  

US Department of Energy -- tips for renters, homeowners, and kids.

US Environmental Protecion Agency -- ideas for every part of your day.

Alliance to Save Energy -- information on everything from energy efficiency to tax credits.

Montgomery County Energy Wise Homes -- energy-efficiency information for your home.