SAVE ENERGY!

"Turn off the lights!" Sound familiar? A sound from your childhood perhaps? Or maybe one your own children are hearing it a lot? Maybe you've been told that turning things off and on wastes more energy than it saves. Who's right?

Lights. Turn them off whenever you leave the room. A 100-watt bulb left on eight hours a day burns $30 worth of electricity per year. If you're worried about the life span of your bulbs decreasing, don't. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, that's false. And turning things off and on doesn't waste energy either.

Car. Sitting idle in your car emits more pollutants than restarting it would, so if you're stopped for more than a minute, turn off your engine. And spread the word.

Computer. Program your laptop or desktop to "sleep" after 30 minutes of nonuse. That can cut power demand by up to 90%! If you're going to be away from your computer for longer, turn it off and also unplug the surge protector since it draws energy even when the computer if off. If you're worried about your hard drive, no reason...booting up again uses the equivalent of only 2 seconds of run time and won't hurt it. Monitors are a big energy drain, so trun them off after 20 minutes of nonuse.