Green Energy Tips for the Holidays

Here's a few tips from the Environmental News Service:

Decorating:

Consider replacing older strings of holiday lights with more energy efficient light emitting diodes, LEDs. Ask your lighting supplier for LED holiday bulbs, or look for them on the Internet. Now available in green, orange, gold, red, white and blue, they're shatterproof, shock resistant and safe to touch. They present no fire hazard and save up to 80-90 percent of your decorative lighting energy costs.

If LEDs are not an option, consider buying new miniature lights, which use about 70 percent less energy and last longer than the larger bulbs.

If you prefer the brilliance of the larger lights, switch to 5-watt bulbs, which use about 30 percent less energy than 7-watt or 10-watt bulbs. Although the new bulbs will cost money initially, you will see energy savings immediately.

Cooking:

Using the smallest appliance for the job while cooking during the holidays will always save energy. Microwave ovens use less than half the energy required by a conventional oven.

Use the smallest pan and burner needed for the job. A six-inch pan on an eight-inch burner will waste more than 40 percent of the energy. Cook with lids on your pans. For example, cooking pasta without a lid on the pot can use three times as much energy.

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