I replaced my thermostat with a 5 day/2 day programmable thermostat. Before I would try to remember to turn the temperature down before I left for work, but of course, that didn’t really work out. So I got a programmable one so I can set my apartment temperature for the weekdays, as well as the weekend.

I set up the thermostat to be 68 in the morning and evening, and 62 when I’m gone and asleep.

The great thing is I’m in the middle of the three-story condo unit. Also the vents are in the ceiling so my downstairs neighbor is warming my place. So my furnace barely goes off.

This effort knocks off #37. Adjust the household temperature on my eco-wishlist.

I’ve unplugged the cell phone charger. Phew! Who knew it was such a waste? I sure didn’t. But I’ve taken to only plugging it in when I’m charging. What I used to do is charge it all night and grab it on my way out. Now I’m charging when it gets low, not leaving the charger plugged in all the time.

I still haven’t graduated to turning off my TV/VCR/DVD, etc. but they are all on power strips. My computer is on two, but I can’t reach one of them where it is located now. That’s a green thing for another day. So is turning off the computer. But my attempts at work have been fairly successful. Except my greener settings seem to make my Mac act funny. I will, however, continue to turn off the computer each night before I leave.

No longer will I use the “hot” or “warm” settings on my washing machine. According to Green Is Sexy, heating water accounts for 80% to 90%. Well that’s just too much in my view. On the other plus side, my clothes are sometimes fairly delicate and the cold water helps everything in the wash get along without having to run a bunch of different loads depending on the type of clothes. I just run full loads of whites, darks and delicates on cold and watch as my clothes come out all nice and wonderful.

I also don’t dry my delicates. Those are hung or laid to dry naturally to preserve their wear so I’m cutting some energy usage there too. The rest is just too much to air dry so I use the dryer to get them as dry as possible and let them air dry any further after that.

I have long been a computer junkie. An addict of the connectivity highway. Technology instantly at my fingertips. I know it, I acknowledge, I accept it. But all this talk of energy-saving got me rethinking my perspective.

With a little help from my favorite IT guy, I set my work computer to adhere to some energy saving features for the Mac, including sleep mode when I’m away from my desk. What was especially cool was the start up/shut down scheduling feature as I do not like waiting for a computer to boot up.

At home, I have a PC. Slightly different energy saving features going on over here but I applied what I coul. I’m also going to make more of an effort to turn off some of my computer peripherals, such as my external hard drive, speakers and USB port. This will be a little harder to do since I often stay up late and get too tired to think consciously by the time I head to bed. But I will try.

Check out Apple’s Energy Usage Calculator to see the impact of making a few system settings changes. For a few more tips on making your PC more green, check out Lighter Footstep’s 5 Ways To Put Your PC On An Energy Diet article.

It’s Earth Day and what a beautiful day it is! The weather really showed up today as it is by far the nicest spring day this season. Today Home Depot was handing out a free compact fluorescent light bulb in honor of the glorious occasion. I, of course, ran over to get one while I was out taking care of some errands. (That makes two free bulbs in one weekend including yesterday’s!) I also took an inventory of all the bulbs in the house and what the most used wattage was so I could start replacing them. There are 28 60-Watt bulbs in this house alone! Not including the various other wattage light bulbs, as well as all of the decorative chandeliers and halogen varieties. Wow! I bought three packages of four to start. So today I replaced a total of 14 incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving and carbon-dioxide reducing CFLs. I replaced bulbs in high-traffic, most-frequently used areas to start (ie. the kitchen, bathroom and automated-timer lamps).

To learn more about the differences between incandescents and CFLs, check out some info from Home Depot. With a quick click of a button, I found out that I’ll save $47 per year, that it’ll only take 10 months for the energy savings to pay for the CFLs, that over the lifetime of the bulb I’ll save$634 which could buy me 229 days of electricity. Most importantly, I’ve reduced the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by 1,300 pounds over the lifetime of the bulb.

You can also estimate your household carbon footprint using BP’s Carbon Footprint Calculator.