Dear Editor,

At the end of every month comes the dreaded energy bill, persistently rising as the winter months approach. It seems like this cost increase is inevitable, but there are many easy ways to reduce home energy consumption and costs.

Start by making sure your home is sealed off to the chilly outdoors. This can be achieved by making sure all storm windows are shut correctly the latch is completely twisted and the window cant slide up. An easy insulator is to line windows with a plastic covering like saran wrap, which prevents the air outdoors from cooling the warm air inside. Keeping all doors and windows shut is key. These quick fixes will reduce the amount of heat needed to keep your home comfortable.

Aside from insulating your house, save money on energy bills by making sure your heater and all appliances are not running when you are not using them. For instance, turn off the lights if you leave a room, and unplug cellphone chargers, computer chargers and printers after use.

It is estimated that five percent of electricity in the U.S. is wasted on products that arent being used. Anything that has a light or clock reading is consuming energy think about the little green light on your printer, or clock readings on coffee makers. An easy way to remember to do this is to plug electronics into a power strip and shut off the power strip when youre done.

Other tips include making sure you only do full loads of laundry and turning down your water heater when everyone leaves the apartment for break.

No one likes shelling out money for electric bills, especially when some of those costs can be avoided, so run through this checklist of tips to reduce your energy costs.

Sincerely,

Diana Biggs

Class of 2015