Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
Click to watch Wendell Edwards' 11 News report
HOUSTON -- Janet Fleck does not like being hot. That is why the administrative assistant for the City of Houston keeps a fan at her desk.
“As long as I am sitting here, the fan is on,” said Fleck.
The fan is on, because inside Houston's City Hall Annex, the temperature is up.
Last month, administrators raised the thermostat in 100 city buildings. The temperature now never dips below 74 degrees.
“The goal here is to conserve and save money and our kilowatt-hour consumption,” said Issa Dadoush, of the city's general services department.
That in turn helps lower the city's electric bill that has nearly doubled since energy prices starting soaring.
As those utility bills continue to climb, families are also learning to conserve as much as they can. A recent poll suggests that two-thirds of families are cutting back on the air conditioning, by turning it off or in most cases turning the temperature up.
That includes people like Emma Riley who is using a box fan as she sets her air conditioner to a higher temperature.
“I just put it on 77 or 78 (degrees), somewhere in there. I just let it stay on day and all night,” the southeast Houston resident said. “And I think that saves the energy.”
Back at City Hall, city employees are finding other ways to keep cool.
“I feel like I can be more productive if I stay a little cooler,” said city staffer Al Owens.
So, the fans keep blowing while city leaders keep saving energy in hopes to save taxpayers money.
