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These New Year’s resolutions won’t make you look fabulous in time for swimsuit season or add 10 years to your life. Instead, your reward will be a fatter wallet and maybe a cleaner conscience, because this is about saving energy.<\/p>\n
\nYou can pay for the bubbly next year with all the money you save.<\/p>\n
\nThe average household uses about 20 percent more electricity than it did 20 years ago. Flat-screen televisions, cell phones, video games and iPods can really add up, not to mention much bigger houses.<\/p>\n
\nHere’s how to can tame the energy beast in your home.<\/p>\n
\n1. Get junior to shut off that Xbox when he’s not riding a virtual half pipe or racing through downtown streets in a Formula 1 car.<\/p>\n
\nVideo game consoles collectively use as much power as the city of San Diego each year, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Ecos Consulting.<\/p>\n
\nResearchers came to that result on the assumption that half of all users leave their consoles on all the time. And the latest machines are big power sponges.<\/p>\n
\nA Sony PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360 left on 24 hours a day, seven day per week will use as much electricity as two new refrigerators. The Nintendo Wii is a relative power sipper, however.<\/p>\n
\nThe study estimates that the annual electricity cost for a PlayStation 3 bought in 2006 that is shut off after use is $15; it’s $160 if the console is left on.<\/p>\n
\n2. Get into the spirit and replace those incandescent holiday lights with a string of LED lights. You’ll save 71 cents for a string that remains lit 10 hours a day for 30 days, according to the Alliance to Save Energy.<\/p>\n
\nIt doesn’t sound like much, but throw in 10 or 12 strings of lights to put on your house or a… <\/p>\n
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