Green Your Home
Whether you rent or own, you can start taking actions to use less fossil fuels in your home today. From simple and affordable adjustments to long term solutions, these actions will boost your home’s energy efficiency and comfort - and even save you money. Some steps are so simple they may surprise you.
Reduce Your Energy Use
Making small adjustments to reduce your home’s energy consumption can have major positive climate impacts - and save money along the way. Here are a few steps:
- Auditing and monitoring your home's energy use will help you understand your use and fight 'energy vampires'!
Check out this helpful energy audit and monitoring tool
Or, borrow a monitor to detect the power usage of your appliances and electronics - Installing LED lighting is an easy and cost-effective action. See how much you can save with this simple savings calculator
- Pull the plug(s): Did you know leaving electronic devices plugged into outlets uses energy even when they are not charging? Simply unplugging your fully charged electronics and moving rarely used devices to power strips on timers significantly reduces your home’s energy use. Another tip: adjust your computers and monitors to automatically power down to the lowest power mode when not in use.
- Weatherizing boosts your home's energy-efficiency and comfort. Learn about weatherization and insulation for your home
Electrify!
Upgrading to highly efficient electronic appliances and heating/cooling systems significantly reduces your home’s energy use for years to come. Plus, many electric appliances, such as ENERGYSTAR, offer rebates. Efficiency Maine’s appliance solutions and heat pump guides are great places to discover the best options for your home, find rebates, tax incentives and more.
Switch to Renewables
Maine spends more than $4 billion every year on fossil fuels from out of state. Clean and renewable energy solutions can help keep your energy dollars in Maine. Learn about how you can switch to Maine-made renewable energy sources like solar electricity and solar hot water, community solar, geothermal systems, high-efficiency wood stoves, and more.
Green Your Yard
We’ve got your back(yard) covered with tips on composting, making your yard climate impact resilient and choosing energy-efficient landscaping equipment.