While we often reckon of energy efficiency as the way to save our environment, we also often consider it a costly endeavor. Did you realize, but, that your homes energy bill might be reduced by up to 30 percent through energy-efficiency that includes the buy or energy efficient appliances and other products? In other words, you can save yourself money while you do your part to save the planet.

Every time you buy a new air conditioning unit, a new washer or dryer, a new refrigerator, microwave, or piece of office equipment, you are affecting the environment, either positively or negatively depending on your choices. Smart choices of products designed for energy efficiency help the air we all breathe and reduce your energy bill each month.

Here is some basic information about how energy efficiency works and why its helpful. A fantastic deal of the energy you consume in your home is produced by local power plants that must burn fossil fuel to make the energy. These fossil fuels might be natural gas, coal or oil.

These fossil fuels also make pollution. This pollution harms not only the environment but ultimately the people, as it causes smog, acid rain and respiratory diseases. Fossil fuel pollution is also a strong factor in changing the climate of the globe.

While we hear a lot about the harmful gas emissions that emanate from vehicles, what we dont hear much about is the fact that your home probably produces twice as much of these emissions as the average automobile.

Opting for energy efficiency through your choice of products that are energy efficient is one of the best ways you can reduce your consumption of energy and thus your distribution of harmful emissions of greenhouse gas. Any household that buys equipment designed for energy efficiency puts a huge dent in harmful emissions of carbon dioxide.

In fact, over the lifetime of one of these energy efficient appliances or other products you will have reduced pollution the equivalent of what would be saved by one fewer vehicle for seven years. The use of energy efficient household products reduces nitrogen oxides too, which contribute extensively to acid rain and smog.

The average U.S. household spends about 1500 each year on energy. Energy-efficiency can reduce this bill by 400-450 annually. If youre concerned about energy efficiency and wish to not only save the environment but save yourself some money it will help to know which appliances account for what part of your energy use and bill.

The largest, which probably comes as no surprise, is your heat and air conditioning. This is a whopping 45 percent of your energy bill. Your water heater uses up 11 percent of your energy, and your washer and dryer 10 percent. The lighting for your home is seven percent of your energy costs, while your refrigerator is six percent of your bill.

Your dishwasher, computer, monitor, TV, VCR, DVD player and similar equipment each use up about two percent of your total energy consumption. Stoves, microwaves and other smaller appliances generally account for the rest, though at less than two percent of the total each.

The energy prices have gone up in the last few years all over the country and people have been starting to question about alternative energy solutions. This is one of those things that must be done. Energy efficient solutions must be applied in every home.

This could be also looked upon as a business choice since a house that is more cost efficient will get a better price on the market. This means that any investment you will now make into your home and into more efficient energy solutions will be something you can benefit from later on.

The US government has already made an energy efficient home ranking program and this will help citizens save money and also protect the environment by using alternative energy solutions. This energy efficiency testing program will grade homes on some strict energy guidelines. This way, an owner will have a clear certificate that states his home is energy efficient. The house will have a larger value on the market.

If you imagine that energy saving solutions means renovating the entire home, you are incorrect. There are small steps you can do and they do not cost much. For example, you can start by replacing, one by one, the appliances in your home and get better ones, which save energy. Did you know that by using energy efficient appliances you can save up to 30% from your energy bill? It is right. Even a small change like using a compact fluorescent light bulb instead of an incandescent one can make a difference.

Studies show that this small go will save you $60 in 8 years. And this is just by replacing one bulb and not all of them. The incandescent bulbs are using 4 times much more energy than the fluorescent ones and the government is trying to get people to give up on them.

Kathy Price-Robinson has stated that in US there are about 500.000 homes that were submitted to the energy efficiency test and by the end of 2010 there will be 2 million homes rated. “That is a small step in comparison to the over 128 million homes in the United States today that are not rated; but, it is surely a step in the right direction,” Price-Robinson added.

This program will not solve the problem with our increasing bills but it will give us an thought about how to act and how to find energy efficient solutions.