My cut in energy is doing errands riding my bicycle. Yesterday I rode to the post office.

Other than that... turn of lights when leaving rooms, no dishwasher, no clothes dryer and collect the water till hot comes out of the line, to use elsewhere, as in topping off the water level in my older model top loading washing machine, or flushing the toilet, and in the summer/dry season water my trees and flowers.

Annie, did you have the solar panels installed or did they come with your house when you bought it? That is awesome that you have that. There is not much in the way of solar power where I live. But I have to say that when I was finally able to get my windows replaced and a new furnace, my utilities bill was cut in half!! I prefer open windows to either heat or a/c, but I am glad to have it when I really need it.

My picture is a Texas sunset.

Hmmmm. Let's see, we recycle although it's more difficult to justify to my husband now when there are all the stories now about how ineffectual this practice is these days. Our home is under 2000 sq ft so we may use less energy than a larger home. We don't have a lush lawn because we don't use fertilizers, but that's more about environmental issues as we live near the ocean and dealing with rain water run-off is important. We take reusable shopping bags everywhere. We collect rainwater for plants and often shower together (TMI?).

murraysmom, we built our house and included many energy saving features including solar-tempered design, geothermal heating and cooling, closed cell insulation and more...

We also have geothermal heating and cooling which the building installed in all 48 homes in our 55+ development. I do wish he had also installed solar panels on our roof, as we'd then be generating the power to heat up the groundwater. We looked into it a year after moving in. Our house is oriented perfectly for it, but it would have cost $40K. At our age, not worth the investment. We've had no problems with the geothermal system, however, several of our neighbors just don't understand how it works and are always playing with the thermostat.

We have 14" thick walls(cement and insulation board), radiant heat floors(no furnace or ac), no sprinkler system/no lawn(lots of mulch on the few flowers we have), a metal stone coated Decra roof(hail ruins roofs here, replaced every 4 years typically & old ones put in a land fill).

Bikes available for rent in San Diego. Just pay with a credit card and off you go. Of course, like many things involving humans, a new set of problems have been created. When done with them, many people abandon them in the streets, on sidewalks, in parking lots, etc., instead of returning them to the bike stands. The city is now trying to figure out how to get people to stop doing that - the original intent is good though!

How about an old fashioned wind mill

Summer - that is such a beautiful photo. I'd love to see the same shot in the spring!

We are saving water and indirectly energy by removing the front lawn and having bark instead for the last 30 years. Everything else is on drip irrigation.

Skibby, thank you. I will take a pic in the spring for you.

Summer, how about taking a picture in each of the four seasons? Would make a neat picture to group. Nicole once did some cool things with 4 pictures I took while riding Teddy in the woods. I took a picture through his ears of the trails we rode.