Insulation to your home.

Since heating and cooling make up the single largest portion of your home energy bill, reducing your heating and cooling needs should be your top priority for reducing energy bills.

Insulation

Inadequate insulation and air leakage are the leading causes of energy waste in most homes. Insulation stops this waste by stopping the transfer of heat. In the winter, it helps keep the heat inside, and in the summer, it helps keep the heat outside. This reduces the number of times your heating or cooling systems need to cycle on, saving you energy and money.

It is possible to add insulation to almost any home, and insulation gives you the most noticeable effects – it saves you money and your home will feel more comfortable. Walls, ceilings, and floors will be warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Insulation can also act as a sound absorber or barrier, keeping noise levels down.

• To see a video on how to install insulation, click here.
• Financial incentives are available in some areas. The North American Insulation Manufacturers Association website Simplyinsulate.com has a wealth of information including financial incentives for each state.
• To find out if your home has enough insulation, check out the Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s recommendations by clicking here.
• For more information on insulation and air sealing, visit the ENERGY STAR® website.

Air Sealing

Warm air leaking into your home during the summer and out of your home during the winter can waste a lot of energy and increase your energy bill. One of the quickest ways to reduce the waste is to caulk and seal all seams, cracks, and openings to the outside of your home. These can be hard to find and you may need the help of a professional. You probably know (and may be able to feel) air sneaking into your home around your windows and doors. But lots of air infiltrates through openings in the ceilings, walls, and floors. The biggest holes are most often found in the attic and the basement. Caulk, spray foam, and weather stripping are the most common materials used for sealing up these holes. These materials are very affordable and can be purchased at your local Home Depot or other stores, and for the price, have a big payback. You can save 10% or more on your energy bill by reducing the air leaks in your home.

• For a fact sheet on Air Sealing from the Department of Energy click here.
• If you want to seal your home but aren’t sure if you should do it yourself, or hire a contractor, click here.

Saving rain water for drinking purposes

Rain water is considered to be one of the most precious resources of water. I still cant forget how I did suffer during 1997 water crisis. I have to take bathe 2 days once in my office and has to collect the water everyday from the tankers arriving at our apartment.
People in other countries has start saving the rain water for thier daily purposes also at their homes.

To illustrate how important and how limited a resource freshwater is in our world, consider the following. More than 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water, but only 2.5% of this supply is considered fresh water. The rest is found in the form of salt water in the oceans. Of the fresh water that exists, most is locked up in glaciers and ice caps. Water can also be found in the form of clouds and humidity in the soil. That leaves us 3/10 of 1 percent found in the form of lakes, rivers and streams. Unfortunately, much of this small amount of freshwater is in danger of drying up through desertification or becoming so contaminated that it cannot be used for human consumption. Changing our habits of water use can help to abate this growing problem.

How do I save rain water?
There are different ways and methods of saving rain water. the most common one is placing your own vessels outside in your garden or yards. Make sure that the rain water collected is direct and should not collect the water from the roof tops or drains etc.
The collected rain water can be used for garden landscape later or for washing your car and daily utensils.

For further details you can view some of the links I have given here.

http://www.rainbarrelguide.com


Some of these technologies has been used in other countries.

Saving Electricity as the cost inceases

For central &Split AC, install a programmable thermostat with a built-in timer.

For window unit AC's, just buy a plug-in timer from a home improvement store.

Either way, set the timer or thermostat to turn off about the time you leave for the day, and to turn back on a half hour before you get home. Contrary to popular belief, this does NOT use more electricity than having the AC constantly maintain a cool temperature; it uses less.

You can get programmable thermostats and plug-in timers from your local home improvement store. (Programmable thermostats come with instructions, but it's a quick job for an electrician if you're not comfortable doing the installation yourself.) Plug-in timers comes in different prices and there are more expensive models with more features.

It's a myth that leaving the AC on while you're away at work uses less energy than turning it on when you get home. Think about it: Heat constantly penetrates your home, and that's what your AC removes. If you turn on the AC when you get home, then your AC has to remove the accumulated heat only once. If you leave it on during the day, your AC must repeatedly remove heat that enters your home.

You might think that there's no difference, because your house should absorb the same amount of heat either way. Not true. With the AC off, at some point your house will be so hot that it can't absorb any more heat. But with the AC on, your house will always be cool enough to absorb more heat -- and you'll be paying to remove that heat, over and over again.

2) Increase the temperature of your air condition. This will also helps you to save electricity in your office or home. Make sure your windows are tinted or curtained to maintain the cold air in your offices and home.

3) Third but not least, use fan and open your windows. use some mosquito coils or spray before you sleep. It may help you to save some penny in your pocket. ;)

Bio-Gas

Bio-Gas for cooking:
Cows dung are abundant in streets of villages in India. There are certain houses which uses these cow's dung to get some cooking gas for their daily cookings. By decomposing these dungs, bio-gas are used in daily households. Yes of course, this method does not suitable for urban living in Malaysia, but it can be applied for the rural or Kampungs in Malaysia. Hence in malaysia, poultries can generate this gas for different usages.

Good home designs

In rapidly growing urban areas, rapid residential constructions takes place on each and every bits of land in this country. I predict, in less than 10 years, our country will face shortage of important natural resources like Water, forest and rain etc.
Since growth of economic is unavoidable in any forms, but it can be planned properly. Currently we have to agree that our town planning is not up to par with other developed countries like France, Italy, UK and so on.

Design of homes will also contributes in saving water and electricity bills.
In India, where I have noticed in certain villages, they have square opening in the middle of their houses to have ventilation. You may not beleive it, during a hot summer with 32 degree Celcius, once you get into the house, you can feel the sudden drop in the temperature and cool breeze in the house. Still people are practising the older design in their new homes.
In those days, they use natural water wells as their resource of water instead of refined tap water. In current days, I have also noticed they use both as their water resources.

INTRODUCTION

In recent times, all malaysians has feel the pinch of the increasing fuel prices and also other prices like ELECTRICITY and water (possible in the future)etc. As we can see throughout the world, each and every country is racing against each other to discover alternate resources of energy, no matter it is a renewable or non-renewable energy. All sorts of people are welcome to this blog where they can present their view and share their ideas on energy matters. Meanwhile I will post most of the articles and the updates from MALAYSIA about the alternative energies . Furthermore I will also posts on the tips to save energy on time to time.