For many of us, the computer has become an essential part of our work life, both at the office and at home. When you're not on your laptop or desktop, it often goes into something called "sleep mode" to conserve energy, but it can be "woken up" with the stroke of a key. If you want to save energy when using your computer, you should turn off the monitor on your desktop if you aren't going to use it for more than 20 minutes. If you plan to not use your computer for more than two hours, you should shut down the whole system completely. Even though there is a small amount of energy used to turn on a computer, it's not as wasteful as having it in sleep mode for long periods of time.

It can be hard to detect air leaks where cold air is blasting inside during the winter months, and the United States Department of Energy has two easy tips to find out if there are leaks in your house. First, turn off all the indoor and outdoor lights, and use a flashlight to shine on potential gaps inside the house. Have someone outside to observe the house as you shine the light; large cracks in the house will show up as rays of light. Second, grab a dollar bill and shut a door or window on it. If you can pull it out and it doesn't drag, the window or door needs to be weather-sealed.

Do you love the feel of printed books? If you've amassed a collection of paperbacks, hardbacks, textbooks and even audiobooks over the years and would like to swap them to read new books, consider joining PaperBackSwap.com. All you do is list what you have in your home library to swap. When another member requests it, you mail it to them and you earn a credit to choose from the 4 million available books. When you receive the book, you can keep it for as long as you want or swap it again.