In the hot summer months, sometimes a portable air conditioner is necessary to keep rooms habitable. If you use a window air conditioning unit, be sure to choose a window that's shaded or north-facing. Doing this helps the unit draw in cooler air, which means it uses less energy to blow cool air into your home. And avoid having direct sunlight on it or placing it near heat-generating items like televisions and lamps with incandescent lightbulbs. Anything that produces heat can make the air conditioner work harder.

When you're driving down the road enjoying an apple, pear or nectarine, has the thought of tossing the core of the fruit into the woods crossed your mind? It's completely natural and biodegradable, so why not? The reality is that food is food, and when edible trash like an apple core is tossed out of the car window, it ends up not too far from the road. The smell of food attracts wild animals, who get dangerously close to the road. And even if an animal eats the core without harm, it learns that the sides of the road are potential places for food. No litter -- even the biodegradable kind -- is safe litter.

If you have a backyard pool, one of the best investments you can make to make it as energy-efficient as possible and to reduce the amount of chemicals needed to treat it is to update the pool pump. Modern-day pool pumps are designed to use variable speeds, which improve efficiency and move water with less energy. Better-working pumps mean less cleaning, fewer chemical treatments and overall savings on energy usage. Also, consider investing in a solar cover; it cuts back on water evaporation when the pool isn't being used, and it uses the power of the sun to heat the pool.