scary TV

Photo: sascha

First a tool to prevent drunk emailing; now this: The smarties at Google have put together some treats in time for Halloween so you won’t be tricked by household energy waste.

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A list of ways to lower your energy bill includes tips to save water, cut heating costs, and reduce appliance electricity use, like turning down your hot water heater and the brightness on your TV. And an energy-saving calculator details the money and CO2 saved by making small household tweaks. Installing a programmable thermostat, for instance, annually saves almost $200 and 2,000 pounds of CO2.

In keeping with the spooky spirit, Google points out that “many of the energy-wasters in our homes are named after the ghouls of Halloween”:

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Our living rooms may be infested with “vampire” electronics that suck power even when turned off. And open chimney flues let the “ghosts” of winter steal our heat (not to mention the “monster” furnace that lives in the basement).

What’ll Google think of next, a way to get America off fossil fuels in the next two decades? Done and done.