Your parents probably spend about $1,300 per year on energy bills, while your school's bills are in the hundreds of thousands. Those bills are only going to increase as the cost of the fuel needed to generate electricity increases.

Creating energy to keep the lights on also creates pollution. Every year you produce about 45,000 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2)—the main ingredient in causing the greenhouse effect. Your home produces twice as much greenhouse gas pollution as your car (22,000 pounds of CO2 vs. 10,000 pounds from a car).

With the recent blackouts in the Northeast, the importance of saving energy has become more important. Studies show that the typical home can cut its energy consumption in half by following some simple conservation measures.

Here are some easy tips for conserving energy:

• When you leave a room, turn out the lights. This is probably the biggest way you can save energy, as lights use about 10 to 15 percent of your energy at home.
• When you are not watching TV, turn it off.
• Only run hot water for as long as you need it. You don't need to take hour-long showers. When you're washing dishes, only run the water when you're rinsing or filling up the sink. If you have a dishwasher, only run it when it's full, and use the energy-saver cycle.
• Every time you come into your house or school, be sure to close the door right away. Every second it's open you're wasting energy.
• Turn down the heating or air-conditioning thermostat when your family leaves the house for long periods of time. This is a huge way to save energy.
• If you know you always forget to turn a particular light or appliance off, put a little note or sign next to it to remind you.
• Don't keep the refrigerator open while you stare inside looking for something to eat. Refrigerators use about 15 percent of your energy at home.
• Don't wash more laundry than is absolutely necessary. Your washing machine uses about 14 percent of your home's energy. Use cold water as much as possible with larger loads.
• What kind of bulbs are you burning in your lamps? By replacing four 100-watt bulbs that burn more than four hours a day with 23-watt bulbs, you could save more than $82 in three years, and 452 kilowatt-hours!
• If your classroom or rooms at home have furniture blocking the heating vents, ask to rearrange it so that the air can move efficiently around the room. Blocked vents can waste a lot of heating energy.
• When buying new appliances, look for those with the federally approved "Energy Star," which has the word "energy" and a picture of a star with a rainbow over the top. These models use the least energy, and can save your parents up to $400 a year in energy bills.
• Give your doors and windows an energy test. Hold up a tissue next to your door or window frames. If the tissue moves, then you have a draft that is leaking energy from your home. Door leaks can be stopped with weather stripping. Use caulkor plastic film for windows. Storm windows conserve the most energy, and pay for themselves in the long run.
• Ask your parents if the attic and hot-water heaters are well insulated, and if the windows in your home have a protective coating on them to keep energy from leaking. Also ask if they clean the heating units and filters regularly. All of these things save energy and can reduce the monthly electric bill.
• Visit a Web site like www.ase.org (The Alliance to Save Energy), to find more tips that will help you save energy in your classroom, house, and car.
• Order the Power$mart booklet on how to save energy every day by calling 1-888-878-3256. It's free and published by the government.