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Summer is approaching and we all know how high our electrical and gas bills can get!

Here are 5 ways to save money on your energy bills brought to you by Click2Houston.com’s staff writer, Dough Frattallone:

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs Save $30 Over Bulb’s Life

Welcome to the 21st Century. Welcome to the CFL! That’s right, it’s time to stop buying those old-fashioned incandescent bulbs. They served their purpose for generations, but the CFL is the way to go.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, CFLs will save you about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime.

They also produce about 75 percent less heat, which means they won’t burn your pinkies when you try to unscrew one.

Every single hardware store (worth its salt) on the planet is stocked with CFLs. Visit www.energystar.gov to figure out the right bulbs for your fixtures.

Wasn’t that easy? Good. It’s going to stay easy. Our next tip involves turning off something once it reaches a certain cycle. Intrigued? Well, click on and all will be revealed.

Turn Off Dishwasher Before It Hits The Heat Cycle

This is almost too easy. First of all, don’t believe anyone who says washing dishes by hand is more energy efficient than using a dishwasher. Wrong. You use more water washing and rinsing a load of dishes by hand.

That doesn’t mean the common dishwasher won’t try to take a few bucks out of your wallet. When the device’s heat cycle kicks in to dry the dishes, that’s when you step in.

This is when you turn the thing off, and simply let the dishes air dry. Yep, good old-fashioned air is less expensive than electricity! If you have a few kids who have finished their homework and are looking for something constructive to do, instruct the monsters to take a dry towel to hasten the process.

Don’t worry, the next tip isn’t much more difficult than that. But it may require you to walk down a flight of stairs. But in the end, you may breathe easier.

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