We live in an old house, so we weren't surprised to find out that it could use some help in the insulation department. It was alarming just the same to see the gaping blue holes where the winter cold just waltzes right in. We really had no idea. It's not like we compare monthly heating bills with all the neighbors. Of course, it makes us wonder how well their houses are insulated too.

Our local insulation contractor came in with a nifty infrared device that can detect and visually map the energy emitting from the walls, windows, corners, and doors. We learned that we have plenty of gaps in the walls where the insulation is non-existent or too thin. We also have heat escaping around the foundation as well as at the juncture of an overlapping roof where an addition was put on the house ten years ago.

The contractor estimated that we could save 20-30% of our heating bill with an update to our insulation. That seems like a significant amount of dollars and fuel. He's going to prepare a quote for us for doing the work. That will certainly play into the equation. Then I'll be able to do a break even analysis to see how long such savings might take to pay for the insulation work.

The other thing I'll look at is the energy and material used to do the updated insulation work. That needs to be part of the equation too. The contractor is suggesting spray foam as the answer. I'll be researching that soon.

While looking at different Carbon Footprint calculators online, I came across this list of tips for saving energy and reducing carbon emissions. It's posted on The Nature Conservancy's web site and attributed to one of their climate change scientists, Patrick Gonzalez.

There are many lists such as this one online and in plenty of books and magazines. Most of the ideas and tips I'm seeing in these lists seem like they should be intuitive, even obvious, yet my impression is that very few people enact these things on a regular basis. Why is that? Is it because we just haven't yet reached the point where we have no choice? Maybe we don't realize or believe that it's terribly important. Or we just forget to remember these things.

Well, this list seems pretty easy to me. It also seems that choosing a few items from a list such as this and adopting them as habits would go a long way toward the sea change we apparently need to reverse the current global warming trend. As I find more helpful tips, I'll post them here.

Here's today's list (copied from the Nature Conservancy web site): Easy Things You Can Do To Help Our Climate:

1. TIP: Travel light. Walk or bike instead of driving a car. Cars and trucks run on fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you’ll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

2. TIP: Teleconference instead of flying. For office meetings, if you can telephone or videoconference, you will save time, money, and carbon emissions. Airplanes pump carbon emissions high into the atmosphere, producing 12 percent of transportation sector emissions.

3. TIP: See the light. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. These energy-efficient bulbs help fight climate change because they reduce the amount of fossil fuels that utilities burn. You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent, over the life of the bulb.

4. TIP: Recycle and use recycled products. Products made from recycled paper, glass, metal and plastic reduce carbon emissions because they use less energy to manufacture than products made from completely new materials. For instance, you’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle. Recycling paper also saves trees and lets them continue to reduce climate change naturally as they remain in the forest, where they remove carbon from the atmosphere.

5. TIP: Inflate your tires. If you own a car, it will get better gas mileage when the tires are fully inflated, so it will burn less gas and emit less carbon. Check your automobile monthly to ensure that the tires are fully inflated. Follow this tip and save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive.

6. TIP: Plant native trees. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and use it as their energy source, producing oxygen for us to breathe. A tree in the temperate zone — found between the tropics and the polar circles—can remove and store 700 to 7,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime. A tree that shades a house can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

7. TIP: Turn down the heat. Heating and air conditioning draw more than half of the energy that a home uses in the United States. Turn down the heat or air conditioning when you leave the house or go to bed. You can easily install a programmable thermostat that can save up money and carbon.

8. TIP: Buy renewable energy. Electricity generation produces 40 percent of carbon emissions from the United States. A growing number of utilities generate electricity from renewable energy sources with solar panels, windmills and other technologies. If your utility offers renewable energy, buy it. If not, send them a message asking for clean energy.

9. TIP: Act globally, eat locally. If you shop at a supermarket, the food you buy may travel in a plane from the other side of the world, burning fossil fuels the entire trip. Shop at a local farmers’ markets and you will find fresh and healthy food, and help save our climate.