Read an Excerpt: 'Living Like Ed '

Feb. 19, 2008 — -- Actor Ed Begley has been a passionate environmentalist since the 1970s.

He buys milk in glass bottles, recycled paper towels, Energy Star appliances and wants you to use a broom, instead of a hose, to clean the dirt off your sidewalk.

His new book, "Living Like Ed," offers practical changes you can make in your daily life to live a more green existence, dividing them up into "Easy," "Not-So-Big" and "Big."

Read an excerpt from the book below:

I bought our house in 1988, a simple little two-bedroom house on a small lot in Studio City, California. Given my financial position at the time, it was a great move that has also turned out to be great for my career—I've never felt pressured to take a role I didn't love just so I could make a huge mortgage payment. Of course, by Hollywood standards, this house is a shack. But by world standards, as I'm sure you know, it is a palace.

Retrofitting an Old House vs. Building New

Few of us have the resources to build a more energy-efficient house from the ground up. I didn't have the money to do that, and I didn't have the will to do that. Plus I liked my house. So, I set out to make my home as environmentally sound as I could in every aspect. I knew that with insulation, a drought-tolerant garden, double-pane windows, an energy-saving thermostat, and solar panels I eventually put on the roof, I could make this a much more efficient structure. Indeed, by the time I was done, I had made my home nearly as energy efficient as a new one. And you can do the same for your home, wherever you live.

The key to saving energy in your home is controlling energy use. Clearly, there are many ways to do this, from simple changes in what you do and how you do it to more-intense home improvement projects. Because so much of the energy used in your home is used to keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer, we'll start with ways you can control your heating and cooling needs. And there's another important point I want to mention right up front: You don't have to own your home to make many of these changes.

There's a lot you can do even if you're renting, or if you own a condominium or another type of structure where you might be limited as to the kinds of changes you can make. So why bother making these changes? Because they'll make your home more energy efficient, which means you'll be helping the environment by saving natural resources. It also means you'll be helping yourself and saving money—sometimes really big money. So no matter where you live right now, you can make some changes that will make a real difference.

A Fresh Filter

Perhaps the easiest thing you can do today is change the air filter for your heating and air-conditioning system. Many people think, "Filter? There's a filter?" If that's you, yours probably hasn't been changed in a while. Most central heating and air-conditioning systems have a filter at the air intake—on a wall or on the ceiling—and many window and wall-unit air conditioners have a filter element on the front that needs to be changed, too. I change mine regularly, sometimes six times a year, because we have two cats and a dog, and pet hair is always blowing around. I check the air inlet for my heating and air-conditioning system regularly and often realize, "Whoa! It's time to change this thing again."

Why is changing the filter so important? Because when the filter gets dusty or dirty or clogged, it's harder for your system to pull air through it. That means your system has to work harder, and it has to stay on longer in order to do the same amount of work. So changing that filter regularly is the low-hanging fruit that you can pick right away. And it doesn't matter if you have central heat and air or a window- or wall-mount air conditioner. Changing the filter is a great way to make your home more energy efficient. Beyond that, changing the filter will help if anyone in your family suffers from allergies.

You can even go a step further and choose an air filter that's designed especially to trap allergens. If odors are a problem in your home, there are filters designed to trap them, too.

ceiling fans (another great way to reduce cooling costs and energy use)

furnaces

dehumidifiers

refrigerators and freezers

clothes washers

dishwashers

windows and skylights

doors

roofing products

insulation

televisions, VCRs, and DVD players

computers and monitors

fax machines, printers, and scanners

cordless phones

lighting fixtures

Purchasing Energy Star–qualified products can even get you a tax break. To find out which products qualify and which forms you'll need to submit to the Internal Revenue Service, visit the Energy Star website at www.energystar.gov.

Energy-Efficient Refrigerators

How much of a difference does it make to switch to an Energy Star–qualified product? It depends on the product. It can range from a little to a very significant difference. Say you're thinking about replacing an old refrigerator with a newer model. Replacing your refrigerator bought in 1990 with a newer, more energy-efficient model would save enough energy to light the average household for nearly four months. In a typical household, that fridge is the single biggest energy-consuming appliance in the kitchen. In fact, the refrigerator actually uses 25 percent of the energy consumed in most homes. But even if you can't replace your current refrigerator, you can still help the one you've got use less energy.

First, position your fridge so it's not near a heat source, which makes the fridge work harder to stay cool. You don't want it right next to the oven or right next to the dishwasher or even in the path of direct sunlight from a window. Also, make sure air can circulate around the condenser coils. If your refrigerator has coils on the back, that means leaving a space between the back of your refrigerator and the kitchen wall or cabinets.

Once or twice a year, you'll want to unplug your refrigerator and clean the coils, which are either on the back or in front, behind a kick plate. You can use a vacuum attachment or even warm, soapy water if they're greasy and grimy. Cleaning those coils enables the refrigerator to operate more efficiently. And here's another piece of low-hanging fruit: Make sure the door seals are airtight. If you can feel cold air seeping out of your refrigerator, you're wasting a lot of energy. The good news is it's easy to install new seals, and they're readily available online or from a hardware store. You can also adjust the thermostat inside your fridge and inside your freezer.

Keep your refrigerator between 35 and 38 degrees Fahrenheit, and keep your freezer at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. And while this may sound obvious, another easy way to save energy is to shut the refrigerator door. Some people get into the habit of leaving that door open when they're unloading groceries or trying to figure out what to cook for dinner or looking for the perfect midnight snack. This makes your refrigerator work a lot harder to keep your food cold.