John Denver’s house must not have been very energy efficient

— NORTHWEST ARKANSAS - In “Goodbye Again” John Denver sang, “There’s frosting on the window pane, and sorrow in your eyes….”

I am sure John’s sweetheart may have been sad that he was leaving her for a while, but she was likely also saddened when she got the electric or gas bill because she was likely going to be paying a lot of money for heating their house only to have the heat leak out of the window that John hadn’t caulked or tinted (tinting works well in winter to keep the heat in and in the summer to keep the heat out), sealed around the edges with a rolled up a towel or gotten rid of the problem altogether by upgrading to new Energy Star rated windows (which are now eligible for a tax credit).

If he had done so, there wouldn’t have been moisture frosting around the windows every morning, and John might have stayed home more and been warm and cozy.

Other things John could have done to lower his energy bills - as well as things anyone else reading this article could still do - are: make it a habit to turn off the power strip for your television and computers every night before you go to bed ($15-$30 savings per system monthly depending on size of the TV and the age of the computer), read a newspaper or book instead of watching TV and turn it off tune in a good radio station instead; it uses a third less energy and is often more interesting), and carpool.

There are more ways to save on energy use but, that’s a good start.

Nathan Wilson is a wind energy agent for Winds of Change and has personally monitored the energy use of more than 1,500 homes and businesses over the course of a year and has worked diligently to provide homeowners the least costly energy-efficient solutions, saving audited homes 20 to 50 percent in energy bills.

More information is available at www.windsofchangeit .com.

Community, Pages 10 on 01/13/2010