Ah, winter. Steaming cups of hot cocoa, snuggly blankets, blazing fires and of course, sky-high heating bills. Am I right? Or perhaps you've got your heating bills under control with a programmable thermostat, set to turn on and off and change temperature at various times throughout the day? If so, kudos to you.

But if you're like most Americans, you probably don't bother programming your thermostat. Programming's for programmers, right? But what if you could buy a thermostat so smart that it could cut your heating and cooling bills by 20%, with no programming at all? Thanks to Silicon Valley start-up, Nest Labs, you can. The Nest Learning Thermostat learns your schedule and your preferences to program itself.

After installing Nest, which the company claims can be done by anyone who can install a light fixture, all you have to do to "teach" it is adjust the temperature for a few days. It takes about one week for Nest Sense™ to learn about you and your home and start activating features to save energy and money.

Nest features include Auto-Away™, which automatically adjusts the temperature when you leave the house, and System Match, which activates custom energy-saving features depending on the type of heating system you have. You can also change the temperature while away from home by using the Nest Mobile app, which allows you to connect to your Nest from a smartphone.

Nest will also send you a monthly Energy Report to answer questions like why you used more or less energy one month than you did the month before, or how your energy use compared to others using Nest. Oh, and when summer arrives? Nest will begin building a new schedule to cut AC use up to 30%.

The second generation of Nest was just released in October of this year. The price? $249. But like so many eco-gadgets and innovations, this one is guaranteed to pay for itself. For a thorough review of this innovative product, check out reviews.cnet.com.

Learn more at www.nest.com.

REDUCE
Cut your heating bills with ceiling fans

Most people think of a ceiling fan as something to be used only during hot summer months and would balk at the idea of using one during the winter. But have you ever noticed that there are two Ceiling fansettings on your ceiling fan(s)? One setting rotates the blades such that they push air downward (to cool you during the summer) and the other switches the direction of rotation to pull air upward (to warm you during the winter).

Why does this work, exactly? It's one of the most basic principles of physics: cold, dense air sinks, and hot, less dense air rises. Anyone with a two-story house is very familiar with this principle, which serves us well during the hottest months of the year, and not so well during the coldest months. A ceiling fan, when switched to the winter setting, warms the air beneath it by circulating the air around it. The warm air that would otherwise remain trapped near the ceiling is forced downward by cooler air that is pulled upward by the fan.

How much can you save on your heating bills by using ceiling fans during the winter? It depends on how cold it is, how many fans you have, the height of your ceilings, where your heating vents are located, etc. But by circulating the air around it, a ceiling fan should allow you to turn your thermostat down a bit, saving energy and reducing your heating bills. One small caveat: in order for this to work, you need to circulate the air without creating a wind chill effect. You can do this by keeping your fan(s) on the lowest setting possible.


REUSE
Batteries that can be used over and over again

Each year, Americans burn through some 2.5 billion disposable batteries, most of which are thrown in a landfill despite the fact that they are hazardous waste. If you're still using disposable batteries, take a bite out of this waste and save yourself some money by making the switch to rechargeable batteries.

Yes, this is another gadget that has a higher upfront cost than it's wasteful, polluting counterpart.True, the  batteries themselves cost more than disposable batteries, and yes, you will need to purchase a charger. But rechargeable batteries can be charged hundreds of times, at just pennies per charge. After a couple of years, your batteries will essentially be free.

Another thought: this holiday, if you give a gift that requires batteries, why not include some rechargeable batteries and a charger with the gift? You'll be giving a gift that keeps on giving and possibly create a convert in the process.

Rechargeable batteries come in AA, AAA, C, D and 9-volt, and you can also buy converters to convert AA-size batteries into C or D-sized batteries. For a clear, comprehensive cost comparison of disposable vs. rechargeable batteries, visit www.thesimpledollar.com.


 RECYCLE
'Tis the season to become an savvy recycler

As much as I enjoy the holidays, there's no getting around it: it's a time of massive waste production. Wrapping paper, ribbon, shipping materials, holiday cards, packaging, party supplies...the list goes on. With the season of consumption upon us, there's no time like the present to take the guesswork out of recycling. If you haven't done it lately, take a minute today to find out just what can and cannot be recycled in your community.

There are many things to love about recycling: it replaces virgin materials with recycled materials in the manufacturing process, saves energy and water, reduces pollution, and is a relatively effortless thing that anyone with curbside recycling can do to protect the environment. But as easy as it may seem, recycling is not as straight-forward as we may like to think.

For example, do you know exactly what type of plastics your waste hauler accepts for recycling? All plastics marked with a number, or just #1 and #2 plastics? If you don't periodically check to see what you should be recycling and what you should be trashing, there's a good chance you are contaminating your recyclable items with non-recyclable items, while throwing away materials that your hauler does in fact accept for recycling.

The problem, you see, is that recycling is not universal. Accepted materials vary from hauler to hauler, and they change over time as well. Styrofoam, for example, is currently accepted in some communities and not in others. And what's accepted in your community today may change down the road, as manufacturers switch up what they are buying from recycling companies.

The easiest way to find out what goes in the recycling bin and what stays out is to check with your city's public works department. Check their website or call them up. Or if you live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, go to www.teachinggreen.org/Recycle for a handy list of links to recycling information for all 15 South Bay cities.