Green Power

For just a dollar a week you can get 10% to 20% accredited green power. For around another 5 cents per kilowatt hour you can have 100% accredited green power. Check with your electricity provider or lookup Green Electricity Watch for ratings on all the green power options.

Aircon

Turn it off or turn it down. Refrigerated air-conditioning is hugely energy intensive and swapping it for an evaporative system and/or ceiling fans would save money and create a healthier living environment.
You can make your home cooler naturally by employing some simple and cheap passive cooling techniques such as insulating the ceiling better, shading windows, growing a creeper up sunny walls, planting deciduous trees beside the north or west walls of your home, sealing gaps around doors and windows, secondary double glazing, venting the roof cavity with whirlygigs, erecting a shade trellis on the northern side, adding ventilation slots under you eaves and providing for 'cross ventilation' to make use of cool breezes.

Heating

Again premium insulation is a great winner along with sealing draughts around windows and doors. Covering windows with close fitting drapes that have a pelmet, blocking the chimney, sealing wall vents. Use a candle or incense stick to locate drafts to block up. If you can afford it double glazing is the best solution, letting in natural light and retaining the warmth.
Close off unused rooms, especially the wet areas like bathrooms and kitchen that have ceiling vents. Occupy the one space together and just heat that room. Of course pulling on a jumper and adding a blanket to the bed is the original and the best way to stay warm. If you have to use a heater fuel it the most greenhouse friendly way possible such as 100% accredited green power or firewood (Link to sustainable firewood supply).

Refrigeration

A typical new family fridge uses two-thirds less energy and generates two-thirds less greenhouse gas than a twenty year old one. Hanging onto that old clunker could be costing $210 more in power bills and generating an extra tonne of greenhouse gas each year. Source: Fridge buyback scheme.

Lighting

Of course swap all the incandescent bulbs you can with compact fluorescent lamps.
HPM make an outdoor solar sensor security light that costs under $100 and doesn't need an electrician to install.
Remove low voltage lighting as it is very energy intensive and allows air to escape your rooms into the ceiling.
Turn off lights when you're not using them or have an electrician install an occupancy sensor in the bathroom/laundry/toilet.

Computer

Visit the computer page under 'Take Action'

Appliances

When it comes to replacing home appliances buy the most energy efficient one you can afford. The extra cost will pay you back with energy savings for years as the cost of electricity rises. Visit www.energyrating.gov.au to search and compare appliances.

Grow your own food

Australian's love to garden and if you have a yard there's a truly amazing range of things you can grow.
The complete book of fruit growing in Australia (by Louis Glowinski ISBN 0-85091-870-7) contains a staggering list of trees that can be grown in suburbia.
Organic Vegetable Gardening (by Annette McFarlane, ABC books ISBN 9780733309878) features a useful introduction followed by a helpful index of nearly all garden vegetables.

For more information chekout these great links to vendors that will ship anywhere in Australia:
The Diggers Club has a retail outlet at Dromana on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria
Daley's Fruit Tree Nursery in Kyogle NSW
Green Harvest Organic Supplies will post orders anywhere
Eden Seeds for mail order heritage varieties www.edenseeds.com.au
Smart Gardens for a dry climate www.coliban.com.au/smart_gardens/
Natural Strategies www.naturalstrategies.com.au

Compost

Compost your plant waste. Kitchen scraps in a compost bin or worm farm, garden cuttings into a compost heap.
You will prevent it rotting anerobically in landfill where it creates methane (40 times worse than CO2) and have a healthy garden.
Tips on building a worm farm

Mail

Put a 'No Junk Mail' sign or sticker on your mailbox. Australian Conservation Foundation gives you one free when you join as a supporter.
Call Sensis on 1800 810 211 and if they answer it you can ask for them not to send you copies of the White Pages® and Yellow Pages®.

Read

Greeniology by Tanya Ha, A&U ISBN 1-86508-929-X
Making your home sustainable by Derek Wrigley, Scribe ISBN 1-920769-49-8
Climate change begins at home by Dave Reay of the UK, Macmillan ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-4578-5
More books on climate change

Links
Green Electricity Watch for ratings on green power
Energy efficiency tips from Green Electricity Watch
Home Tips from EnviroHQ
Home Energy Audit from Climate Positive
Energy saving products on the Product Directory
Australian Greenhouse Office Global Warming 'Cool it' tips
Australian Greenhouse Office 'Your Home' site, lots of detail
Rocky Mountain Institute 'Home Energy Briefs'