
These New Year’s resolutions won’t make you look fabulous in time for swimsuit season or add 10 years to your life. Instead, your reward will be a fatter wallet and maybe a cleaner conscience, because this is about saving energy. You can pay for the bubbly next year with all the money you save. The average household uses about 20 percent more electricity than it did 20 years ago. Flat-screen televisions, cellphones, video games and iPods can really add up, not to mention much bigger houses. Here’s how to can tame the energy beast in your home.