Turn the Dial on Your Pool Heater

If you have a heated pool, reduce the temperature.

You can cut your pool's natural gas costs by as much as 40 percent by lowering the water temperature by just four degrees.

For the average underground pool, this could mean a savings of $60-$120 per month or more. For even greater and greener savings, consider using a pool cover or installing a solar heating system.

If every U.S. household with a heated pool lowered the water temperature by four degrees, the total monetary savings across the entire summer would be about $1.3 billion-enough to fly more than 500,000 spectators from Los Angeles to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.