Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
Gas prices set a record high this week in Austin -- AAA says the average price for regular gas is $3.26 a gallon. That's 62 cents higher than a year ago.
Those numbers make many drivers wish for a car that gets more than 150 miles a gallon.
Such a car could one day be parked in your garage. New technology from a Washington-based company proves you can save a lot by not only changing how you drive, but also what you drive.
It is an ordinary looking car, but what's hidden inside and underneath makes it extraordinary.
"If you drive less than 40 miles a day, you won't burn a drop of gasoline. Not a drop," said Edward Furia, AFS Trinity Power Corp.
The cars are plugged in for a few hours, then can go 40 miles on a stored electrical charge before switching over to gasoline -- offering the equivalent of 150 miles a gallon to someone who drives about 340 miles a week.
"It's an electric car which after it uses up all the electricity in its batteries can extend its range by using gasoline," said Don Bender, AFS Trinity Power Corporation.
The AFS Trinity Power Corporation of Washington State displayed two prototypes of cars equipped with the new plug-in technology on Friday.
AFS hopes car manufacturers will buy this new technology and put in on commercially available cars in the next two to three years. The company estimates this technology will add about $8,700 to the cost of a car.
In full hybrid power -- which uses both gas and electricity -- the car can zoom from 0 mph to 60 mph in 6.9 seconds.
Austin Energy is a national leader in supporting plug-in hybrid cars.
Not only are hybrids friendlier to the environment because they use less gas than traditional cars, they're also cheaper to run.
The new technology would cost about a dollar a day in electricity to power cars for 40 miles a day.
