My increased focus on the green side of life has produced actual action, in addition to a shift in blog-reading (others’) and blog bloviating (mine):

* We have ordered replacement windows for the first floor of our house, and are considering forgoing a trip to Mexico in April in order to apply the saving to a better (but also far more efficient) back door. Partly we were motivated by the expiring tax credit for such work, and have to be sure to pay for it before the end of the year, even though the installation won’t come until January.

* We have shifted our electricity use to wind-generated energy. Basically, we did this via a contribution to the New England Wind Fund, and just adding that cost to what we already pay for electricity. The idea is that those so motivated can hasten the expansion of wind-power markets, enabling it to achieve economies of scale that could make it more competitive with coal.

* Joined Sustainable Arlington, a local volunteer group. So far, it doesn’t appear to be that active, but it could just be the season.

* Gave money to, and offered to volunteer at, Mass Energy (massenergy.com), “a non-profit organization that both advocates and acts in the marketplace on behalf of consumers and the environment,” according to its website.

And, we had what will likely be the first part of an energy audit. It was free, offered by Keyspan, which provides our natural gas. I had initially declined to accept the free service, because it seemed skimpy, but then went ahead with it at the urging of a guy at the state energy office. (I’d contacted them because a book on living efficiently suggested it as a resource for finding energy auditors.)

And, what I experienced is that it IS skimpy, at least by my lights. We did get a new showerhead and some new lightbulbs, and I learned a couple new things here and there, such as, some CFL lightbulbs (the super-duper, long-lasting, power-pinching ones) can explode if used with dimmer switches (others are built for it; read the label). So I removed the ones in the kitchen. He was also able to verify for us that we have insulation in the outside walls, at least in all the places he checked.

But one of the reasons we want an audit is that our ducts are unsealed, allowing heat and AC to leak into the basement before reaching the main living areas. There are tests that can determine the extent of the leakage, so you can know how severe the problem is, but the free energy auditors don’t do that. There’s also something called a blower-door test, which assesses how leaky/drafty a house is, and can identify places to shore up, but the free auditors don’t do that, either. And Georgie suspects that we have an energy leak somewhere, that our electrical bills are too high. But the free auditors don’t monitor energy use.

The lightbulbs are nice, but we’d shifted over to CFLs already, mostly. And the showerhead we got was for downstairs, where, I think, three showers have been taken since we moved in 39 months ago. We already had replaced the one upstairs with a device manufactured in Australia that I’d read about on a blog. We were already doing the windows. We had already insulated (during the renovation). Our auditor, a very nice guy, said we were pretty far ahead of the game, which was great, but his function was not to get us to the next level.

We now do have a roster of for-pay auditors to choose from, from various sources (although not the state), and it appears we’ll have to pay between $400 and $800 for the service; we’re in the process of choosing how much efficiency we’re willing to pay for. (Note that this is the cost only for the assessment; we’ll then have contract with someone to actually seal the ducts, and fix our energy leak, if there is one. These expenses, of course, are added to the several thousands for the windows, and hundred-plus for the purchase of the wind power.)

It is great, I think, that there is a free service to help beginners in energy efficiency. But that policy will achieve only minimal savings, compared to the inefficiency carelessly incorporated into every home. Let’s do this instead:

* Instead of free at the beginning and nothing at the end, how about subsidies for any approved energy-saving measures? This would be in the interest of the homeowner, the utility, and general public welfare.

* And, the same parties — which is to say, everyone — would benefit it blower-door tests and other higher-end efficiency measures were required for occupancy of new structures, these services would come down in price, and over time would increase the efficiency of housing stock across the board.

I expect some would object to such heavy-handed and costly government regulation, but we have housing codes already, which are designed to protect individual and collective health and welfare. Since we burn coal for our electricity, every bit less we use will do nothing but help everyone. OK, everyone except the coal barons and the railroads. I’m OK with that.