It is no secret that Chicago weather is unpredictable. One thing is certain, however -- the Windy City summers are notoriously hot. With the summer temperatures regularly soaring into the 90's -- often accompanied with unbearable humidity -- Chicagoans are always looking to beat the heat. With energy costs hovering at all time highs and a nationwide emphasis on conservation, Chicagoland's leading residential heating and air conditioning provider, Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning, announced today a list of the Top 10 tips for consumers to conserve energy and save dollars this summer without sacrificing comfort.

The HVAC experts at Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning located in Chicago offer the following tips for consumers to heed this summer:

Top 10 Tips for Conserving Energy and Save Cold Hard Cash in Hot Summer Months

With gas prices parked over four dollars a gallon and record breaking temperatures looming this summer, workplaces of every stripe are looking for ways to save money, stay cool, and, hopefully, remain good environmental citizens in the process.

“Fortunately, some of the best ways to reduce an office or business’s water, electric, and maintenance costs help reduce energy consumption and save money, too,” says David Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of EnerLume Energy Management, makers of an energy savings lighting device. Mr. Murphy offers the following suggestions to businesses:

• Bulbs: Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. Although CFL bulbs cost more money, over the course of each bulb’s lifetime, businesses should save over $90 per bulb in energy costs.
• Heating and Air Conditioning: The best option here is for workplaces to install a high efficiency furnace and cooling system with a programmable thermostat. Set the thermostat for 68% in the winter and 78% in the summer; then program the thermostat a couple of degrees for extended times away from the workplace such as evenings and weekends.
• More after the jump.

As American consumers and businesses struggle with the myriad of light bulb choices available to achieve energy efficiency and other objectives, Lutron Electronics has created an easy-to-read website designed to answer the basic question, “What is the best light bulb for me?”

The new site compares standard-socket (E26) incandescent, screw-in compact fluorescent (CFL) and halogen bulbs. The bulbs are evaluated in a variety of categories, including efficiency, price, performance, controllability and quality of light.

One of the biggest problems with the first generation iPhone has undoubtedly been the battery life. Some users say that it lasts the whole 24 hours, while some complain that it only lasts a couple of hours before dying out. Apple tried to solve this problem by listing a couple of tips, like keeping bluetooth off, keeping wi-fi off, and keeping EQ settings off on the iPod, on their website to help maintain a steady battery life. These suggestions, however, limit the user from using all of the iPhones innovative features to the fullest.

In the latest news, Apple is rumored to be working on making a solar powered iPhone. With solar power, hybrid cars, and everything “green” being the theme of the year, the solar powered iPhone has room to be the next hot gadget-especially for those who have already gone “green” this year.

One of the reasons that solar powered phones have not worked in the past is because of added bulk the phone would get, and virtually no space to put the solar panels. This new iPhone is rumored to have the solar panels located behind the beautiful LCD touch screen. It would be nice to have a phone that ran on solar power, so the next time your phone is about to die at the park all you have to do is get in a sunny or lighted area. For now, all we can do is wait.

AT&T's U-verse IPTV is the first video service provider to commit to operating under the new ENERGY STAR program for video providers. As an ENERGY STAR participant, AT&T will provide U-verse TV customers with Motorola and Cisco Systems Inc. receivers that meet the new ENERGY STAR efficiency criteria well in advance of Jan. 1, 2009, when it goes into effect. U-verse IPTV receivers offer increased energy efficiency compared with other digital set-top boxes today. ENERGY STAR is a voluntary program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy that sets strict energy-efficiency specifications and promotes qualified products to help American consumers reduce their carbon footprint and save money.

Canadian drivers will likely burn an extra 643 million litres of fuel in 2008 because one or more of their tires are under-inflated, according to data from Natural Resources Canada, which is working with the Rubber Association of Canada, to educate motorists about proper tire care. That is enough squandered fuel to fill 257 Olympic size swimming pools.

Unless drivers take action, this wasted fuel will release an additional one million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and cost drivers an estimated $772 million in unnecessary fuel bills.

With fuel prices climbing ever higher, it is easy to see why tire maintenance is so important. A tire that is substantially under-inflated does not roll as smoothly or as easily as it was intended. This diminishes fuel efficiency because increased rolling resistance causes the vehicle to burn more fuel, which increases both emissions and fuel costs.

PC users love the visual realism that high-performance graphics processors give their PCs, but would rather do without the noise and power consumption typical of modern entertainment and gaming PCs. Starting today, however, they can have the best of both worlds, thanks to the new NVIDIA platforms based on the company's Hybrid SLI technology. These new platforms are the foundation for a new breed of PCs that deliver a richer visual experience while reducing energy consumption and costs, fan noise, and even heat. The new technology is available immediately with new NVIDIA nForce 780a SLI and GeForce 8 Series based motherboards.

The visual capabilities of typical PCs are driven by either integrated graphics on the motherboard or by higher performance, discrete graphics cards, like NVIDIA GeForce GPUs. Unfortunately, the most common integrated graphics chips lack the performance and features needed by many popular modern 3D applications, games, and movies. Discrete graphics cards deliver a far superior visual experience, but consume more energy.

The Palazzo Las Vegas announced that the U.S. Green Building Council made its "green" status official with the presentation of a Silver LEED Certificate at an award ceremony held today. Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons and David E. Rodgers, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency at the U.S. Department of Energy were also on-hand to honor this impressive accomplishment.

During the ceremony Governor Gibbons issued a proclamation in recognition of The Palazzo's commitment to energy conservation. The DOE presented The Palazzo with "The Energy Innovator's Award" which recognizes businesses, individuals, and governmental agencies that have successfully developed or deployed energy-efficient and/or renewable energy technologies, services, or policies.

According to USGBC, The Palazzo is not only the largest LEED-certified building in the world, but is over four times bigger than the second-largest. "The Palazzo is to be commended for achieving LEED certification. This facility is one that both the community and its guests can be proud of," said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO, Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council.

On Sat. March 29, more than 25 cities including Phoenix across six continents around the world will take part in the global event known as "Earth Hour" and turn out non essential lights from 8 to 9 p.m. Cox Arizona has signed on to the International project as further proof of its commitment to reducing its energy consumption.

Cox will turn off all non essential lighting at 17 buildings around the state, including our Deer Valley headquarters in Phoenix and the main building in Tucson. That means, at those locations, all computers, copiers, office equipment and inside/outside lighting will go down for the entire hour. This in no way will affect any Cox customer services.

Oncor announces the 2008 tour schedule for the Take A Load Off, Texas campaign, a series of local events across the Oncor service area designed to educate residential customers about energy efficiency. The Take A Load Off, Texas tour, capitalizing on a successful four-city launch in 2007, will feature the Take A Load Off, Texas van and interactive demonstrations illustrating the benefits of installing energy-efficient technologies and materials to reduce energy use. Starting in March, the Take A Load Off, Texas tour is scheduled to visit the following cities:

North Richland Hills     Discover Project Green, March 29
Plano                           Live Green Expo, April 12
Dallas                          EarthFest 2008, April 18

More locations and dates after the jump.

Both the HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-slim Desktop PC with SSD and the HP Compaq dc5800 Business PC provide the power and flexibility to meet the needs of most any business. In addition, they include a variety of environmental features that allow them to meet the most stringent environmental requirements of the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool Gold registry.

The two PCs add to HP’s industry-topping number of Gold-listed products in the EPEAT registry. The registry helps businesses evaluate, compare and select technology products based on their environmental attributes, such as meeting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s latest ENERGY STAR energy-efficiency requirements.

While using more power-efficient PCs can help any business save on energy costs and reduce the environmental impact of their technology, the effect across an enterprise environment can be immense.