One of the easiest swaps to make with an old home to reduce energy costs is to switch over to energy efficient light bulbs.  There are a few options on the market, but the real contender in our house is definitely LED bulbs.  There are a few reasons for this, and the biggest is that these use about 10% of the energy of an incandescent bulb with an equal amount of brightness.  But there are a few things to consider when making the switch beyond stylistic decisions.  

Wattage is how much electricity is used in a circuit.  In AC current -wall plugs, not batteries- the wattage is also voltage x amperage.  Voltage does not change in a wall circuit, but amperage can.  So, a 60w incandescent light bulb plugged into a 120 volt circuit uses 1/2 an amp per hour  (120 x 1/2 = 60).  For a modern circuit breaker, when a circuit meets or exceeds the rated amperage on the breaker, it will turn the circuit off.  So, on a 15 amp breaker, 30 incandescent light bulbs that use 60 watts (or 1/2 an amp with 120 volts) should trip the breaker.  If an LED replacement uses roughly 10% of the power of an incandescent, it would take 300 bulbs!* Or it'll save the energy.  

*Keep in mind, this is the basics!  Please don't try to plug in enough light bulbs to trip your breakers. Some of the numbers are simplified, so individual circuits and bulbs vary. 

Living sustainably in my old house really comes in two additional forms that don't involve our electrical consumption.  We try to reduce landfill waste and save as much as we can while we make changes to our house.  At the end of the day, the most sustainable thing you can do is use what you already have and implement pieces that already exist.  

We are definitely doing that here in the bungalow!  Between choosing from my stash of roadside sinks or my collection of window sashes and old doors, we've been able to save beautiful old pieces from going to the landfill, reduce our own carbon footprint by eliminating most production and shipping for new materials, and save money along the way.  Saving what I can, often with a plan or an idea for reuse, has quickly become something I'm really passionate about with finding sustainable solutions for our house.  The balance?  I don't take things that are too badly broken to be reasonably repaired.  Rewiring or replacing a part in a light fixture? Sure.  Repairing the porcelain on a wall sink?  It's not necessarily helpful, but everyone has different thresholds.  It's all about finding what that is for each person.  

One of the biggest questions among old-house lovers is when to preserve and when to change a space or a system.  It's a hard question, and really depends on what is being changed, the house, the climate, and who is living there at all!  Every decision for what to do with our old houses is personal and meaningful.  But just as old isn't always better, new isn't always better either. 

We have made a lot of changes in our bungalow in the last five years, but the biggest changes are inside the walls and tucked away where no one sees them, but everyone can feel them.  Our biggest goal is to change all our systems to electric and eliminate our homes dependence on gas at all... even if we live in Minnesota, where our temperatures range from -50 to 110 F (-50 to 43 C).  It's a big range to live in, and requires a mix of heating and cooling as our planet's climate shifts more into the extremes.  In this area, we're really embracing the new.