Four Stars for Thermostats, One Star for Electric Toothbrushes

This one is a look back rather than current news, so there's nothing here to act on for your own house. It's a history piece revisiting how a trade publication covered the 1973-74 Arab Oil Embargo, when editors pushed back hard against what they saw as media panic over an "energy crisis."

The interesting part for homeowners today is the old ranking system the publication used to grade energy-saving tips of the era. Four-star ("unquestioned effectiveness") strategies included adjusting your thermostat, weatherstripping, storm windows, cold showers, driving slower, and running appliances during off-peak hours. Insulation, zoning, and mass transit got three stars. Centralized building controls, heat reclaim systems, and window curtains landed at two stars, called "questionable or controversial." At the bottom, one star ("forget it") went to ideas like banning private cars, cutting work hours, opening the oven door to heat a room, and giving up electric toothbrushes.

What stands out is how many of those four-star basics — thermostat management, weatherstripping, storm windows — are still the same low-cost fixes recommended for cutting home energy use today. The piece is really a snapshot of how energy advice has (and hasn't) changed over fifty years, not a report on new programs, rebates, or technology you'd need to weigh in on now.