SEATTLE - The Federal Environmental Protection Agency is tapping into one of the nation's riches sources of energy. It's children.
The EPA is teaming up with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to send home some easy energy saving changes.
The children learn about the costs of heating, cooling and powering up the average home and how to reduce them.
They provided an example today when club members converged on the home of one of their members in Bellevue.
Wendy Hagstrom agreed to open her doors to her daughter Montana and the rest of the junior energy detectives.
"I thought it would fun, why not?" said Hagstrom.
And it turned out to be profitable as well.
The children switched out old light bulbs for energy-efficient, compact fluorescents. Each bulb saves the owner about $40 in energy costs over the life of the bulb, say experts with Puget Sound Energy.
The kids lined doors and windows with easily installed weather stripping. Proper weather stripping and insulation can save the average household $200 per year, according to the EPA's Energy Star Program.
And they pulled the plug on all energy-robbing appliances, such as phone rechargers, that draw power even when they're not on, and plugged them into energy strips that can turn them all off and on with a single click.
Those appliances add up to 10 percent of the average household energy bill, says PSE's Andy Wappler.
The alliance has plenty more energy saving ideas that can be found on its Web site at .
