The important thing is always think about energy use. You will save a great deal of energy, lower your utility bills, and reduce the resources needed to create that energy.  Even if you create electricity with your own wind and solar systems, if you use less doing day to day tasks, you will have more for other things.

For instance, dishwashers use a great deal of energy during the drying cycle.  Avoid the dry cycle and you save energy — and money.  The easiest way is to take advantage of the “Air-Dry” feature on newer dishwashers.  This will automatically end the cycle after the last rinse and pop open the door to let the dishes dry naturally.  If you have an older dishwasher without the air-dry feature, just open the door after the last rinse to stop the cycle and let the dishes dry.  This works best when you only have one load to do (which you should do in the late evening), but careful planning may let you do one load during the day, air dry it, then another load in the evening, and then air dry that load also.