Average folks who never thought much about energy and green power issues now are tuned in. The public has a real chance to learn about efficiency measures and improved energy controls. A monitor turned off, or a system automatically going to sleep does save energy. Unfortunately, most PC's still are shipped with minimal power management settings. Some network operating software is still too primitive to properly deal with PC's that go to sleep.
Water heaters can heat their insulated tank-load in about a half hour.
Clear brush and debris away from outdoor AC and heat pump units. If you have a natural gas furnace, you can use fairly aggressive set backs without too much problem. This is important if you have a heat pump, particularly in heating. Otherwise, the environmental movement will have another very public opportunity to be seen as a pain in the butt rather than a source of knowledge and good answers to these types of questions. They understand it is not a perfectly black and white world and while trying to hold down their collective craws' they work in the trenches to make changes within the system.