The Department of Energy has a terrific website that includes all kinds of helpful advice on how to save energy.

Especially cute is the kids' section that encourages families to print out DOE's list of 10 energy-saving ideas and stick it on the refrigerator.

Guess what tip No. 9 is?

"Talk to your parents about programmable digital thermostats."

The idea, of course, is to program thermostats to save heating and cooling costs when people are asleep or away from home.

Funny, then, that DOE hasn't been following its own advice in its office buildings.

Government auditors recently found the department has been wasting huge amounts of energy and money by not changing its thermostat settings when employees leave for the day.

The auditors estimate DOE could save $11.5 million annually by resetting thermostats in its 9,000 buildings across the country. That's enough to power more than 9,800 homes for a year.

Sure, that's peanuts compared with DOE's overall budget, but the audit is an embarrassment for an agency charged with encouraging conservation.

DOE should be setting the standard for energy efficiency. Instead it garnered a dismal record for following one of the most basic energy-saving tips that businesses and homeowners use all the time.

Thanks to the audit findings, DOE officials already have said they will start to enforce temperature setbacks on heating, ventilation and air conditioning throughout its buildings.

In addition, DOE might want to check out some of the other energy-saving ideas on its website, just to make sure the agency is acting on its own suggestions.

In a note to parents, the website says, "There are all kinds of excuses for not saving energy at home. But if we all just did some simple things, we could be way more efficient and save money too. Let's use our resources more wisely."

Yes, let's.