Are you interested in knowing what can be done to your house to make it more efficient, more comfortable, and more affordable?

The following tips on this page list all the things you can do in your home to make it more energy efficient! It also exposes a number of myths about energy issues that you don’t want to be in the ‘dark’ about.

Many homes have the potential to cut their heating bills by 50% or more. This can be accomplished with a logical, well planned approach that doesn’t cost a lot of money!

If you follow our Home Energy Checklist, you will be well on your way to being a conservation sensation! Energy conservation doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice comfort and convenience. An energy efficient home should be a comfortable home.

Some of the items on the checklist may not apply to your home—so go on to the others. Some items may require change in habits—but they will save you enough money to make them worthwhile.

The following checklist is arranged in a suggested order of implementation. However, every home is different and may require a special completion order. The best approach is to plan a comprehensive attack, investing first in the items which give you the greatest savings for the least investment.

• Tightening and Insulating – Your home should be sealed, and then insulated. Air leakage usually amounts to 30-40% of your heating bill.

Stopping air leakage is not only important for energy savings, but crucial for protecting your home from the damaging effects of moisture. Air leaking into the walls from the interior of the home carries humidity with it—this can cause condensation. The condensation causes the insulation to become moist, eventually causing the surrounding wood to rot.

• Heating System – If your heating bills are high, your first thought might be to put in a new high efficiency furnace. But before you jump to that, you need to tighten up the house and adequately insulate it.

If you install the furnace before making other energy improvements, the furnace will be oversized and may not operate at peak efficiency. By making other improvements first, you may be able to reduce your furnace size.

After making improvements, a high efficiency furnace may not be your best investment, because your heating demand is much lower. When replacing a furnace in a tight house, it is recommended that you install one with an induced draft fan or sealed combustion using only outside air.

• Air Conditioning – The best approach for staying cool in the summer is to keep the heat out, with the Tightening and Insulating tips mentioned above. Next, try to avoid heat producing tasks inside your home.

Still too warm? Try some of the A/C alternatives offered in this article.

Need the A/C, still?? Follow the Operating Tips below for most efficient operation.

Is you’re A/C on overload???  It may pay to replace it with a more efficient model.

• Water Heating System – Just two quick steps to this:

First, cut down on the hot water! Second, your standby loses from the water heater tank when it’s not in use.

• Appliances – If your electric bills seem extraordinarily high, contact your local utility company to see if they have a meter you can borrow.

Check the consumption of your appliances. You may find some older appliances are consuming higher than normal amounts of electricity. Replace them with new, more efficient models.

• Lighting – To save on lighting costs:

First, make use of natural light whenever possible, and make sure lights are turned off when not in use.

Next, replace bulbs with lower wattage models, or replace a few bulbs in multi-bulb fixture with burned out bulbs.

Bulbs and fixtures can also be replaced with higher efficiency ones.