Put Your Home On an Energy Diet and Save

Lower the Hot Water Heater's Temperature -- and Wash Cold

Lower the temperature on your hot water heater from 145 degrees, which used to be standard, to 120 degrees. Cunningham swears you won't notice a difference at all, but you will see savings when you get your next bill, by as much as $36 to $61 each year.

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Check Front Door and Windows for Leaks

Take an energy audit of your doors and windows, especially if they're on the older side. Do you feel a cool breeze leaking in? Is the caulking around your windows cracking or peeling? "Then you may want to buy yourself a $2 tube of caulk and seal these leaks," says Bill Cunningham, a heating and cooling expert at Lennox.

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Examine Your Home's Exterior

Before the first snow, walk around the perimeter of your home and examine the exterior walls for cracks. You should pay particular attention to areas where brick or siding fits against another material, since it can be easy to miss hidden cracks.

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Install a Programmable Thermostat – or Use Yours!

A recent survey of heating and cooling contractors nationwide revealed that 58 percent use programmable thermostats. Why? They know that these handy little gadgets control energy use and costs. Heat your home to 70 degrees in winter when you're home, and when you leave the house the thermostat will turn the heat down.

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Consider a Wood Burning Stove

It will cost you on the front end, but there are savings when you install a wood burning stove. Expect to cut your heating bills by about one-quarter to one-half. Plus, if you don't have a fireplace, you'll enjoy this new piece of décor immensely.

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Fix Those Leaky Faucets

According to experts at Lennox, "hot water leaking at a rate of one drip per second can waste up to 1,661 gallons of water" per year.  It's a fix that experts say will save you $35 annually in electricity or natural gas.

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Swap Out Your Showerheads

Today's low-flow showerheads, which release 2.5 gallons per minute, waste a lot less water. If you couple that upgrade and limit your showers to 10-minutes each day, you'll save about $145 a year on electricity used to heat the water, says Cunningham.

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Replace Old Equipment

"Older heating systems typically consume more energy than newer units, which means higher utility bills for homeowners," says Ken Ely, a home heating expert at Lennox. Besides, older units are often repaired more often, an added expense.

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Not Willing To Pay

Even with routine maintenance, your aging equipment is probably increasing your heating bills. If you're not willing to pay for a new furnace, at least change the air filters. Why? Dirty air filters reduce air flow, which means the home heating system has to work harder, which is a bigger drain on your energy bills.

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Explore the Attic

If you haven't already, climb into your attic and make sure that you have insulation up there. This sounds like a no brainer; what house doesn't have insulation? You'd be surprised.  The good news? It's one of the easiest way to put your home on an energy diet.

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Don't Forget the Light bulbs

This is an obvious one: Not only will replacing traditional bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs save you money -- about $30 over the bulb's lifetime -- but it uses 75 percent less energy. These bulbs also last 10 times longer, says Energy Star.

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