If you want to have a more energy efficient home, there are numerous ways, both big and small, that you can take to reduce the amount of energy that your home uses.

Change Out Your Light Bulbs

If you have not made the change to more energy efficient light bulbs, now is a great time to make that change. If you still have traditional incandescent light bulbs in most of the sockets in your home, you are spending more on electricity than you need to.

Change out your incandescent light bulbs with halogen incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), or light-emitting diode bulbs (LEDs). Although LEDs offer the greatest energy savings and last the longest of the three options mentioned above, all three offer significant energy savings over incandescent light bulbs. It's an investment to purchase these type of light bulbs upfront, but they will provide you with long-term energy savings.

Increase the Insulation of Your Home

If your home is not properly insulated, you could be losing a significant amount of energy through your walls, floors, basement, crawlspace, and attic. Request an energy saving evaluation to determine which areas of your home are contributing the most to the lost energy.

Adding insulation to your walls, floors, basement, crawlspace, and attic will make it easier to keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer. How much additional insulation your home needs depends on where you live and the climate in that area.

Upgrade Your HVAC System

Next, consider upgrading your HVAC system. Your heating and cooling efforts are some of the most energy demanding tasks that you ask of your home, so upgrading your HVAC system can have a significant impact on the amount of energy that you use.

Investing in an Energy-Star certified system, especially if your HVAC system is more than a decade old, can really help you start to decrease your energy costs and really see an impact on your energy bills.

When you upgrade to a new HVAC system, make sure that you also upgrade the ventilation system as well. Properly sealing and insulating your duct system can help cut down on lost energy significantly as well.

Change Your Thermostat

If purchasing an entirely new HVAC system is not in the budget right now, change how you use the HVAC system that you currently have. Install a programmable thermostat in your home.

With a programmable thermoset, you can program your HVAC system to turn on and off at specific points in the day. This can help you keep your home at a more comfortable temperature when you are at home and awake, at a cooler or warmer temperature (depending on the time of year) when you are away, and at a cooler temperature as you sleep.

Setting up your thermostat to reflect your schedule can make it easier to get the most out of your thermostat without having to change it every time you leave the house or come home. Programmable thermostats also let you know when to change your air filter, which is essential for ensuring that your system continues to run effectively.

Making your home more energy efficient is a long-term goal that includes both small and large changes around your home. Start by changing the type of light bulbs that you use in your home and changing out your old thermostat for a programmable smart thermostat. Then upgrade the insulation around your home where appropriate, and when necessary, upgrade to an Energy-Star HVAC system.