Set your thermostat at 68 degrees during the day and 60 degrees at night. Thermostats in homes with infants, elderly, or ill individuals should be set higher.

Prevent heat loss by sealing air leaks around window and door frames with caulk or weather stripping.

Move drapes or furniture from around radiators so that heat can flow freely.

Clean or replace the furnace filter once a month or as needed.

Install glass doors in front of your fireplace to prevent heat from escaping up the chimney.

Remove window air conditioners in the winter. If you can’t, enclose the unit with an air conditioner cover to stop drafts.

A two-degree adjustment to your thermostat setting (lower in winter, higher in summer) can lower heating/cooling bills and prevent 500 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year.

If installing a new heat pump (or central air conditioner) you should know that recent field studies suggest that approximately 75 percent of installed cooling equipment may have incorrect amounts of refrigerant. An incorrect refrigerant level can lower efficiency by five to 20 percent, and can cause the equipment to fail prematurely.

Energy-efficient appliances save energy and money.

Run the dishwasher only when it's completely full.

Take advantage of the energy-saving control on your dishwasher.

Run your clothes washer only when you have a full load of laundry.

Clean your dryer's lint filter before each load.

Washing your laundry with cold water whenever possible can save energy and money.

Overloading the dryer makes it work harder.

Replace ordinary incandescent bulbs with new compact fluorescent bulbs. If every household in the country replaced four 75-watt incandescent bulbs that burn four or more hours a day with four 23-watt fluorescent bulbs, we would save as much energy as is consumed by approximately 38 million cars in one year.

Turn off instant-on features on appliances.