Heating and cooling your home uses the most energy out of all the systems in your house, using even more than your clothes-dryer or fridge, and covering almost half of your utility bill. Heating and cooling systems in the United States together emit 150 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, adding to global climate change and acid rains. You can cut your energy bill up to half if you take a whole house approach. There are many things you can do to save energy besides having a energy efficient heating system.

The easiest step in saving on heating/coolin is getting a programmable thermostat. By changing the heating and cooling to be in sync with your family's rythms, you can save a lot by not heating/cooling the house unneccessarily when nobody's at home and keeping the heat lower when people are asleep.

Other things to look at - make sure your vents or radiators aren't covered by furniture or curtains, during heating season open the shades of your south-facing windows and let the sun heat your home. At nights, close the curtains to keep the heat in. During cooling period do the opposite. Have your furnace cleaned and checked annually.

To ensure you won't be heating the entire neighborhood, make sure your house is isulated (don't forget the attick) and weatherstrip your doors and windows. During hot periods, use ceiling vans to cool people and don't forget to keep doors and windows closed when the AC is on.