Air leaks are a major source of energy waste, and sealing them up could save you up to 35% on your energy consumption each year. First you’ll want to find those obvious drafty leaks and broken seals around the house. Make a list of them, then start checking for indoor leaks, usually found at wall joints, floors, thresholds, junctions, etc. Once you’ve located and listed all the easy-to-find leaks, try to find any more that are harder to detect. Don’t forget about mail slots, ‘doggy doors’ and other such openings. Ensure there are adequate seals around them. Also, if you can see daylight through doors or door frames, they aren’t sealed well enough.

To locate the leaks that are trickier to find, try a pressurization test. Close all your doors, windows and the fireplace flue. Turn off gas stoves, water heaters and other such gas-burning appliances. Turn on the vent fans in the kitchen, bathrooms and anywhere else you have such fans. Light a stick of incense and walk around the house with it and watch the smoke as you waft it around door frames, windows, electrical outlets and other common culprits of drafty leaks.

Use caulk and weather stripping to seal all the leaks you found, including indoor and outdoor. Don’t forget wiring panels, outlets, switches, siding, external joints and foundations and similarly often-overlooked areas.

Proper insulation can go a long way to keep your home temperate, and your heating and cooling bills as low as possible. The first place to check is the attic. Open the attic hatch and check to see if it’s insulated. Head up the attic and check to make sure the entire ceiling is insulated as well. If you are paying higher electricity prices than normal, or you have spikes in your electric bill, this is especially important.

Your attic should also have sufficient weather stripping.  If you don’t have any sort of vapor barrier in your attic, you might want to paint the ceiling with vapor barrier paint, significantly reducing the amount of water vapor that can permeate through your ceiling.

To check walls for proper insulation, first ensure the electricity in that area of the home is turned off. Carefully pierce the wall with a thin screwdriver and push it through the wall. If you feel a bit of resistance, the wall is most likely insulated. Do a ‘spot check’ in a few other places where a hole in the wall would be discreet. Remember to turn the power off before probing inside the walls. Your wall cavities should be completely filled with insulation. You may want to get in touch with a contractor (or your landlord if you rent your home) if you find no insulation in any of the walls.

Your heater and A/C are probably a couple of the most important (and energy-consuming) devices in your home. If you don’t commonly check them out, grab the manuals or find instructional info online about each appliance. Investigate the appliances with manuals in hand and get yourself familiar with them, how they work, and the proper methods of maintenance for them.

If no sort of upkeep has been applied to them, make sure you do the standard maintenance suggested by the manufacturer at this time. Check filters, vents and tubing, ensuring all are clean and in good condition. Replace any component that seems faulty or dirty or simply needs replacing. If your system is more than 15 years old, consider replacing it altogether. Ensure all ducts, pipes, wiring and tubing are insulated if they run through unheated areas. Lastly, look for spots or smearing of dirt and dust along seams on the ducts or pipes, as this indicates an air leak that should be sealed up.