We’ve all heard, or know from experience, that it’s the little things that matter most and every little bit helps. This adage is also true for making our Twin Cities-area homes more energy efficient. With our long heating season on the horizon, now’s a good time to make some adjustments in your energy use. Little things you do every day can mean a lot when your goal is saving money and improving energy efficiency around the home. Here are just some of the many little things you can do:

During Minnesota’s frigid winters, heating costs add up quickly unless you take steps to control them. Reducing your high heating costs doesn’t have to be complicated, though. These five basic steps will help you warm your home without burning up your budget.

Carbon monoxide is often referred to as the “secret killer” because it can creep throughout your home — virtually unnoticed — and make members of your household very sick, or worse, by reducing the amount of oxygen in the body. Small children are particularly in danger because of their body size. So ask yourself this about your CO detectors: are they in the right places and in good working order?

Replacing your old furnace with a new, high efficiency unit could be the key to an affordable heating season. Autumn is a great time to make the replacement since you’ll soon need your furnace to maintain a comfortable temperature in your home for a several-month stretch. Here’s what to look for when buying a new furnace this heating season:

It’s that time of year again, here in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, to contact your home comfort contractor for your fall furnace maintenance visit. Get your request in now before arrival of the high season when technicians’ schedules will be packed. Here are some of the crucial tasks the technician will perform:

Do you ever get sick and tired of being sick and tired? Do you hate all germs and wish they would die? It is quite natural to have such germicidal thoughts, and it can actually be quite healthy to follow through with them. Your HVAC system can help, through the use of germicidal lights, also known as UV lights.

A programmable thermostat is a useful tool that can help homeowners decrease their energy consumption and utility bills while improving home comfort. Gone are the days of making a trip to the thermostat for every adjustment – that is, if you remember! Now you can simply program your thermostat around your schedule. By knowing the right way to set your thermostat, you can reduce energy use while staying comfortable.

If you had a toothache, you wouldn’t go visit just anyone who called himself a dentist. You would take the proper measures to ensure the person you trusted with your dental issue had the proper education and experience to back his or her supposed title. So, if your cooling or heating system was in need of service, or you wanted to discuss an upgrade, why would you hire an HVAC technician who wasn’t specially certified?

Most Twin Cities homeowners are not A/C experts, and should probably rely on the professionals for most aspects of air conditioning service and repair. Before calling an expert, though, you may be able to narrow down the source of a problem by doing a little A/C troubleshooting.

Although zoning systems do offer substantial benefits to your home’s comfort levels and overall energy usage, their effectiveness can sometimes be hampered because of poor zoning system design. To get the maximum benefits from zoning, you should be aware of several zoning system design principles before having one installed.