QUESTION: I've been reading your articles for years and you used to write a lot of energy-saving tips that we'd cut out and stick on our refrigerator.I haven't seen any ideas recently for saving money on energy bills, especially in cold weather, and thought you might have some easy tips for us to consider. Got some to share?ANSWER: I started writing this column in 1986 and have been doing it weekly since then, and I used to have a lot more time (and space) for tips like you like. The problem is that home energy costs have soared in recent years and I now get hundreds of e-mails every month asking for help with various energy problems, so I try to answer as many as I can.But since you asked, I have put together some basic cold-weather strategies for keeping comfortable this winter. They'll work fine whether you live in an area with mild or brutal weather, so think about these ideas:• Keep your furnace filters clean by replacing them on a regular schedule. When the filters get dirty or plugged, it's hard for that heated air to get into your home where your want it.• Keep the windows clean on the south side of the home and let the sun in to provide its warmth by keeping the drapes and blinds open during the day.• Don't block thermal mass like concrete floors or heat-absorbing walls that can soak up the sun's heat during the day and then release it into your home at night.• Close the fireplace damper tightly when it is not in use. I have read that keeping the damper open is equivalent to keeping a 48-inch wide window wide open in winter.• Close your windows and latch them to keep them tightly shut. If they're not closing tightly, use weatherstripping and caulking around them to get a tight seal.• Dress for the weather. You can figure that wearing a heavy sweater indoors will give you warmth equal to about four more degrees of heat coming out of the furnace and that's heat you don't have to pay for.• Finally, keep in mind that energy experts recommend a maximum thermostat setting of 68 degrees in winter. Every degree above that can add from 3 to 10 percent to your heating costs.

QUESTION: You said that using a range hood was important in keeping heat out of the kitchen, and it got me thinking that maybe in winter it would be better not to use the range hood when cooking to keep the house warmer. What do you think of that idea?ANSWER: Well, your question got me thinking, so I talked to a few energy experts and they all conclude that your idea isn't a very good one. It seems that while it would keep some heat indoors, it also can cause two pretty significant problems.One is that it will keep in humidity that really needs to be vented out of the house or you'll start having problems like sweating windows and more serious problems caused by too much indoor humidity.Second, cooking a hamburger or an egg on a skillet can create a whole bunch of toxic chemistry like aldehydes and benzines which really need to be removed from the interior air. So from the standpoint of causing excessive indoor humidity and indoor air problems, the little heat you might be gaining isn't really worth it.By the way, I've have heard from a number of people over the years who don't want to use their kitchen range hoods or bathroom vents because they're so noisy. You might want to check out some of the newer vents on the market these days they've come a long way in noise reduction features.Older kitchen vents can be especially noisy so if this is stopping you from getting those kitchen odors outdoors, consider having a new vent fan installed.

QUESTION: . I moved to Arizona a few months ago and my neighbors told me they leave their ceiling fans on constantly because it gets so hot there and this was the only way to keep a home cool. What do you think about that?ANSWER: I think it's a lousy idea. I've seen too much research over the years that consistently shows that fans do not cool rooms — in fact, the internal heat they generate actually can make a room hotter.Fans work by blowing air over your skin and making you feel cooler. It's really as simple as that. Keeping a fan running constantly when there is no one to benefit from the cooling breeze is just a waste of electricity.This heat they add, by the way, can also make your home's interior even dryer. We're not talking big numbers here, but if you have several fans running in empty rooms, the numbers add up quickly. If each fan uses 35 watts of electricity and you have five fans running, that's the heat of 175 watts — about as much as you'd get from two refrigerators!Read my lips: fans cool people, they do not cool rooms. And by the way, running a fan in reverse in winter will not blow hot air around the room. The principle remains the same.Ken Sheinkopf is a communications specialist with the American Solar Energy Society (www.ases.org). Send your energy questions to askken@ases.org.