With the cost of energy skyrocketing this year, many homeowners are looking for ways to conserve. Conducting a home audit is the logical starting point.

One recommendation experts are likely to make is to give your furnace a tune-up, as Mike Whitmire, bottom photo, a service technician for Schneider’s One Hour, is doing by disassembling the blower in a Butler home.

In the top photo, Rhett Major sets up the blower door at an Affordable Comfort demonstration house in Shaler Township, Allegheny County.Other ways homeowners can save energy in the short term include keeping the thermostat set to between 76 and 78 degrees in the summertime and 66 to 68 degrees in the winter, lowering the thermostat on the hot water heater and cleaning the dryer lint filter after every use. Consumers also can cover windows on winter nights with insulated curtains, close the vents in unused rooms and wrap the hot water heater in an insulated blanket.