One challenge East Coast residents face each year is keeping energy costs down during the winter. The good news is, those who are looking to adopt a more earth-friendly lifestyle can still do so during these colder months.

A home inspection contractor can come to your house and conduct an energy audit to help you determine realistic steps you can take to making your home more energy-efficient. In the meantime, here are some tips and tricks for maintaining reasonable utility bills until spring rolls around:

Check your equipment – Maintaining the exterior of your heating system means making sure there’s no dirt or snow caked onto it and changing the air filters every three months. This can really help your equipment reach maximum efficiency.

Lower the thermostat – Thismayseem counterintuitive​to those who like to keep their home as warm and cozy as possible. The truth isby lowering the temperature by eight degrees when you leave the house or go to sleep, you can really cut back on energy costs. Instead of keeping the thermostat cranked up at all times, try to keep it that way only when you’re up and about.

Redecorate your rooms – This is a nice way to freshen things up during the winter, but it also can help you conserve energy. Make sure all radiators and baseboard heaters are unobstructed by furniture, otherwise the heat won’t be able to circulate into the house properly, leading you to turn up thermostat.

Seal the leaks – It’s important to do this in every part of the house, but one room that’s easy to overlook is the attic. It’s important to make sure that there aren’t any air leaks in your attic windows. Since heat rises, it can often go straight up there and out the window.