October is National Energy Action Month, and to mark the occasion, Virginia is launching a new statewide campaign to promote energy efficiency among Virginia households. The program, Virginia Energy Sense, is reaching out across the Commonwealth to educate residents about the financial and environmental benefits that even modest eco-friendly improvements can make in curbing long-term energy consumption. The state's goal is to reduce electricity use by 10 percent, which officials argue will have broader, positive economic implications.

As part of the promotion, Virginia Energy Sense has put together a list of "31 Tips for 31 Days," that homeowners can follow in order to cut back on power usage and the utility bills that go with it:

• Install a programmable thermostat that can set energy use on low while you're not in the house.
• Replace HVAC air filters on a regular basis. Clogged filters lead to poor circulation and unnecessarily higher rates of power consumption.
• Schedule a home inspection to "identify energy waste in a home," particularly in areas that are typically hard to reach, such as attics and crawl spaces.
• Use caulk and weatherstripping to fill in cracks and gaps in doors and windows, reducing the number of air leaks and helping you save on heating and cooling costs.

An energy audit can help assess how at-risk your home may be for these and other energy-wasting scenarios. By meeting with local Virginia home inspectors, homeowners in the area can learn more about how their property could be unnecessarily using power. Resolving this kind of waste can reduce both expensive utility costs and environmentally-harmful carbon dioxide emissions.