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With the warm weather the past two weeks, your energy bills have likely been lower than normal. But with cold temperatures in the forecast, we wanted to bring you some energy tips. Justin Foss with Alliant Energy gave us some tips for how to keep your energy costs down this winter. He says as far as heating goes, the best way to reduce energy costs is to add insulation to your house. If you can’t do that, another way is to check for drafts around windows and doors. Eliminating these will keep your house warmer for less money.

He also recommends turning down your thermostat when you are not home. He gets a lot of people who think it takes more energy to re-heat a home after the heat has been turned off than it does to leave the heat on all day.

If you’re going to be gone for more than four hours it is cheaper to turn down the heat. The simplest way to keep heat costs down is to dress warmer when home. Wearing a sweatshirt and turning the heat down can save more money than you would think.

He tells us that Alliant Energy will visit their customers’ homes to help them find solutions for heating efficiency.