Cut your energy bills in half

Yes, really. These five leak-plugging, warmth-trapping, efficiency-enhancing ideas could slice your home's energy usage by up to 50 percent.

Patch leaky ducts
Patch leaky ducts
Even if you have the most efficient furnace and air conditioner known to man, if the ducts that funnel that precious hot air or cold air around your house are in bad shape, you'll still lose way too much energy.

"Most air ducts are riddled with leaks," says physicist Max Sherman, head of the Energy Performance of Buildings Group at the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory. Sherman says he's seen ducts that let a third of the air passing through the attic or basement escape.

Annual savings: About 10% to 20% on your heating and cooling bills.

Up-front cost: About $50 if you do it yourself; $500 to $3,000 otherwise.

Quick Fix: A programmable thermostat (costing about $100) could save you about $100 a year. Models like the Honeywell Seven Day Universal Thermostat take the chill out of lowering the temp: Your house will automatically be cool when you're out or asleep, warm when you're around and conscious (and vice versa in the summer). You can easily install this little device without calling a pro, and it'll pay for itself in a year.

Upgrade

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.