Save on heating and cooling by........

**Mom23boys** · 12-22-2003, 02:57 PM

Close off unused rooms. If you currently heat and cool several seldom-used rooms in your home, you are wasting energy and money. Consider closing the air ducts and doors in rooms used mostly for storage and occasionally for guests. Closing unused rooms may reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 20 percent, depending on the proportion of your home's total square footage the closed rooms comprise. Check with the dealer of the heating and cooling system in your home to determine whether closing off rooms has the potential to harm the system.

**Heather** · 12-22-2003, 04:13 PM

Great tip Michelle, thanks!

**graci42** · 12-23-2003, 01:39 AM

I keep the upstairs doors closed during the day when the kids aren't home. If they aren't in their rooms, I tell them to shut the doors, too.

**Daphne** · 12-23-2003, 05:31 AM

Thanks for the great tip! Our gas heating bill has always been under $50 well this month it was $163!!! I know it's the winter but we have a very small house so that was outragous to me...or is this normal during the winter months?