You’re probably worrying about heating your home this winter, just like most homeowners. As the temperature outside falls, you are considering turning your thermostat up higher and higher, and your heating bill is going to show that. Read on to learn a few thermostat energy saving tips for this winter so you can efficiently heat your home and without breaking the bank.

If everyone is home for the day, setting the temperature to between 68°F and 72°F. If your family can bare a temperature below 68°F, then go for it! But this is a comfortable range. If it’s nighttime or everyone is out of the house, don’t bother setting the thermostat too high because no one’s there to enjoy it, or everyone’s asleep and bundled up in bed!

Often, people forget to make the change in their thermostat temperature during these hours or find it to be too time consuming. If you are an offender of this, you are wasting a lot of energy and massive heating costs for approximately eight hours a day! A programmable, smart thermostat is an easy solve for this issue because you can set it and forget it. If you know that you are gone Monday through Friday from 8AM to 5PM, lower the temperature for that time and plan for it to kick back on about 30 minutes to an hour before you get back home.

After setting your thermostat up, it’s important to remember that there is no perfect temperature. If you personally like your house set at 74°F, you don’t need to keep it there all the time. Develop a strategy that works for your household that allows you to slowly adjust the temperature lower as everyone in the household is adjusting to the set temperature. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a one-degree reduction in thermostat temperature, even for just eight hours, can reduce your energy bill by 1%.

If you occasionally heat your home with your fireplace, don’t forget to turn down the thermostat during that time. It’s not going to make your home any warmer, and it’s just another way to waste energy through your thermostat. When you aren’t using the fireplace, make sure the damper is fully closed to avoid losing any of your home’s heated air.

You also should always make sure your windows and doors are fully closed and sealed well. If there are leaks in either your doors or your windows, you want to fix those as quickly as possible to avoid wasting anymore heated air.