Certain home improvements which conserve energy, electricity or water are common in 20 year old houses including a new roof (reduced heating and air conditioning needs), attic re-insulation (reduced heating and air conditioning needs), replace old toilets with 'low-flow' toilets (reduced water consumption), replaced the air conditioner (reduced electrical usage with more efficient unit) and hot water tank (reduced electric or national gas usage through a more efficient unit).

So what's possibly left that could conserve different forms of energy and thereby help the homeowner save the environment? An almost endless list. Here are but a few.

Replace the existing windows with ENERGY STAR rated windows (reduced heating and air conditioning needs) and also in Canada receive $60 per window rebate. Same for an exterior door, that is there's another $60 for ENERGY STAR rated exterior door.

Then there's an Air Sealing grant of up to $300 available in some jurisdictions. This is the one where they do a 'blow test' to see how much air leakage exists in the house and will re-do the test once you have called the energy auditor back in. They use this over sized fan to run the test. The more air leakage, the more hot air is escaping in the winter causing more heating to be required. Several items can fall into this category, including the following:

- The window and exterior door replacement referred to above can help out there. Air leakage leads to increased heat and air conditioning usage; reduced air leakage from a home reduces this usage.

- Also, most doors to the cold cellar in the basement have a gap between the bottom part of the door and the basement floor. This is an easy fix by simple attaching a door sweep to the bottom of the door.

- Another common sense air sealing technique is to put child proof plugs into the electrical sockets which were not being used on the exterior walls. As, well, put a 'gasket' around these electrical outlets and the covering plate. A 'gasket' is simply a rubber-like covering. This will also improve the air sealing within the house.

- Additionally, there's air leakage around the access to the attic. On the market there is now a 'strippable' type of caulking specifically made to be removed when needed, so one can easily put it around the access to the attic typically from within a bedroom closet.

There are many areas of the home that can be addressed to reduce air leakage and thus heating bills which should improve the results from the air leakage test. Some of these are expensive (like window replacement) while others are very inexpensive (strippable caulking, gaskets and child proof plugs for the electrical outlets on exterior walls. All are good ideas to consider to do your part in the fight against global warming. And, in some jurisdictions, there are government grants / rebates to help offset the cost. A win-win for all of us!