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But today we're focusing on saving you money on your heating bills. So, ready? Grab a pad and a pencil and let's take a look at your house from a new, energy frugal point of view.

Heating System

You can earn 45 points in this section, but remember: the points you earn here ­ as well as throughout your audit - are based on how cost efficient, not necessarily how energy efficient each item is. As an example, electricity is 100% efficient, just like solar ­ all of the energy in both is used ­ but because electricity is by far the most expensive fuel, it is considered the least cost efficient when used by itself.

We'll look at five categories in the heating section: heat type, fuel type, age, efficiency ratings, and service and cleaning frequency.

Warm water radiant heat is the most cost effective. If that's what you have, give yourself the maximum here: 12 points. Hot water radiators are next and you earn 9 points for them. After that you get 6 points for forced air ductwork, 2 points for steam radiators and, sad to say, no points at all for electric heat.

Next, your fuel type. Solar nets you the max here: 12 points. Then comes natural gas at 6 points, propane and oil at 3 points each, and electricity at, sad to say again, 0 points. If you subsidize any of these types with wood, wood pellets or coal pellets ­ hurray! - give yourself an extra 3 points. If you subsidize with solar, tack on another 4 points to your score in this category.

Next in importance to the expense of your fuel bills is the age of your equipment. If it's less than five years old, give yourself 10 points. 5-10 years old, 6 points. 10-20 years old, 3 points. If your equipment is over 20 years old, it's the big goose egg for you. Why? Your fuel costs could be as much as double using the relatively inefficient equipment of that era.

The next category is the efficiency rating of your equipment. If your heating system is relatively new, you may know its rating or it may be on one of the labels on the equipment itself. However, with older equipment, you might not be able to tell, so here's a little rule of thumb. Any solar or electric systems will be 100% efficient. Any oil system will be 85% efficient or below. The highest point value here is 6 points, so you can see that age, fuel type and system type are far more important factors than efficiency in determining your overall fuel costs.

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