How can you start saving money on your energy bill? You may have watched as costs steadily spiked — not feeling like there was much you could do about it. In actuality, though, you can take action against the rising costs of keeping your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Here?s a few important facts to keep in mind.

1. Get Better Insulation

What many homeowners do not realize is that there is a fairly high cost to not insulating your home properly. This means windows, doors, and the roof. By getting new, energy efficient windows alone, you could end up saving up to 20% on your energy bill — all that heat you buy won?t be going straight out the window, just like your money. Similarly, roofs today are made to be a lot more energy efficient than the average roof of 30 to 40 years ago.

2. Update Your Appliances

You?d be surprised at how much energy appliances can zap up. You may easily be paying too much for your refrigerator, your HVAC, or your microwave because of how energy inefficient these products are. Many items today are easily twice as efficient as similar models created in the 90s — and this is often what you have if you have an older home, or you haven?t made any significant updates in the past decade or so. Updating these items can also make your home easier to sell if and when the time comes to do so. It?s worth noting, as well, that you can save up to 10% on the overall costs of regulating your home? temperature by switching to a programmable thermostat.

3. Deregulated Energy Markets

In 2016, the cost of actually generating electricity often accounts for less than 50% of its costs. What you may not realize is that it?s often possible to switch where you get your electricity from — saving you money in the process. This is thanks to deregulated energy markets, which are a relatively new thing intended to prevent monopolization and price gauging. There are numerous alternative electricity companies you can choose from; this also gives you more control over deciding where your electricity comes from (you may, for example, feel more comfortable getting energy produced by wind turbines rather than coal since it can be quite destructive in its impact on the environment). The key is to remember that there is a difference, today, between energy suppliers and energy providers.

Will you be looking into whether deregulated energy markets could help you connect with alternative energy companies that ultimately cost you less money? Let us know in the comments.