The average household spends more than $2,200 a year on energy bills, and nearly half of that comes from heating and cooling costs.

Here are 5 things that you can do today that will reduce your energy bills and keep your system maintained and efficient.

If you only make one tune-up this season, clean your air filter. Doing so will lower your air conditioner’s energy consumption by up to 15%.

In the summertime, wash your reusable filter or replace your disposable one once every 3 months.

This is a job for a licensed HVAC technician. The technician will keep the outdoor condenser fan running efficiently by cleaning the fan blades, and will maintain the unit’s ability to cool the air moving through it by removing dust and build up from the indoor evaporator coil.

Tune up/maintenance service is another job best performed by a licensed HVAC technician. This service helps to make sure that your system is working on max efficiency and that none of the components in your system is failing, a tune up service will reduce the risk of system breakdown and loss of efficiency.

Insulating your home properly will save you up to 20% on energy costs throughout the year, Crawlspace, Attic, and Walls are the “shell” of your home, insulate it properly with the right R value will keep the house at a comfortable temperature and by that reduce the usage of the HVAC system, this will save up to 20% on your energy bills.

Research shows that using a programmable thermostat can save up to 10% on your energy bills, keeping the thermostat at one temperature can cost extra on your energy bill by making the system work overtime to maintain the temperature in the house, get yourself a programmable thermostat and choose temperatures for specific time frames and by that save another 10% on your energy bill.