Imagine that your home is a boat or hot air balloon. Any leak you find must be plugged. It's really the same with houses. As warm air migrates to the coldest areas, (ex. outside air) it seeps through walls, roofs, cracks, doors and windows, so it is important to know how to prevent heat loss.

Insulation
Although reinsulating an existing building is not usually cost-effective, a major renovation may provide a good opportunity to enhance the insulation. Poorly insulated but accessible roof spaces are one example.

Window liners
Adding a layer of selective plastic film to your windowpane will significantly block infrared rays from passing through the window and prevent heat from entering or exiting through radiation. Installed on ordinary glass, selective film can nearly double the resistance of single-glazed windows. Liners let you avoid the high cost of changing single-glazed windows to double-glazed windows.

Replace your windows
If any of your windows are single-glazed, it would be a good idea to replace them with double or triple-glazed windows.

• Do not confuse double glazing with sealed double-glazed windows. The latter are made up of two panes separated by very dry air or a low conductivity gas that is thoroughly sealed by a caulking system and locked into the same frame. These windows also eliminate condensation between panes of glass.
• Sealed double glazing will cost you more but will be twice as efficient as regular double glazing. Sealed triple glazing will be four times more efficient than regular double glazing.
• A low transmission pane is coated with a thin, almost invisible film, which reduces heat loss, reflects outside heat in the summer and blocks UV rays that make the color of your drapes, carpets and furniture fade. The best type of pane currently available includes a sealed-in gas such as argon.

Replace your doors
Replace your hollow outside doors with insulated doors. Touch the inside of your door. If the surface is colder than that of your inside walls, replace it with a better insulated door.

Clean your sliding doors
Clean the tracks of your sliding doors. Dust and debris of all kinds can force your doors out of alignment and let outside air in. Replace your doors

Have your appliances spent many years "in service"? To save even more, perhaps it's time to replace them by new high energy-efficient ones.

If you're thinking of changing your space heating equipment, ask your contractor about the energy efficiency of your appliances. Efficiency is usually expressed in terms of annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) for furnaces, and in terms of combustion efficiency for boilers. The higher the energy output rating, the more efficient the equipment as the less energy it consumes.