In this week's Your Home, YNN's Ryan Peterson introduces a way to save money on your energy bill this winter season.

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The extreme cold and snow has been slow to arrive this winter, but it's never too late to try and save some money on your energy bill.

“We can actually tell the homeowner how big of a "hole" he has in his house,” said John Hadden, Building Analyst.

The easiest way to figure out what changes need to be made is to have a trained technician perform an in home energy audit. Contractors licensed through the Building Performance Institute will determine how much heat your house is losing.

“What we're doing is a "blower door" test. It determines how "leaky" the house is. In other words, how much air comes into it by us vacuuming it out through the door. It's not unusual to find people with a "hole" this big around that's open to the outdoors. So you’re constantly heating that all winter long,” said Hadden.

Should the results of your energy audit find that you need to make some substantial changes, there may be some low interest financing and some incentives available through the Energy Star program, if the inspection was completed by an accredited contractor.

And once those fixes are made, the savings will be realized.

“A house like this, under just my preliminary walk-through, can possibly save anywhere from $400 to $500 per year in heating costs,” said Hadden.

The good news, most folks will qualify for a free or reduced-cost home energy assessment which is available through a participating BPI accredited contractor like Hadden. For more information visit www.energystar.gov.