Saving on Heating and Cooling

I have ran across many things on the internet, books, peoples advice and such on keeping heating and cooling at a minimum. In the winter open all blinds and curtains to let the sun light in to help warm rooms, this will help your furnace by not coming on all the time. I know that some of us here lately haven't seen much sunlight and if you are tired of that you are not alone believe. If you are not using rooms shut them off during the day this will help save too, by not having to circulate heat in those rooms. Now if you live in a colder area please make sure you don't cut off rooms that may have plumbing in them, that would not be good and a bit messy. I always wondered why my mom and dad would shut off bedrooms and open them about an hour before bed. I know why now it cut heating cost and since we burned wood helped with the wood consumption by the stove. Some homes that is easier said then done for the sunlight option if your home faces the work direction, has woods on one side or the other, but think of it this sunlight on 1/2 the house is better than none at all.
In the summer keeping cool is easy do just the opposite with the blinds and curtains. You can also use ceiling fans or floor fans to circulate the air. This helps your A/C unit not work as hard to cool your home. Other things that help is keeping filters clean on the furnace and spraying off your A/C unit to keep dust and things from building up on the coils. We have a severe cat problem in our neighborhood and the like to walk right by our unit, cat hair galore build up on it. You can close off vents to hotter rooms as well or just shutting doors to will offset the usage. I try to close off a few of the vents in the basement in the summer as it stays fairly cool down there, the air then gets pushed to other vents for the upstairs. We also have a vent in the garage I don't use that vent at all it stays warm and cool enough to have it closed. If you have any more tips on heating and cooling for you home please leave a comment.