 Jeff Smith of Georgia Power has joined us now and we're so anxious to find out about saving money this winter. We know that of course cold weather is starting Jeff and it's going to be winter before we know it. Now our tendency is to just crank up the thermostat which is not very practical. So can you tell us some ways that we can stay comfortable and warm in our homes and still be mindful of saving money and energy? Sure Suzy. One common issue that homes have is they have a lot of cracks around their windows and doors. And those cracks lead to droughts. And our common response is like you say is to go turn the thermostat up. When in actuality we ought to be identifying where those cracks and droughts are coming from and fix them. Suzy over the lifetime of your home it can settle and shift. Materials like that caulk and weather stripping can crack and wear out. So it's a good idea that twice a year if you go out and identify has that caulk cracked is the weather stripping coming loose and replace it. It's relatively inexpensive to fix these two items and most homeowners can replace them themselves. I've actually done that myself and it is easy to do. Now other than addressing the draftiness what other things can we do or look for? Well a lot of homeowners don't realize that your thermostat set points are very important. Heating and cooling costs in most cases can be over 50% of your total energy bill. So if we make adjustments to our thermostats it can have a big effect on that. We recommend 68 degrees for your heating set point in the winter. Every degree that you go above that can really increase your energy cost up to 3%. Wow that really can add up. Now what if you're away at work during the day or you're going away for vacation? How should you adjust your thermostat then? Well if you're leaving for work for the day we recommend that you bump your thermostat down 3 to 4 degrees. If you go much more below that you'll actually use as much energy to get the house back up to the temperature you wanted at when you get home than you would have if you would have just left it alone for the course of the day. If you're going to be gone longer than that like on vacation you can let it creep down another couple of degrees but in general that 3 to 4 degrees during the day is a safe range. Another option is to install a programmable thermostat. Those let you put your set points for your occupied times and your unoccupied times in at once and then you can just set it and forget it from that point on. I really like that Jeff because that takes away the temptation to mess with the thermostat which can get us in trouble. Thank you so much for sharing some simple and easy ways for us to save money and energy and of course for more information go to georgiapower.com slash save and if you're looking for a new home talk to your real estate professional. Make sure you ask them about Georgia Power's EarthSense new homes. They're built for comfort and energy savings.