BONNEVILLE COUNTY - Here's another way you can improve your home, make it more energy efficient.

Its a relatively simply concept, when building your new home, you take the extra steps to make that house at least 15% more efficient, meaning you don't waste energy and in turn, money.

Closing the door is one easy way to save on your heating bill, but there are better ways, like installing energy star appliances in your home. Or, better yet, build your new home to be energy star qualified.

How can you do that? Well, your home has to be very efficient, you can start by asking your contractor to install Energy Star furnaces and air ducts.

"It looks similar to what a lot of people put into the house, some of the differences are...all the joints in the metal work are sealed with a mastic," says Darrin Sweeney of High Point Homes. "You'll see that in your own house, but we have to put it on thick, to make sure that we cover up the joints so we don't have any air leaking out of the duct system."

"The air sealing is a big part of this," says Van Ashton of Idaho Falls Power. "We have some codes here in Idaho Falls that are actually more stringent."

Which then makes many of your utilities cost a little less. Aside from appliances, you want to make sure you use qualified windows, door jams and insulation.

"The insulation requirements obviously, in an energy star home, are higher. The basement insulation is thicker, the wall insulation upstairs is thicker and the attic insulation, we have to take it up a notch," says Sweeney.

As for the cost, to buy one of these new homes it will be a couple thousand dollars more, but you can see the saving add up each month.

Sweeney says a home that costs about $200-$250 to heat each month, in the winter, typically goes down to about $120-$130 each month.

Idaho Falls Power is working on an energy star qualification program. That should start in the next few weeks, but if you'd like to get more involved in energy star just contact your local utility company.