Even if you're heating your home with electric you're not immune since the rates for hydro have also gone up. Most home owner's can expect to pay up to 50% more to heat their homes this year than in years past.

Fortunately you can do something to reduce the impact of expensive home heating costs. Here are a few practical tips top help you save money on heating this winter.

1 Assess your home's energy efficiency - Here in Canada we have a program called the residential energy assessment service. You can have a licensed inspector test your home and make recommendations. The best part is that you may be eligible for a grants, rebates and other incentives.

2 Turn heat down when you're sleeping or not at home - You can turn down the heat significantly while you're asleep or away but never turn the heat off all the way even if you are not going to be home for several days.

3 Turn heat off heat in unused rooms - It makes no sense heating a room that is never used. Consider buying a space heater instead.

4 Maintain your furnace or heating system - General maintenance once a year should be enough. Have someone inspect & clean your furnace, change filters etc. This is usually part of the service agreement with your home heating company and costs little or nothing to do.

5 Insulate the hot water heater - Alot of energy is used just to heat your water. Your furnace or heating system has to work that much harder if your water heater is in an unfinished, uninsulated area of your home such as the basement. Buy an insulation blanket for your water heater - it will pay off in savings in the long run.

6 Take shorter showers - Most can't start the day without our hot showers in the morning, especially on cold winter mornings. Simply cutting your shower time in half can amount to substantial savings on your next heating bill.

7 Do laundry in cold water - If you seriously want to start saving money on heating you should never do laundry in hot water. It's a huge waste of money. Washing in cold water does just as good a job cleaning your clothes as hot water. There's simply no need for hot water when doing laundry.

8 Let the sun in - Got windows facing south? Drawing your curtains or blinds open on all the windows in your home which are facing south will capture a surprising amount of heat from the sun. Do the opposite for north facing windows, closing all blinds and curtains.