La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

The most important thing most people can do to cut their electric and natural gas bills is reduce the amount of energy they use for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). This is because most – up to two-thirds – of money spent on energy in a home is for climate control. The rest is split between lighting, water heating, cooking, refrigeration, electronics like TV and computers and a variety of specialized devices.

The HVAC system itself is probably the most important part of the HVAC portion of a residential energy bill. Replacing an old HVAC system with a modern heat pump...