Your contractor just outfitted your house with an array of solar panels, and soon the windmill will be up and running out back. Hey, you'll be off-grid by summer.

Not your story?

Then you're like most of us in terms of energy use, living in a regular house without any highfalutin green amenities.

Still, like most people, you'd rather not spend more money than you must on utility bills — or suck up more energy resources than makes good sense.

Start by reducing home energy use.

Spring is a fine time to start making changes, during an energy-use lull between winter's chill and summer's swelter.

An estimated 25 percent of the United States' enormous energy bill is attributable to households. So even small changes by a lot of people result in significant overall reductions.

Individually, those small changes often amount to only small dollar savings. But if homeowners make gradual improvements, energy experts say, eventually they could cut their energy bills by as much as 50 percent.

So, start small, plan bigger.

"Do the simplest, low-cost things up front, and get those out of the way," said Jennifer Thorne Amann, co-author of "Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings."

Then put yourself in an energy-savings frame of mind as the bigger decisions come along, from appliance purchases and beyond, Amann said.

Audit your home

Assessing the situation at your house is Job 1. That could mean an audit by a professional, or doing an online self-audit.

A professional house audit will take a few hours to perform and cost several hundred dollars. A professional can reliably identify the highest priority improvements that will save the most in energy costs.

There might be leaks in your house's ductwork, for instance. About 20 percent of a home's heating and cooling inefficiencies are related to the ductwork. Or the auditor might determine your attic insulation is fine but that in the basement isn't.

Plug holes

Ever thought of all the places your house leaks air? A fireplace, for example, is a big hole in your house, and dampers don't always seal tightly.

Consider a fireplace plug, which looks like a big black plastic pillow. The stoppers cost less than $60, an inexpensive way to reduce air leakage when not using the fireplace.

People often think that fixing a leaky house requires new windows. Actually, because replacing a house full of windows is expensive, it's tough to recoup the money in energy savings.

But if new windows are in the budget, spend the extra money it takes to get high-efficiency windows that have earned the Energy Star label.

Amann, who has a 140-year-old row house in Baltimore, said she has newer windows but they weren't installed well. Her solution was a trip to the hardware store for caulk and weather-stripping.

"We did that ourselves," she said. "That and installing door sweeps are really simple things."

Now, think smaller holes, such as places where pipes, wires and cables enter the house. Often those spots aren't insulated well. You can spray foam insulation in such small holes and gaps. The foam expands and fills the crevices.

To stop air leaks around electrical outlets, unscrew the wall plates, place thin foam pads from the hardware store around the outlets and replace the plates.

Power off, for real

If you still think on is on and off is off, you're living in another era, back when TVs warmed up. And most people owned just one.

Nowadays, our "plug-in loads," as the experts say, are way up: multiple televisions, video game equipment, several computers with associated contraptions and chargers for personal gadgetry.

One problem is that we don't turn them off, although it might seem like we do, Amann said with a laugh.

"I'm laughing because I'm looking around my home office, and it's a mass of wires and cords and little gadgets everywhere," she said. "I try to tame the little lights, to make them go away."

Those "little lights" and remote controls are signs that the machines stay on, if only a little bit. And plugged-in chargers, even if not attached to a piece of equipment at the other end, still draw power.

The solution is to either unplug stuff at the wall or, more practically, plug electronic equipment into power strips and switch off the strip when the equipment isn't in use.

Use it better

With a change of habits, most people can use the equipment they have more efficiently.

But first, experts say, get rid of appliances you don't really need. Refrigerators are one of the biggest energy consumers in typical houses, so plugged-in but unused or little-used fridges and freezers should be the first to go.

Stovetops and ovens, like anything that heats up quickly, are also energy-intensive, much more so than a microwave oven. One hour of cooking time in an electric oven can cost about 19 cents, while 15 minutes in a microwave costs only 3 cents.

On the cleanup side, studies show a fully loaded dishwasher uses less energy than washing the same amount by hand. Use the dishwasher's light cycle and air-dry setting to improve efficiency.

When picking out new appliances, electronics and other equipment, buy those that are Energy Star rated, which means they are certified by a government program to be as much as 50 percent more efficient than standard products.

Heating and cooling are a home's biggest energy expense, so every opportunity should be taken to manipulate the thermostat.

Ceiling fans are a good deal in the summer, allowing homeowners to raise the thermostat by as much as 4 degrees, which saves a bundle on air conditioning.

But don't forget to turn them off when you're not in the room, Amann said. The air movement cools the skin but doesn't actually cool the room, so leaving fans on in an empty room is a waste.

As for thermostats, programmable ones reduce energy use.

The advantage with the "programmable" is that when you get back from work or wake up in the morning, it's already bringing the temperature back to your comfort point.

Programmable thermostats offer savings of up to 20 percent in heating and cooling costs.

Most people know by now that compact fluorescent lamps are much cheaper to operate than incandescent bulbs. How much?

On average, 75 percent more efficient. About 90 percent of the electricity consumed by an incandescent bulb is given off as heat and only about 10 percent as light. Compact fluorescents are the reverse. They also last longer, five years on average.

A couple of caveats: For lights on dimmers and in three-way lamps, look for CFLs that say they will work for those applications. And remember that fluorescents have a tiny amount of mercury in them and so must be taken to a recycling center rather than thrown away.

Solar, geothermal

The beginning of this story notwithstanding, quite a few folks are investing in what might be called highfalutin energy solutions.

Some install a geothermal heat pump system. Such systems use the constant temperature of the Earth to operate and are pricey to install, typically $16,000 to $25,000, but might cut heating and cooling costs by two-thirds.

People who can't afford expensive solar panels are drawn to a relatively inexpensive device, the SolarSheat, to help warm their homes in the winter. The panels are placed on an exterior, south-facing wall and cost about $2,500.

RESOURCES

"Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings" by Jennifer Thorne Amann, Alex Wilson and Katie Ackerly ($16.95).

Conduct a free, home energy saver do-it-yourself audit: hes.lbl.gov.

American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy's "Home Energy Checklist for Action": aceee.org.

"A Consumer's Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy" by the U.S. Department of Energy: eere.energy.gov.