LANSING ---- Most of us are either cranking up the air conditioning this week or looking for every possible way to keep the heat out of our homes. There are some simple way that you can keep the heat to a minimum and cut your costs at the same time.

Bruce Wheaton does home energy assessments. He slides his fingers across a window frame of a Greater Lansing Housing Coalition renovated home on Baker Street.

"You need to check the windows." Wheaton puts light pressure on the window, "Good snug fit."

"It's relatively inexpensive -- for $50 or $75 you can cut down on heating loss or cooling loss and air infiltration in the house," said Wheaton, a project manager for Michigan Energy Options, a non-profit in East Lansing.

You can keep the heat out and the cool air circulating inside by sealing out daylight from the big culprits: doors and windows.

Any cracks in the door frame than can let daylight seep in, "can be sealed up with weather stripping, that will prevent the air from coming in," said Wheaton. Same goes for any kind of vents in your home.

"They can be sealed up with a bead of caulk or expanding foam and keep air from blowing in through the wall system between the floor joist. And caulk can run you less than $2 a tube. Also, proper insulation can help. Wheaton says you should have no less than six inches throughout your home.

Your air conditioner can be a big relief. Store shelves at Lowes were practically cleaned out.

"Our Energy Star are more efficient than they were five to 10 years ago to run so if you have an older one it would save you some money to come get a new one," said Steve Berger, store manager at the South Lansing Lowe's.

But you don't need an air conditioner necessarily to keep cool. Another option is a ceiling fan which Berger says can cool a room down between four and six degrees.

If you have an air conditioner it's better to keep if off during the day when you're gone. If you have to keep it running, you should turn up the temperature because that uses less energy.

"With the heat the way it is, you probably want to run it consistently throughout the day to keep the coolness so you're not trying to cool everything down where it's running real hard in the evening when you get home from work," said Berger.

If you don't have AC, you can keep the blinds closed or curtains drawn and make sure the house is sealed up to help keep cool.

A bigger upfront cost but longer term savings are upgrading to energy star appliances in the kitchen.

"Having those 20 to 28 year old refrigerators, that's going to run hotter so not only is it hot outside but now it's hot in your home," said Lowe's sales specialist Shron Nathan.

"Energy efficient appliances are more efficient because they use a lot less energy, the KiloWatts are a lot less and when you have something like a dishwasher or a refrigerator that uses a lot of energy. So using energy efficient appliances would definitely help especially with the heat outside -- everybody wants to spend less," said Nathan.

Refrigerators, dishwashers, washers, air conditioners and dehumidifiers are some of the more popular energy efficient products.

Thermal curtains or blinds are also small changes that can make a big difference.

"We have white curtains. It lets in light and keeps the heat out," said Lansing resident Julian Wilson. He and roommate Jared Blanton use an air conditioner and fan fairly minimally and keep cool in their third floor apartment.

"We have a high velocity fan and it sucks all the air from the a.c. and blows it into the other rooms," said Wilson. "We have it on the lowest setting possible. Give it five minutes and it's cold and nice."

They also unplug all their electronics from cell phone chargers to beard trimmers when not in use, to cut down on the amount of heat generated.

Wheaton says along with televisions, video gaming systems, computers, etc. can really rack up the temperature in your home and the bill.

"You can save 10-15% on the entire utility bill a month or a good 20% on the heating or cooling end of that just by buttoning up the house, keep the air from blowing through it or insulating a little better," said Wheaton.

It's also recommended to do you laundry and cooking during the cooler parts of the day. Even cook in bulk and then just reheat using a microwave rather than a stove or oven.

So, caulk the cracks, find a way to circulate the air and you just may find some relief this summer.

Michigan Energy Options conducts home energy assessments for a fee, that will give you more tips specific to your home on how to cuts costs and protect yourself from the heat and even the extreme cold in the winter. To find out more just click on one of the links below.

To learn more about the Greater Lansing Housing Coalition, click below.