Carly Schwartzel is a wife and working mom. She volunteered her home for our energy audit. Our two energy experts, Carol Newcomb Jones and husband Dell Jones have a lot of experience in this area. Carol is an environmentalist and Dell is in the solar energy business and spent years doing energy audits for the power company.

For the second part of our energy audit we head back into the kitchen where Carly gets a gold star for using energy efficient light bulbs. But no star for her appliances, those are not energy efficient.

"If the builder had just taken the incentive to put in Energy Star this would be a much more energy efficient home, but he didn't so now they're stuck with these appliances," says Carol.

If you need to replace your appliances Dell says buy Energy Star like Carly did with her washer and dryer. It may cost a bit more but it won't take long to see the savings.

In the bathroom, Dell and Carol say low flow shower heads are the way to go. "You're using less water so you are using less heat to heat the water," says Dell.

It's an inexpensive fix, $20 to $30 that will save money and water.

When we head outside, Dell zeros in on one of the biggest energy hogs in the home, the pool pump. "If I was going to guess this is one of the bigger items in the house that's causing your electric bill to go up."

Dell says Carly's pool pump is too big, and a pump about a third of the size would do the job. "Where a lot of people think bigger is better, it's really not."

Upstairs in Carly's office, Dell points out the computer area with all of the plug ins and equipment. He says plug everything into a surge protector and turn it off when it's not being used.

"When you look at high bills on a house it's usually not - ah, hah, there it is... it's usually an accumulation of things that add up."

Dell's advice is to start somewhere, whether it's changing to compact fluorescent light bulbs and turning up your thermostat or maybe you take a bigger step and invest in something new like a smaller pool pump or solar water heater.

"What you're really doing is taking a bite out of that fuel and really that money is staying here."

For Carly it's about the changes she can make that will have a lasting effect on the environment and her entire family.

"If I can take little steps now," says Carly. "I think it will wear off on them...they'll see we're trying to see the difference so then it will be passed on down the road."

Carly by the way is looking into a solar water heater and a pool pump. She's made several small changes like the surge protector in the office, she turns in off. Carly's water heater is set at 120 degrees instead of 150 degrees and she is turning off the air conditioner when she leaves her home.