Saving on home energy expenses is a widespread goal, but what's the secret when costs skyrocket and warmer weather is months away?

Do the next best thing—use a home energy audit to tame those out-of-control high energy bills.

Even small leaks can reduce your home's energy efficiency. The U.S. Department of Energy says the potential energy savings from reducing drafts in the home range from 5 to 30 percent. In addition to the savings, your home will feel more comfortable after you've stopped the heat loss.

A home energy audit will help you determine exactly how much energy your home consumes, uncover the areas where heat is escaping and show you ways to conserve hot water and electricity.

When you think about air leaks in your home, picture a window that's been left open all winter. The heat loss and wasted energy would be tremendous. That's why doing what you can right now—before an entire winter of heat escaping your home passes—is critical to putting an end to the runaway utility bills.

To uncover problems and determine a home's air tightness, a professional home energy auditor comes to your home and will use the blower door test and an infrared thermograph or infrared camera.

The blower door test looks for air leakage and moisture condensation problems and tests the indoor air quality. A blower door is a powerful fan that's mounted into an exterior doorframe. When turned on, it pulls air out of the house, lowering the air pressure. Then, the higher outside air pressure flows in through all unsealed cracks, holes and openings. This test determines the air filtration rate of a building.

Always make sure the auditor you hire uses a calibrated blower door. This type of door has gauges used to measure the amount of air pulled out by the fan, determines the tightness of the house and can quantify the amount of air leakage along with the effectiveness of the air leak fixes. Uncalibrated blower doors won't tell you this information.

Another tool used to find leaks, and one of the most important pieces of equipment a home energy auditor uses, is the infrared camera, sometimes called a FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) camera. This high-definition resolution imaging camera shows where the hot and cold spots are in the building envelope, information that's valuable in identify insulation opportunities. This camera forms an image using infrared radiation that operates in wavelengths as long as 14,000 nanometers, which is why it's not visible to the human eye.

Paul Eldrenkamp, president of Byggmeister in Newton, Mass., asks his home energy audit clients to complete a pre-audit worksheet that includes utility bill information, type and number of appliances, number of occupants and their typical thermostat setting at home.