OTTUMWA, IOWA -- While many of us are enjoying this beautiful weather right now and are keeping the windows open, summer will be here soon and many will be blasting the AC.

Indian Hills Community College held their first annual REACH Expo, or Renewable Energy And Conservation for Homeowners. REACH focused on ways people could lower utility bills and make home improvements that also improve the environment.

Renewable Energy Instructor J.P. Jones told Fact Finder while big projects are nice, people should focus on doing little things that both save energy and money.

He tells Fact Finder the most important thing is to “stop the leaks.”

“One of the best ways for you to save money on your home is to have an energy audit. And in our region most of the RECs and public utilities will provide that energy audit for free,” Jones said.

Jones said the audits help find weak areas in the house as well as suggest other ways to save on utilities.

Fact Finder called several area utilities regarding free energy audits.

Alliant energy provides free energy audits to individual homeowners who heat their residence from Alliant. To schedule and energy audit, call 1-800-723-7635 Monday-Friday.

MidAmerican Energy provides free energy audits to its customers.  Call 800-545-0762 or click here for more energy tips or to check efficiency of your home.

Atmos Energy offers online energy managment tools for customer and non-customer alike those can be found by clicking here. 

Ameren does not offer free audits, but does say they have partners that will perform audits for a fee.