It’s not just gasoline, the high price of which has seemingly raised the cost of everything and changed the way many people lead their daily lives.

And it’s not just natural gas, which experts say will be far more expensive this winter than last, making heating bills dangerously high.

No, it seems energy costs of all kinds are on the minds of both consumers and business owners, from homeowners to small business people to large companies.

“Energy is in people’s minds, and any time they replace the old with the new, they want to save energy,” said Mike Wall, owner of Power Townsend.

Wall said the home improvement store has seen marked increases in sales of all sorts of energy-saving products, from home insulation and water heaters to space heaters. But perhaps the biggest change, Wall said, is in the way people light their homes.

“In the last three years, the compact fluorescent (light bulbs) have really taken over,” he said. Selling just a handful of the low-energy bulbs four years ago, Wall said sales now number “in the thousands.”

At Intermountain Heating, owners Brian and Debbie Patzer said they’re seeing a lot more interest in geothermal heat pumps as people look for more efficient ways to heat and cool their homes. The heat pumps pull heat from the ground and concentrate it, using electricity at just a fraction of the rate that a conventional furnace uses gas.

“People are moving away from the fossil fuels and toward geothermal,” Debbie Patzer said. “We’ve noticed a huge difference (in 14 years in business). The cost goes up so much that people are truly looking for ways to make heating more affordable.”

Brian Patzer said that from his perspective, homeowners are being more proactive than business owners when it comes to making improvements in energy efficiency.

“Businesses are a little slower to turn and make those capital investments,” he said.

But like homeowners, businesses can request energy audits through NorthWestern Energy and look for ways to make their buildings more efficient, said Howard Skjervem, the power company’s local community relations manager.

“A lot of commercial buildings were built not with the best insulation in the roof,” he said. “The first steps should be to tighten it up, add sufficient insulation, and caulk the windows and doors.”

One area in which businesses are actively working to cut their power bills is in lighting, according to Phillip Bushilla of Integrity Electric.

Bushilla said he’s done several jobs in the area, changing out traditional fluorescent tubes for more efficient models that not only provide more light but use less power to do so.

The new fixtures feature instant-on, with no time needed to warm up, Bushilla said, and can be placed on motion detection systems so they’re only in use when people are in the area.

“The idea is to get good light, but only when it’s needed,” he said.

Bushilla said NorthWestern is offering business customers rebates on some fixture upgrades, and that business owners are responding.

“I’ve done more this year than I’ve done in the last couple,” he said of the lighting retrofits. “In some cases it’s because I’ve suggested it, and in some cases it’s because the power company has been pushing it.”

And while some people are always looking to save, there will always be those who wait until the last minute — or beyond.

“It’s definitely seasonal,” Wall said at Power Townsend. “The first cold snap and the first (energy) bill, we’ll get another rush for insulation, and the weather stripping will go fast.”

Reporter John Harrington: john.harrington@helenair.com or 447-4080