BOSTON -- With natural gas and home heating oil at record prices, plenty of New Englanders are looking for less expensive ways to heat their homes.

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A New England company says it has the answer - an invention that could cut heating costs by up to 70 percent.

"I got a $500 bill one time and it scared the living daylights out of me," said Richard Parker, who has relied on oil to heat his Burlington home for the past 45 years. Now, Parker is trading in his oil tank for a new type of heating and cooling system, called Acadia.

"It will reduce home owner's heating costs by up to 70 percent versus fossil fuels," said Bob Kimball, of Hallowell International, the Maine-based company that sells Acadia.

Invented by a Cape Cod man, the Acadia is not complicated technology. It's a super-efficient heat pump, powered by electricity, that pumps heat in during winter months, and pumps heat out of homes in the summer.

"It's a combined heating and cooling system," Kimball said. "Even down to temperatures as low as -30 degrees, it can extract the heat from outside and put it into your home extremely efficiently."

And Parker is optimistic that Acadia will have an equally dramatic effect on his bank account. Last year, Parker spent nearly $1,700 to heat his home. This coming winter, his projected bill is just $900, and that projected figure includes air conditioning during the summer.

Acadia is also compatible with wind or solar power.

One woman who bought the Acadia supplies the electricity to run it with solar panels on the roof of her New Jersey home. Because her panels supply more energy than she needs, she now gets money back from the power company.

"She's received a check every month, but for one month, where she had a $23 bill," said Kimball.

Acadia can cost up to $15,000 to install, less if the home already has ducts.

Parker, meantime, is happy to say "no" to those $500 heating oil deliveries. He expects to easily make back the money he's investing up-front within six years.

As for his old oil tank in the basement?

"Oh, I'll be delighted to see it gone," he said.

Hallowell has been manufacturing the Acadia for a couple of years.

They recently won a contract to install 2,400 of the heating and cooling units at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Massachusetts residents who purchase Acadia could be eligible for zero-interest loans up to $10,000 under the Commonwealth's "MassSave" program.