Why should you make energy saving upgrades to your home

Why should you make energy saving upgrades to your home? The obvious reason is to save money on your electric and gas bill. Energy prices are soaring and many researchers believe we can expect to see prices double in the next ten years. Lets face it, the energy market lacks certainty and we have to work to reduce our dependence on them. So if you are someone who is planning to live in your home for a long period of time, making energy saving investments is a good idea to save money in the long run. But what if you plan on living in your home for a few years? Does it pay for you to make these energy saving upgrades? How will these upgrades effect the value or the ability to sell your home? Some bankers are now asking appraisers to look at energy saving upgrades such as energy star windows, appliances, insulation, and high efficiency heating systems and factor them in to the appraisal value. You can bet the real estate agents are going to be selling these upgrades to their clients as well. We also have to think about the implementation of the 2012 building code witch is just around the corner. It includes new energy efficient building standards for new homes that will undoubtedly make older, less efficient homes, even less desirable. Do you remember about ten years ago driving buy a car dealership and at the front of the lot you would see all of those beautiful suv's. If you look now you will see that they are all parked at the back of the lot and the fuel saving compact cars are all at the front of the lot. That's because the new car buyer wants efficiency. Today's car buyer is tomorrows home buyer. I mean why would I buy a car that gets 20 miles per gallon when I could get one that uses 30 miles per gallon or buy a home that uses 10,000 kilowatt hours a year when I can buy the same house that uses 5,000 kilowatt hours a year. Sure this home will cost me more initially, but my mortgage rate is fixed and my electric bill is not. You should see your home as an investment by thinking today of how it will present itself in tomorrow's market.

With the rising cost of energy that could double in the next ten years, many home owners are deciding to upgrade their homes efficiency. Some of these upgrades include more insulation, energy star windows and doors, sealed crawl spaces, high efficiency heating systems, and energy star appliances.
These are all worth while investments that could continue to save you money in energy costs and improve on your investment if they were properly installed. Sure, energy star appliances will bring you a home run. But what makes the energy star windows, high efficiency heating systems, and sealed crawl space effective, is the installation.
In some cases the home owner is not getting what they paid for. A few months ago I started a bathroom remodel. The home owner had new energy star replacement windows installed buy another contractor a month prior to the remodel. The remodel was a total gut including the window trim the window installer installed. To my surprise the contractor did not insulate around the windows.. You could see daylight behind the trim. I was angry when I saw this. An energy star window is worthless if not installed properly. On a different project where I was doing some siding work, the customer previously hired another contractor to install a sealed crawl space. The crawl space was hardly sealed. They just laid plastic on the ground which did not cover all of the ground. A sealed crawl space should be exactly that. The crawl space is supposed to be covered with a heavy duty plastic with all seams overlapping and taped and the walls covered in foam board. Included is a drain system and a heating vent. The crawl space should be conditioned like the rest of the house.
If you want to make these upgrade to your home, you should hire a reputable contractor with references. The most important thing is to check their work. Someone once gave me some advice when I took a superintendent job for a condo project. He said trust every one but check them. One way to do this is to require a permit be pulled. Now, some contractors will tell you that you don't need a permit,and in the case of replacement windows and adding insulation technically you don't. That does not mean that you can't get one. If installing windows, the inspector will check if they are properly installed, the structure was not compromised and the windows were properly insulated. Another option is to hire an energy rater or general contractor to over see the project. This may cost more but a third and impartial party can insure the work was done properly.