Home Energy Efficiency Projects With The Fastest Payback.

Home Energy Efficiency: Getting The Most Bang For Your Buck

As a do it yourselfer and part time handyman for hire I've been working to make my own home more energy efficient in the past few years and have found that some projects pay you back faster than others.

Knowing which energy efficiency projects to start first will depend on where your home is wasting the most energy.

In older homes the biggest energy waster in summer and winter is usually poor insulation followed by an outdated cooling and heating system and single pane windows. Adding extra insulation has one of the fastest paybacks in terms of savings on your electricity, gas or oil bill. Replacing windows and air conditioners can take a while longer but is still worthwhile, especially if the home has single pane windows and a cooling unit with less than 10 SEER.

Check your local and state governments, as well as your electric utility company for rebates on insulation and other energy efficiency projects. Quite often you will find that there is government money available to pay for much of the cost of an energy efficiency project such as insulation.

Some studies such as one done by the University of Florida, show that adding at least R-30 worth of insulation in the attic of a poorly insulated home can immediately cut heating and cooling bills by as much as forty percent.

Sealing around pipes that penetrate your exterior walls, adding gaskets around electrical sockets and sealing windows and doors with weather stripping may cost less than $50 for the whole house but you can make that back in only a few utility bills, especially if you have a lot of drafts. You could be losing as much as a quarter of your home's heat or cooling through gaps around doors and windows.

Other energy saving projects may have a longer payback. Among these are adding rooftop solar panels for electricity. Photovoltaic panels can be very expensive. A three kilowatt system can provide about a quarter of a 2000 square foot home's energy needs but can cost around $25,000. Thanks to renewed federal rebates for 2009 the U.S. government will pay thirty percent of the cost. You can expect it to take twenty years or more for a full payback yet if your city or state offers additional rebates and you can get the cost of the system down to around $12,000 you can expect to be getting your money back in a dozen years or so.

When it comes to solar the quickest payback by far is solar hot water heating. A solar hot water system may cost you around $6000 after federal rebates but can pay you back within five to seven years, after which you will esentially have free hot water. A good, well maintained solar hot water system should last at least twenty years.

If your air conditioner is ten SEER ( a rating of efficiency) or less you may save a third or more on cooling bills by upgrading to a 14 SEER or higher unit. Depending on the cost of the system and if any federal, state or city rebates apply you may get your money back in as few as four years. A high efficiency heat pump, such as the 18 SEER Tranes system we installed will cut cooling bills by half of what an older, 10 SEER unit costs.

Start with the quick payback items, like insulation and sealing drafts first and as you can afford it or as rebates become available to you and you will get the biggest bang for your energy buck.

Even if you won't get all of your money back for a few years you will be keeping tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and adding to the resale value of your home. Green homes, or those that incorporate green building methods and energy saving features can sell at a premium to conventional homes. Showing a buyer a copy of your home's low utility bills can be a deal closer.

In many markets there are "Green Realtors" that specialize in selling homes with green features such as solar panels. If you are planning on selling soon it may be worthwhile to contact a Green Realtor and ask what features you can install, with federal help, to make your home more marketable in this tough economy.

Finally, the cheapest energy efficiency measure you can take right now is to replace all your bulbs with compact fluorescents, turn off lights and appliances when not in use and install a programmable thermostat. You should also find the "vampire loads" or appliances like certain TV's and video players that draw power when plugged in. See this article about vampire loads. More About Phantom Loads