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How should I spend my $1500 Energy Tax Credit?
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March 21st, 2009 No commentsThe American Recovery and Reinvestment act is chocked full of goodies. You’ve determined that you are going to do the “Right Thing” and stake your claim on a juicy $1500 tax credit for investing in energy efficiency. But what should you buy? There are sooooo many choices. You need a recipe book like they give you with a bag of Jelly Belly’s.
Before you pick up the phone and call your Heating and Cooling contractor consider hiring a Certified BPI Home Performance auditor. A building performance auditor will inspect your entire property, make recommendations and provide you with Savings to Invesment calculations so that you can make informed decisions. The auditor utilizes a sophisticated instrument called a blower door to depressurize your house so that he can locate the air leaks.
The first rule of Home Performance is to reduce the load. Before you purchase expensive HVAC equipment it may be that you could spend a modest amount of money on insulating, sealing your ductwork as well as your building envelope so that your energy dollars are not being flung into the atmosphere.
Once your house is nearly airtight (Even humans require a little bit of air now and again) the auditor will return to verify that insulation contractors did their jobs effectively. Once your house has been sealed and insulated properly it is quite possible that you can invest in smaller heating and cooling systems that are less expensive to purchase and much less to operate.
It is also very likely that your Utility company has a program to pay all or a portion of the Home Performance Audit. Here in Kansas City, KCP&L offers a rebate up to $600 for energy efficiency improvements recommended by a BPI Certified Home Performance Auditor.
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