- As the warm summer days begin to turn into cool fall and winter nights, many homeowners see increases in their electricity bills as they try to keep their homes warm.
- To help lower the cost of heating a home this winter, homeowners can weatherstrip their homes. According to the U.S. Dept. of Energy, there are many kinds of weatherstripping products on the market. Since each product is designed to work in a different area of the home, homeowners should read product packaging carefully to determine if it is best suited for windows or doors, as well as indoor or outdoor use.
- Another tip for “winterizing” a home is to get a furnace or heating system inspection, which most professionals recommend homeowners do at least once a year. An inspection of the working parts can ensure that the house has heat when needed and can prevent costly repairs in the future.
If you are fortunate enough to have access to your attic and have a small budget for winterizing your home, the best tip I can give you is to add insulation there. I had this done prior to last winter for my own home and my highest heating bill went was $90. The previous winter, it was $140. I originally had R30 but through the years and several workman in the attic later, there were many areas where the insulation was trampled down to what I estimated as R15. For $475 I had another R19 worth of insulation added give me an overall R40.
By making the insulation level in my Attic greater than R38, there is even a PG&E $150 rebate program for adding attic insulation still going on. At a final cost to me $375 and the savings from winter heating and summer a/c usage, I figure the payback to be approximately one year. I don’t know about you but ever other thing I looked at doing to me hope had paybacks over several years. Heck, because I have so little electric usage, the payback for a solar electric system even with the rebates was about 25 years which is nearly the expected life usage for many systems. Same was true for instant hot water system. You need to do a little math first, but there are many very cost effective things you can do to winterize your home with very quick paybacks.
After a little work and a few dollars, this winter you can afford to have that hot toddy, cheers.
Part reprinted from C. A. R. Market Matters
Thank you for reading this post. If I can ever be of help in finding you the perfect property here in the Napa Valley, please email me at Curtis@NapaValleyAddress.com.
Your Broker Extraordinaire, selling Napa Valley Real Estate from its heart, Yountville.
My website & blog: www.NapaValleyAddress.com
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