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Making simple repairs or improvements and changing wasteful habits will yield enormous energy savings for most families. Before spending thousands of dollars on new windows, a furnace, or solar energy system, take basic steps toward fixing common sources of waste.
Most of us want to reduce our energy usage, regardless of upfront costs, but limited budgets prevent many homeowners from paying for expensive improvements. Here are affordable-to-most projects that will, in relatively short periods of time, pay for themselves via lower utility bills.
If you wanna go big, these projects dramatically reduce energy use—some even offer paths to completely eliminate your home's net energy usage. But the high up-front costs or long payback periods make these improvements impractical for many families.
To make sure your heating and air-conditioning systems work when needed, they must be properly installed and maintained. We’ve rated area heating and air-conditioning services for quality and price.
Although the cost of equipment has come way down, for most homeowners the biggest obstacle to going solar remains price: For a typical house in this area, you’ll have to plunk down about $18,000. But you’ll eventually get your money’s worth.
If you decide to buy a solar energy system, there are many decisions to make, and the most important is selecting an installer.
Since whatever you buy will be up there for years, research the options. Here are the main points.