How To Lower Your Energy Bill and Add Value to Your Home

Do you feel like your heating and cooling bills have been high? More than likely, your home isn’t as energy efficient as it should be. The good news is that you can do some home upgrades to help with this problem. Here’s how to lower your energy bill and add value to your home.

Upgrade to Double-Pane Windows

Many homeowners don’t replace the windows unless it’s essential. You should think about updating them sooner to improve energy efficiency and spruce up your home simultaneously.

Choose windows with an Energy Star rating to help maintain a consistent temperature in your house throughout the year. Most importantly, the new windows can help reduce your energy bill. Some homeowners even agree that Energy Star windows are vital for homes.

Replacing windows is also one of the more popular home improvement tasks that will instantly add value to your home.

Replace Old Appliances

Are you looking for an easy way to improve your home’s energy efficiency? Replace all the old, outdated appliances with newer energy-efficient models. Energy Star devices use much less energy than other models.

The kitchen appliances are the ideal ones to update. They’re the most important to buyers, and you can find appliance packages at many major retailers. Most buyers prefer stainless steel appliances, but there are other attractive options on the market.

Install Spray Foam Insulation in Your Attic

The average home loses a significant portion of its heat through the attic. As a homeowner, one of the best ways to lower your energy bill and add value to your home is to curb this heat loss by adding spray foam insulation. It’s the easiest way to improve the energy efficiency of your house.

You’ll save on cooling and heating costs by simply adding insulation to your attic. Spray foam insulation is a well-priced product that’s highly effective.

When the time comes to sell your home, you must advertise and educate buyers on this type of insulation. Most won’t go looking for it or understand the benefits it brings to the house.

Paragon Protection is a spray foam insulation company in Crystal Lake. For over 20 years, we’ve been improving the energy efficiency of homes.

Add Solar Panels

There are many benefits homeowners can enjoy when they install solar panels. Even though they’re technically not energy-efficient components, they help create clean energy and make your energy bills fall in price.

They’re a hefty investment to make as well. Their prices have decreased over time, but they’re still not cheap. Even with the high price tag, solar panels still increase your home’s value. They can help homeowners save a significant amount of money each year.

Are you planning on living in your current home for the foreseeable future? If so, you should take advantage of the savings that solar panels can provide you. You’ll see the savings add up on your energy bills and quickly make your money back on them. It’s a beautiful feeling knowing you’re helping the environment and spending less money.

Solar panels can hit or miss with home buyers. Their attractiveness can depend on whether there are lots of other homes with solar panels in the area. It also depends on the quality and age of the solar panels themselves. Do buyers understand the benefits of solar panels?

Some buyers may not jump at the chance to purchase a home with older solar panels that aren’t as efficient. Stay away from leased solar panels if you’re selling your home in the near future. Buyers have to qualify to take on the solar lease. Plus, leased solar panels don’t increase the value of your home because you don’t own them. They’re technically not part of the house. If you pay attention to these factors, you can increase your home’s value with solar panels.

Put Weatherstripping on Exterior Doors

Also known as draft stoppers or door sweeps, weatherstripping helps to keep temperatures consistent inside your home and prevents pests from entering. It can also help dampen outside noise and make your house quieter.

Weatherstripping is a great selling point when it’s time to move. Installing it is a relatively inexpensive project that you can tackle in a single afternoon. It’s a simple upgrade that will keep your energy bills down throughout the seasons.

Upgrade Your Water Heater

Homeowners often overlook water heaters when they’re evaluating their home’s energy efficiency. Water heaters suck up lots of energy as they warm up the water in your home. They can cost an average family of four people hundreds of dollars a year.

It’s time to upgrade to a model with incredibly efficient heat pumps. This switch can help save you thousands over the unit’s lifespan. There are various models on the market that range in price points. So you’ll definitely find the water heater to fit your needs.

The best water heaters on the market are tankless water heaters. They’re the most expensive models, but they can help you save even more energy and money.

A new water heater will attract home buyers, especially if you’ve installed a tankless water heater. You’ll secure that top-dollar sale.

Replace the Garage Door

Many homeowners forget about the garage door when assessing the energy efficiency of their homes. If you have a house with an attached garage, you’ll notice a spillover effect from the poor energy efficiency to the rest of the house.

Are you going to continue to allow your energy bill to suffer all year? An inefficient garage door allows the blisteringly cold air to suck the warmth out of the house during the winter. And in the summer, the hot air comes in through the garage door, counteracting your air conditioning. Thus, the best thing to do is update your garage door. It will help regulate your home’s temperature and lower your energy bills.

You’ll also recover most of the cost of the door during resale!

Install Heat Barriers in Your Basement

A radiant heat barrier is a material that reflects heat away from your house instead of absorbing it. It can help lower your energy bills and air conditioning costs. There are various price points for the barriers, but you’ll most likely spend anywhere from $700 to $3,000. However, it’s an investment worth looking into.

These home upgrades may not be cheap, but you don’t have to install them all at once. Determine which are best for your home and worth installing.