Energy Efficient Home Improvement Projects Made Easy

Energy Efficienct Home Improvements are About to Flood the Market!

With the new economic stimulus package aimed at stimulating the ‘green’ sector of the economy, energy efficiency will be one of the most stimulated sectors of all.

Cities around the country are gearing up a tsunami of federal stimulus money earmarked for such unglamorous tasks as replacing light bulbs and fixing leaky insulation in government buildings. But experts worry that other beneficiaries, especially cities, are not ready to oversee the huge sums of energy-efficiency money about to come their way.

The money in the bill is enough to pay for a tremendous expansion of efficiency efforts across the country.

 But as with other parts of the stimulus package, the efficiency plan is creating tension between spending the money quickly, to get rapid economic stimulus, and spending it well, to do the most good over the long run. A delegate balance that needs to be financially efficient and most importantly, EFFECTIVE.

No different than your own energy efficient home improvement projects, you needs to spend your money wisely to effectively make your home energy efficient. “There’s enormous opportunity here for expansion of energy efficiency in this country,” said Lowell Ungar, the policy director for the Alliance to Save Energy, an advocacy group. “But there is certainly the potential for waste.” Homes and commercial buildings account for 39 percent of national energy consumption. Experts say that improving their efficiency is not only cost-effective but also a good way to reduce the nation’s emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Accelerating the country’s energy transition is at the top of President Obama’s list in his new bill that he signed back on Feburary 17th. . Many experts in the field agree with him that carefully chosen investments in efficiency will ultimately save more than they cost, by cutting energy bills.
At least $20 billion in the stimulus bill was earmarked for programs like improving the efficiency of government buildings and the homes of poor people, and trying to find better ways to save energy. That is far more, advocates say, than any bill in history. Within a few months, the money is likely to start landing in the bank accounts of thinly staffed state and city agencies that are accustomed to scraping for a dime here, a dollar there.
Utah expects that its state energy office will receive $40 million for energy efficiency, renewable energy and related programs — 123 times the size of the office’s current budget, said Jason Berry, who manages the four-person unit. He is about to go on a hiring spree. Need a job? Contact Jason!

Learn more about do-it-yourself energy efficient home improvements.