With winter upon us, homeowners across the country are doing their best to stay warm while not breaking the bank on heating and cooling. A simple way to do that is upgrade the doors to your home, and thanks to some government tax credits, you can save money on the project.
In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which offers rebates and tax credits for upgrades to homes that make them more energy efficient, saving you money and helping fight environmental issues. With the Home Efficiency Rebates program, you can save up to $8,000, and the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates program offers up an additional $14,000 in rebates and tax credits.
Weatherization falls under the efficiency category and includes projects like upgrading insulation and ventilation and properly sealing your home. The Department of Energy reports that you can save 10% to 20% on your energy bills by reducing air leaks from places in your home like windows and doors. And thanks to the IRA, you can claim up to $500 for installing EnergyStar-certified doors, giving you long-term savings on your energy bills.
🗣️ Should the government continue to give tax incentives for energy-efficient home upgrades?
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🔘 Depends on the upgrade 🤔
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Lowering your energy bills is a huge personal benefit, and when you make greener upgrades and changes, your home requires fewer resources and makes the best use of the ones you do use.
Navigating all the options can be a little daunting, but there are programs like Rewiring America to help you understand which tax incentives and rebates apply to you and locate contractors in your area to do the work (and contractors get benefits from the IRA, too).
You may want to act on the IRA's benefits quickly, and not just because of the weather. President-elect Donald Trump has stated he intends to eliminate the benefits from the IRA. But that decision ultimately requires an act of Congress, making the IRA's future uncertain, but worth exploring sooner than later.
"The absolute smartest, greatest return on investment, easiest, least expensive way to lower your energy cost is to make sure that the exterior wall of your house or your residence or your office building is performing as well as it possibly can," John Fernandez, director of the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative told The Washington Post last November.
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