There are several benefits to making energy efficient improvements to your home.
You can save money on utility bills, reduce your impact on the environment, and increase the equity in your home. Additionally, you may be eligible for tax credits, rebates, and other incentives.
Who can qualify for residential energy tax incentives?
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allows for homeowners to take advantage of federal income tax credits for making energy efficient home improvements through 2032 and beyond. This can include improvements or upgrades to your home’s HVAC system, windows, doors, insulation, and much more.
This allows homeowners the ability to make investments in their home now that will ultimately save money on monthly utilities while also providing money back in the form of federal tax credits. There is also the added benefit of increasing your home’s value and making it more competitive for future sale.
What tax incentives are available for making energy improvements to your home?
Whether you’re trying to build the most energy efficient new home or improving the energy efficiency of an existing home, the EPA’s ENERGY STAR program makes it easy to discover what programs exist and how you can qualify for them. They detail how much money you can claim for tax credits based on the percentage of the project cost and the maximum allowed benefit by the IRS.
Program rebates and credits vary depending on the system (heating, cooling, electrical, building products, etc.) and the specific qualifying equipment. For example if you wanted to invest in a new solar panel system for your home you can deduct 30% of the total cost of the solar system, including equipment, installation, and permitting fees, from what you owe in federal taxes for the year you installed the system or carry over the remaining amount to future years. There are also incentives for performing home audits and other residential clean energy projects, such as small wind turbines, solar water heaters, and more.
Visit ENERGY STAR’s website for more information and details on the tax credits available for homeowners and how to qualify.
ENERGY STAR Home Upgrade Programs
ENERGY STAR offers a Home Upgrade program focused on providing cost and energy savings to your home that includes a set of six high-impact, energy efficient improvements.
The six ENERGY STAR home upgrade categories and benefits include:
- Heating & Cooling: Switching to and maintaining a clean home HVAC system.
- Water Heater: Installing super-efficient equipment that can save over $300/year in costs (in addition to any available tax rebates).
- Smart Thermostat: Optimize your home comfort while saving money through both utility savings and incentives.
- Attic Insulation: A well-insulated and sealed attic can save up to 10% on annual utility bills.
- Windows: Aside from the obvious cost-savings, installing high-performing or storm windows in your home can significantly improve comfort levels throughout all seasons.
- Electric Ready: The future is electric! Prepare now so you are equipped to make the transition to clean electric energy.
Regardless of the current state of your home, there are likely many improvements that could be made to increase its energy efficiency.
Since home energy upgrades can benefit you through both immediate tax rebates and incentives and long-term utility savings, why delay making the investment?
If you’re interested in maximizing all available benefits from home energy upgrades, you can also search by zip code for additional rebates and other special offers from ENERGY STAR.
Energy Improvement Incentives for Businesses
In addition to home rebate offers for energy improvements, there are specific incentives for certain types of businesses, including the highly sought after ENERGY STAR certification.
EnergyPrint offers ENERGY STAR integration as part of our core services. Contact us to learn more about how your business can take advantage of getting certified, or increasing your current score if you’re already certified.
Contact us today if you’d like our professional support to certify your building.
Tracking Your Home Energy Improvements
You’ve made the changes, how are you tracking your energy saving investments?
The first step to tracking energy savings is to set a benchmark, or baseline, of where your home is at when you start making utility upgrades. You can then monitor your costs and energy usage over time to see how improvements paid off.
Although certification isn’t currently available for single-family houses, you can still use the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to receive a score for your home and compare it to similar properties nationwide by entering all your bills by hand. Alternatively you can enroll you home with EnergyPrint today and we take care of tracking, making integration with ENERGY STAR a breeze.
If you’re looking for additional opportunities to reduce your energy footprint and uncover cost savings, EnergyPrint has a variety of customized utility tracking solutions to fit your home or business. You can see our featured services here.
Sign up for free today to start monitoring and analyzing your utility usage in our easy-to-use dashboard.