What’s the Payback Period for Attic Insulation?
Some energy efficiency upgrades, like replacing an old, energy-sucking unit with a new, energy efficient heating and air conditioning system can have an immediate, and dramatic effect on your monthly heating and cooling costs. Replacing drafty, old single-pane windows with new energy efficient windows can also make a huge difference in your energy usage and utility costs.
If you’re not quite ready to upgrade your HVAC system or windows, there are still lots of smaller energy efficiency enhancing projects that you might want to consider.
Adding additional insulation in your attic is one of the easiest ways to reduce your heating and cooling costs, and prolong the life or your HVAC system. In today’s tight economy, however, it’s a good idea to calculate the return on investment of any home improvement project. More specifically, you should figure out how long it will take for the upgrade to actually pay for itself. This is known as the “payback period”, and thanks to the energy.gov Web site, you can accurately calculate the payback period for additional insulation.
You’ll need to gather some information about your average energy usage, the cost of new insulation and the cost of labor, if you intend to have it installed by a professional insulation installer or heating and air conditioning company, as well as some other figures. By gathering the necessary information, and plugging it into a simple equation, you’ll be able to determine whether or not additional attic insulation makes sense at this time.
Did you find this post helpful? If so, please share it with others, and be sure to leave a comment below.
For more energy-saving tips, please Follow Us on Twitter, and Like our Facebook Fan Page.