We *knew* we were a good idea…and now CNN Money confirms it

Check it out:

When a home energy audit pays

Thank you. Thank you very much.

We do have a slight disagreement with the article, or maybe with Cash for Caulkers. It’s hard to tell where this is coming from.  ”This” being the amount of money they’re budgeting for weatherization retrofits:

…getting all that work done might run into the tens of thousands of dollars. And any new federal program – which is still being drafted and is not guaranteed to become law – would cap the government reimbursements at $12,000…

Uh, what???? That is a TON of money! Seriously. I guess if you replace every appliance in your house and get a brand new HVAC system and foam insulate everything it might cost you that much, but that’s a little far out of the ballpark of most home’s weatherization retrofits. Like out of ballfield and up to the moon. Here’s more:

Homeowners need not despair. There are some simple improvements that are relatively cheap and can pay for themselves quickly. Just adding the insulation, caulking and lights might run an average homeowner $5,000 to $7,000, he said.

Uh…more like $1000-$4000, buddy. But I guess we’re in central NC, not the center of Manhattan or San Francisco, where I imagine everything costs 3x as much as here.

Okay, okay, I found another article that mentions the $, but here it says that the $12,000 is 50% of the homeowner’s total reimbursement, which could be up to $24,000.

Holy moly! I’m guessing we’re talking more than weatherization, then. Like geothermal, or solar. Which is completely cool (and methinks we’ll be doing some upgrades to our house if that’s the case) but falls more in the lines of a complete energy overhaul than a retrofit. But tomaytoes, tomahtoes, right? Bottom line, actual weatherization should not cost much more than a couple thousand dollars, and most of the time it costs much less than that.

Anyway, the program sounds good and I really hope everything works out the way it’s predicted to. I truly believe that energy audits and weatherization are effective ways to improve your home, save you money, and save the world and I’m glad that other people (lie our president) do, too.