A.D. Cantelmo Property Management
Our Business is Property Management in Orange County California
Is a small savings in energy costs worth the initial investment?
You hear every
day that there are things you can do to your home to save energy and money, but
is the initial cost of the improvement worth the saving you will receive in the
future?
If you were thinking about adding solar
panels to your home, Edison international calculates: “For example, if you
choose to install a grid-tie system to supplement 50% of your energy needs,
with the ability to store power, you might have an installation price of
$18,000. Depending on your state tax incentives, and combined with federal
incentives and utility rebate, you might have deductions totaling $8,500,
reducing your up-front cost to $9,500.
If you
currently pay $3,200 per year for heat and $1,300 per year for electricity;
then a 50% savings on those two utilities would be $2,250 per year. At that
rate, it will take you a little over four years to recoup your investment. And
just to note, that the rate of recovering your costs would be based upon
current energy prices. As energy prices continue to rise, your investment will
be recovered even more quickly.”
Now
these numbers may or may not be accurate, and in Southern California a $3200.00
per year in heating cost is much higher then an average size home would pay, so
recouping the cost for solar would probably be much longer than 4 years. If you
are thinking about this type of investment, you really need to do your homework
if saving money is important to you.
New
duel pane windows are another way that we are told we can save money. Now I am
a huge fan of beautiful windows, in fact I think windows can really make your
home look and feel great, but the cost of new windows can set you back quite a
bit of money.
Shanon
Peterson Wasielewski in her paper "Windows: Efficiency Facts and
Myths" did a cost/benefit analysis using the EPA software, RESFEN 3.1, for
a two-story brick home in Nashville, TN. In her scenario, the house has
20 windows and it costs $8,000 to replace all windows. Wasielewski even
acknowledges that $8,000 is an "extremely low estimate." I
concur, placing the cost of 20 low-end, contractor-grade but EnergyStar
qualified windows in Nashville at more around $12,000, if
lucky. She ups that number to the more realistic $15,000 to $20,000.
By her
estimates, it would take 70 years for the energy savings to help you recoup the
cost of the windows. Besides the fact that you would probably be dead by
then, 70 years takes you well beyond both the warranty period for most windows
and their practical life expectancy.
So
once again, if you are thinking about putting in new windows, do it for the
beauty that new windows can bring to your home, not the energy savings. In my
business of Property Management in Orange County Ca. I would never recommend
replacing all the windows unless the old windows were an eye sore and hurt the
property from bringing in the most income possible.
There
are many ways that you can save money without spending a fortune. For example,
I replaced my high energy landscape lights for low energy LED lights, the cost
was minimal and the savings were substantial.
Another
great way to save money is in the summer, use a ceiling fan, they look great
and are much cheaper than using you’re A/C all summer. Also with a ceiling fan,
most have a reverse switch so the air will blow up and even if you are not
looking to be cooler it will keep the air flowing in the room.
If you
take a little time to research energy savings, you will come up with many ways
to save money, without spending a fortune.
A.D. Cantelmo Property Management Specializes in Property
Management on Orange County Ca.