Can we retrofit our way out of the recession? The White House—with help from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)—seems to think so. Vice President Joe Biden the other day joined with U.S. Department of Energy and other administration officials to release Recovery Through Retrofit, a report billed as a blueprint for green jobs.
The idea is to create a self-sustaining “retrofit industry,” seeded with ARRA money and tax credits and fueled by need: millions of inefficient homes.
After all, as administration officials point out, existing techniques and technologies in energy-efficiency retrofitting can cut home energy use by 40 percent and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 160 million tons. These actions can slice $21 billion from homeowners’ energy bills each year.
Goldsborough Design Build—a Design/Build firm and not a retrofitter, per se—takes extra steps to ensure that all of our remodeled projects are as efficient as possible:
- When we cut ventilation holes into ceilings, we foam around the openings before we put the insulation back to ensure that there is a quality air barrier.
- We pay our insulator to install an air-stopping package before drywall is installed. This is not required by local building code requirements, but is an important part of a quality air barrier.
- And many of our top-of-the-line windows, such as Pella Architect Series, are already manufactured to meet the Energy Star requirements for our region.
In addition to encouraging and funding energy retrofits—including giving consumers better information about energy efficiency and sounder ways to estimate the costs and benefits—ARRA includes a host of energy-related tax credits for qualifying home projects. In fact, some GDB clients have taken advantage of these ARRA credits for window and appliance upgrades.
“These new, expanded credits encourage homeowners to make improvements that will make their homes more energy efficient,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in April. “People can improve their homes and save money over the long run.” (Consult your tax advisor for details.)
And more is being done to reduce the barriers to energy-related home improvements: The Energy Department recently announced $454 million in “Retrofit Ramp-Up” funds for innovative retrofit projects, including for neighborhood-scale green home and community projects. A separate program will provide federal dollars to support state-run pilot projects designed to help homeowners finance renewable energy systems and retrofits through their property tax bills.
If the government can use its leverage for retrofit projects that create jobs, improve the planet, and put pennies in your pocket, it might help turn this recession into a sustainable recovery.
So maybe remodeling can save the economy after all.
Contact us any time to discuss how GDB can help you boost your home’s energy efficiency.