Tips for Increasing your Home’s Value
Tips for increasing your home’s value – Energy Efficiency
By Stephani Menser, Realtor and Serrano Resident
Being a Realtor, I see thousands of homes per year and one of the
biggest trends right now is making your home more efficient. This
increases your home’s value drastically. A buyer has more purchasing power for
an energy efficient home because of the lower monthly utility costs. A few
popular energy saving modifications are listed below.
Add Solar
Panels to offset your energy costs. This is the most popular trend I have
noticed in my home buyers “wants” in their future home. The amount of energy
savings varies depending on the amount of panels and the exposure to the sun,
but you have the option to purchase or lease. The tax credit is 30 percent of
the cost of the solar equipment added to the home and is available through
2016.
Add
insulation to your garage doors. According to
statistics, insulating doors may improve the energy efficiency in your garage
by 71 percent. By controlling the temperature throughout the hot summer months
and cold winter months, you will have substantial savings on your energy bills.
Go tankless! A tankless water heater only produces hot
water when you turn it on and it never runs out.
Switch out
old plumbing fixtures for new water conserving ones and lower your water bills. A new
California law will require the retrofitting of non-water conserving plumbing
fixtures. Old faucets, showerheads, toilets, water heaters and more will need
to be replaced by January 1, 2019.
If you have a
hot tub, add an extra layer of insulation to it. A thermal blanket is a cost effective way to
help maintain the water temperature. These
Styrofoam sheets float on top of the water and trap the heat that would be
escaping from the top of the hot tub. These blankets cost less than $100 and
help a great deal during the winter.
As
your incandescent and CFL light bulbs burn out, switch to energy efficient LED
light bulbs. While LED’s may cost
more than CFL’s, they provide better lighting, last 10 times longer and use
75-80% less energy than CFL light bulbs. The lifespan for these bulbs is around
22 years and the prices have recently dropped. 