Jenny Schmitt and her husband have two small children, so they know how to save their pennies. But when they realized their 1960s ranch house in Sandy Springs was losing energy faster than a 2-year-old coming off a sugar high, they decided it was time to invest in their home.
“It was to make a better house, but it’s really about saving money,” Schmitt says.
The average American family pays about $1,900 in utility bills each year, but a large portion of that represents wasted energy, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. And with spring begging us to open windows and doors, it’s the perfect time to identify and remedy those trouble areas.
Schmitt says small improvements on her family’s uninsulated house resulted in a huge payoff. They installed a power fan in the attic, applied weather stripping and caulk around windows and doors, insulated electrical outlets and hired a company to insulate the attic.
They sliced heating bills in half and cooling costs by 15 percent, Schmitt says, but they’ll continue to look for ways to save. “Smaller projects we tackle ourselves. Larger projects we save up and figure out where we’re going to get the most bang for our buck.”
She says picking the right investments could be the difference between saving enough money to buy lunch — or make a car payment: “What’s going to save me pennies and what’s going to save me dollars?”
Clint Briscoe and his family moved from Tennessee to North Druid Hills in January. His 1940s home in Memphis had all the “charm” of an older house: drafty windows, limited insulation and the like.
He, too, applied caulk and weather stripping, but also replaced the thermostat with a programmable version to cut energy costs even more. Briscoe also realized it made sense to also upgrade the home’s 15-year-old HVAC system.
Briscoe says he would hire a professional in the future to add insulation — he spent three days in a crawl space “jamming” insulation under the Memphis house. But the projects, both do-it-yourself and professional, paid off. The Briscoes reduced monthly bills, and the improvements didn’t hurt when potential buyers inspected their home.
“A lot of people think, ‘I’ve got to spend thousands of dollars to see that sort of difference. And that’s not the case. That was something I took for granted, that I’ve got to spend a lot of money in order to realize any savings.”
● Information on federal tax credits: www.energystar.gov.
● More money-saving ideas: www.energysavers.gov.
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