If you live in the South Shore, you can expect the costs of cooling your home this summer to go up more than 7%. That’s according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association and the Center for Energy, Poverty, and Climate – two organizations that pay close attention to the financial impact of rising temperatures on household budgets.
The warmer it get, the more homeowners run their air conditioners. This is both expensive and bad for the planet. How can you, as the homeowner, keep the family cool and comfortable without running the AC constantly?
One option to consider is replacing the windows in your home. Why start there? Well, it’s because the household energy experts have found that up to 40% of a home’s interior air gets lost through leaky, inefficient windows and doors. The older the windows and doors in your home are, the more problematic they are likely to be. This means you could be losing nearly half of the air your AC produces! What a waste! Having new, energy efficient replacement windows installed will keep that cool air in your home. This means your AC doesn’t need to run as often. Good for your budget, great for the planet – and helpful for the local power grid, which has difficulty managing with peak demand during very hot days.
Because we’re in the South Shore, homes are heated in the winter. Keeping the house warm can be even more expensive than keeping it cool – last year, the average Massachusetts household spent over $2,000 on home heating fuel! Luckily, replacement windows can help keep that warm air in your home. This will help you need to run the heat less frequently, again, saving you money.
The nice thing about the savings realized by having replacement windows installed is that they increase as the price of home heating and cooling increase. Your new windows will be good for decades, while energy costs increase every year. This means you’ll be enjoying more money in your budget because you’re using less energy.
