Earlier this year, the United States House of Representatives passed the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act (H.R. 5019) , commonly known as “Cash for Caulkers”. The legislation would provide rebates to homeowners who renovate their homes with more energy-efficient windows, doors and skylights. However, to become law, the US Senate must still approve this bill. perriello
Essentially, H.R. 5019 requires the Department of Energy to establish a Home Star Retrofit Rebate Program with the aim of making energy efficiency improvements less costly for homeowners. The program will provide energy efficiency rebates either to contractors performing these home improvement, or directly to homeowners. In either case, these rebates lead to exemplary savings for homeowners!
The bill includes two types of consumer incentives:
Silver Star provides up-front rebates for certain investments that save energy, including windows and doors. Homeowners can receive up to $1,500 per improvement—up to a total of $3,000 (or half of the total project cost). To qualify, homeowners need to replace eight or more exterior windows or skylights, or 75 percent of the exterior windows and skylights in their homes.*
For homeowners that conduct a comprehensive energy audit and complete steps to decrease energy use, Gold Star provides larger rebates. For consumers proving an energy savings of 20 percent, Consumers receive $3,000. Each additional 5 percent energy savings constitutes an additional $1,000 –up to $8,000 (or 50 percent of the project cost).
taxcreditheader
In order to be eligible for these upcoming rebates, homeowners need to do a bit of research. There are 13 kinds of retrofit windows that are eligible for funding, and each has unique specifications and set rebate amounts.
For further reading regarding tax credits, refresh your memory with this windowsTax Credit 101.
*Not all windows meet the minimum requirements as they need to have special insulating characteristics. Please contact our resident window and door expert, Scott Varga, if you have any questions. FAS Windows and Doors is also available for any more questions regarding current tax credit information, via contact form, or by phone at 1-888-422-1960.
Katie Pettit 8/30/2010