The Benefits of Home Energy Improvements

  • Lower Your Bills
  • Increase Your Home's Comfort, Safety and Resilience
  • Hedge Against Rising Energy Prices
  • Reduce Your Carbon Footprint and Contribution to Global Warming

And you will be boosting the local economy instead of feeding the oil companies.

Hedge Against Rising Energy Prices

Heating oil and propane prices are indeed rising.  To the right are two graphs from the U.S. Energy Information Agency that show it.  On top is home heating oil prices in Vermont which have increased almost 500% since 1998.  Below that is a graph of propane prices that have increased over 350% in the same period. These figures, in dollars per gallon, show a consistent and dramatic upward trend in heating fuel prices over the last 15 years.  Maybe the Peak Oil people are right?

Lower Your Bills

Nobody can predict where energy prices will go in the future.  There are many factors that come into play, including: increased energy demand from economic growth in places like China and India, increased natural gas supplies from fracking in Appalachia, a world economy in the long-term doldrums, reduced demand due to the development of renewable energy, instability in the Middle East, Peak Oil, the increasing costs of petroleum drilling and exploration, the possibility of a carbon tax being adopted, and monetary inflation caused by our government's economic policies,  just to name a few.  The trend over the last 15 years, however, has been very clear.

With all of the instability that is swirling about, having a well-insulated home not only makes for a very good investment financially, it will give you a degree of personal resilience when the power goes out.  It will also make your house more comfortable, less drafty, and cooler in the summer.

Vermont Home Heating Oil Price Over 15 Years

Vermont Propane Price Over 15 Years

Help Stop Global Warming

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This NASA photograph from the summer of 2012 shows the smallest Arctic ice cap in recorded history.  The yellow line represents the average sea ice minimum between 1979 and 2010.  There is not much that most of us can do on a national or global scale, but if everyone reduced their contribution by half the world would be in much better shape!  Reducing a home's energy use by half is quite often doable and cost effective.
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