More Home Energy Improvements Needed by Most Americans

There are many different things that you can do to make your home more energy efficient. You can update your heating and cooling systems. You can install energy-efficient appliances and home upgrades. You can get a home energy audit to find out where your home is losing energy and then make changes to make the home more efficient. Making these small efforts can save a lot of money on utility bills and is also a good eco-friendly action to take. In spite of this, most Americans aren’t doing these things according to a new Energy Pulse study.

The Energy Pulse study has been conducted every year for the past seven years. The goal is to find out what steps Americans are taking to improve the efficiency of their homes. The results of this year’s study are not good. Some of the findings include:

o 58% people of people have failed to install more energy-efficient windows

o 61% have not taken advantage of the benefits of installing extra home insulation

o 63% have not updated their home heating and home cooling system to a more efficient option

o More than 75% of people have failed to install a high-efficiency hot water heater

One great way to find out where your home is losing the most energy is to get a home energy audit. Unfortunately, Americans are not doing that either. One out of three people say that they think they do need to get one but less than half of those surveyed thought that they would actually following through with doing it. Only 15% of those surveyed have gotten a home energy audit despite the fact that getting one is simple and can go a long way towards improving home energy efficiency.

Unsurprisingly, people do say that if their utility bills went up a lot they would make these changes. Surprisingly, though, the poorest people would require the biggest price hike to make a change. The survey found that people earning six figures annually would need to see an increase of $113 per month in order to make energy efficiency changes at home whereas people earning less than $25,000 per year would require a price increase of $120 per month to make the same change. This points to a need to educate consumers about the cost-saving benefits available with some low-cost efficiency updates to the home!

Source: http://www.treehugger.com/energy-efficiency/americans-not-making-great-progress-home-energy-efficiency-improvements.html