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It's a fact that your house leaks most of its heat through its windows. Poor seals on cheap windows allow drafts to intrude which lead you to turn the heating higher. It's also true that common or garden glass is not a particularly good insulator. Ok, you probably know a lot of this already but the problem is you balk at the price of energy-efficient windows, right? What you have to bear in mind is that the right windows can reduce your house's energy usage by up to 25 per cent. The United States' Federal Government thinks so, and is offering homeowners a tax credit of ten percent of energy-saving windows' purchase price (up to $500 per year). This is a tax credit, not a deduction. So, if you purchase and install a $1000 patio door that is "Energy Star" rated or has a Manufacturer's Certification Statement, you can reduce your tax bill for the year by $100, and your patio door's effective cost is only $900. This tax credit is known as the "Existing Home Tax Credit for Fenestration", and is good for windows installed between December 31, 2005 and January 1, 2008. There's an organization that has come up with a rating system to work out the energy efficiency of windows. It is the National Fenestration Rating Council or NFRC. Its' rating systems are the U-Factor which determines how good your windows are at retaining the heat in your home (the lower this rating, the better) and the Solar Heat Gain Coefficient which measures how the windows help to keep the house cool (again, the lower the rating the better). If you want to qualify for the Federal Government tax credit you need to install products that have been rated by this organization. You'll need to submit a copy of your receipt as proof of purchase along with the product's NFRC sticker. Here are some pointers to help you determine which energy-efficient doors and windows would be worth purchasing. First, most insulating windows are made with two, or sometimes three, panes of glass. The manufacturer often fills the space between the panes with an insulating inert gas such as argon or krypton. There's also a film or reflective metal coating that manufacturers can put on the glass which helps to achieve lower U-Factor ratings. Some treatments of this sort can even help to filter out damaging UV radiation. It's a good idea if you are installing a west-facing window to attempt to obtain glass that has a really low Solar Heat Gain Coefficient. This is useful because rooms with west-facing windows often have overheating problems in the afternoons. Your dealer should be able to help you with this. Finally, good windows have a tight seal that you should be able to feel when you open and close them in the showroom. Try it out. Repeatedly. Compare the cheap windows to the more expensive ones. With practice, you should be able to tell a well-sealed window from a badly sealed one. Only the seal on your refrigerator door should be better. Look at your heating and cooling bills, and take off ten percent. Price out your windows, and take ten percent off the price of the energy-efficient ones. Now, can you afford not replace your drafty old non-insulating windows?
Article Source: http://www.realestateinvestmentarticles.net
If you're looking for some energy conservation tip advice then Graham Tasker, the Webmaster of Green Home Website at www.greenhome.no1-source.com has plenty that you'll find interesting and informative. Get your own completely unique content version of this article.
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