President pushes for Rebate Program for making homes more energy efficient

March 2, 2010 - PRLog -- March 2, 2010

The Executive Branch of the Federal Government continues to push for a program to provide direct incentives to American homeowners who invest in improving the energy efficiency of their homes.

According to reports, Home Star “Cash for Caulkers” would pay homeowners up to half the cost to retrofit a house in eco-friendly style (up to $4,000) plus help put a quarter of a million unemployed construction workers back to work. The end result would be more eco-friendly homes, lower energy costs and a smaller carbon footprint along with job opportunities.

This program was first proposed to “Start with an energy assessment prior to work that includes energy modeling to predict savings using accredited, specially trained contractors. After the work is complete, it undergoes third party quality assurance audits. Any combination of retrofit measures that results in 20% reduction would be eligible for $3,500 in incentives, with each additional 5% reduction achieving another $1,500 in incentive.”

The latest proposal now seems to include an instant on-the-spot rebate of up to $3,000 for home upgrades to increase energy efficiency. These upgrades are understood to include insulation, duct sealing, windows, roofing or doors and other things.

Various vendors, ranging from small, independent contractors to national home improvement chains, would promote the rebates, give the money to consumers and then be reimbursed by the federal government.

“This is a very good proposal. One thing the President may not understand however is that it is often through Wholesalers and Distributors, not Retailers, where your best products at the most competitive margins are available. Wholesalers and Distributors are the channels of choice for a majority of building product manufacturers. The Retail models are all built upon the reliance of volume and usually not much else”, adds Jason DeMarchi, Managing Partner for locally operated small business, Adding Value LLC.  

Some details of the program, including how long it will run and its total cost, remain to be worked out with Congress, administration officials said. The price tag could be in the range of $6 billion. Barack Obama said today the upfront costs would be worth it, just as homeowners must put money into their homes to improve them and save costs in the long term.

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Adding Value LLC, a company whose mission is to enhance market value, processes and profitability by increasing the appeal, function and marketability of homes & properties with quality building products and service.