Mar 3, 2009 10:53 pm US/Central
Benefits For Making Your Home Energy Efficient
(WCCO)
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A 30 percent tax credit with no cap is available for geothermal heat pumps, solar panels, solar water heaters, small wind energy systems and fuel cells. Those will be in effect until 2016. (File)
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When the Minneapolis Home and Garden show opens on Wednesday morning, expect a lot of talk about the president's new stimulus plan.
It offers a 30 percent tax credit of up to $1500 for qualifying windows and doors, roofs, HVAC systems, non-solar water heaters and biomass stoves bought in 2009 and 2010.
A 30 percent tax credit with no cap is available for geothermal heat pumps, solar panels, solar water heaters, small wind energy systems and fuel cells. Those will be in effect until 2016.
Not all products qualify for the tax credits. They are available for products at the highest efficiency levels, which tend to cost more. Homeowners should also save their receipts and manufacturer certification statements for making the claim on their taxes.
"If windows and doors are on their list, it's kind of jumping to number one this year," said Adam Bressler with Builders & Remodelers, Inc.
He's one of several vendors showing off their green items at the show. Many of those companies are expecting homeowners and businesses to take advantage of the tax credit.
"The word is certainly out there. It certainly seems to be helping business for companies like ours," said Keven Steen of Wellington Window & Door Company.
However, it's not just the businesses that are benefiting from these credits. There's also a bigger demand for energy auditors across the state. The Minnesota Department of Commerce recognized this last year and helped start up a residential energy auditor program at
Dunwoody College of Technology.
Some students are unemployed people who are new to the energy business, while others already in it know this is likely the future. Right now, the classes are filled until June.
"It's popular enough where we can't have enough seats right now. As soon as we get an open class, it fills up within days," said Dunwoody's Mike Anderson.
It costs $775.00 for a 5-day lecture and lab class to learn the basics on how to assess a home's potential for energy efficiency. It covers air leakage, insulation, heating, cooling, lighting and more.
Students are not automatically certified when they finish the program. They must take a competency exam to meet the state's minimum qualifications for residential energy auditors.
All of the sales representatives at Wellington Window & Door Company took the course last month. They had planned on taking the course last year, knowing that energy efficient windows and doors are what their customers are still willing to buy.
"It makes me much smarter about how a house works which makes it easier to do my job," said Steen.
In addition to the tax credits for homes, home builders and commercial builders, some federal tax credits apply to cars.
People who buy plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, including electric cars, electric low-speed vehicles, electric motorcycles and electric three-wheeled vehicles can get anywhere from $2500 to $7500 back. This credit only applies to the first 250,000 electric vehicles sold.
For lots more information on what energy-efficient changes are eligible for a tax credit, go the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Star page by
clicking here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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