Maximizing Your Incentives

State, City, and Utility Incentives

Providing incentives, rebates, and tax deductions for home owners to increase the energy efficiency of their homes isn’t something that’s limited to the PACE or HERO program.

In fact, these kinds of incentives can usually be found at almost every level of government. But not all programs include all remodeling jobs or products. Some just include windows, or solar panels, or insulation. Some are specific to tankless hot water heaters.

All of this can make it tough to keep track of — unless you do it full time for a living.

That’s why it’s smart to have AGILE Remodelers plan your project and your paperwork — so that you can get all of the goodies and incentives coming to you.

Certifying Improvements When Necessary

Some incentives, rebates, and deduction programs require the home owner to prove that the new equipment meets installed performance requirements before they’ll provide the home owner with the benefits.

At AGILE Remodelers, we know exactly when these kinds of assessments, certifications, and measurements are required, and we ensure that they are done and submitted, in order to provide our clients with the maximum government benefits possible.

Understanding Solar Credits

Some unscrupulous energy remodelers have sold home owners on the idea of creating a solar energy surplus for their home in order to “sell energy back to the utility company.”

This is an exaggerate truth.

First, whether or not you can produce energy cheaper than the utility company has to be determined on a case by case basis, and even what you’re charged by the utility company for your energy depends on the amount of energy you use — it’s a tiered cost structure.

So, in general, most home owners hit a point of diminishing returns once their solar project produces about 80% of their homes energy.

Second, the utility company is absolutely not interested in buying your energy from you. They will provide you with an energy credit for energy you produce during your peak production hours, and you can then use that credit for the energy you use during the evenings and during rainy weather. But the utility company will never actually cut you a check to buy your energy from you for the same rate you purchase it from them. Not even close.

All that said, most home energy remodeling projects will offset the loan payments by about 60-70% through reduced utility bills and tax deductions. So if your loan payment would total $100 a month, you could expect to save $30 a month off your utility bill and $34 a month on tax savings. So you really only end up with an additional $36 coming out of your pocket every month, which is freaking fantastic for getting new windows, an A/C unit, and insulation, etc – or whatever your project included.

But that’s not the case with most solar projects, which normally COMPLETELY offset the loan payment through energy savings. So if you had a $300 loan payment, you’d have $102 in tax savings and you’d expect to see a $198 reduction in energy costs every month. Just think about how fantastic that is: no money down and no out-of-pocket costs during the “repayment.” It’s the same monthly bills, and a nicer home.

Give AGILE Remodelers a Chance to Surprise You!