E-Day

Today we did our re-rating. We started out at 49.9 points, that means we're just under a 2 star home - we're 1+ stars. Our goal is to move 4 steps on the rating scale - so we want to go from 1+ stars to 3+ stars or better.

0-39 1 star
40-49 1 + stars
50-59 2 stars
60-67 2+ stars
68-72 3 stars
73-77 3+ stars
78-82 4 stars
83-87 4+ stars
88-91 5 stars
92-100 5+ stars

We replaced all our window operators and put in weather stripping on all the windows to reduce the airflow. We put in foam inserts into all the exterior wall outlets.

For one step improvement the rebate is $4,000.
For two step improvement the rebate is $5,500.
For three step improvement the rebate is $7000.
For four step improvement the rebate is $8,500.
And for five step improvement the rebate is $10,000.

We know just with the boiler / water heater we'll hit the $7,000 mark. The AK Warm software the raters use is available free. If you ask you rater to e-mail you your file - you can change whatever features in your home you want and see how it will affect your energy rating. So we know the boiler / water heater will moves us up three steps on the scale.

So, the air sealing around the outlets and windows was to push us up one more step without putting out a lot more money. And - I think we've done it. We dropped our air leakage 30% and it should put us around 74-75 points. And if by some luck we actually hit 78 points - we'd get $10,000. But I'd be happy with the $8,500 we're planning to get.

So $11,000 loan, $8,500 rebate, $1,500 tax credit leaves a balance due on the loan of $1,000 - not bad. Our boiler / water heater will pay for itself in 7 months.

Our final rating went well - we'll have the official results back in 2-3 weeks but I think we did it!!