Comment 29089

By TreyS (registered) | Posted February 25, 2009 at 13:26:16

Jason it's $150.

It does beg the question, what happens when a home fails? Is it like the Drive Clean program, where one has to repair the vehicle to meet standards. Keeping with the automobile comparison, at some point a car becomes inefficient and pollutes too much, that it lifespan is over and a new(ish) vehicle makes more sense for the environment and the owner..... (so long as you don't consider the energy put into making a new car) so perhaps the furnace and windows have reached the end of their lifespan. It could also be something as simple as adding caulking.

I agree Ryan, energy prices do not reflect the true cost, but heating bills that are in the neighbourhood of $250 a month (my house is only 1800ish sq ft, i don't remember the exact sq ft) and if an owner can cut that in half with efficiency i would think that's an incentive. $1200 a year savings (heating and cooling) would pay for a new furnace/ac in in 4 years (over a lifespan of 10 years) and new windows in 10 years (over a lifespan of 25 years).

While the costs to make a home more efficient in order to sell may be great, keep in mind when the owner moves to another home, they'll enjoy the benefit that that home is made efficient too (perhaps with a new furnace or new windows). Important to remember that each buyer will benefit because the home they're moving to was a 'seller' home before you moved in, thus the previous owner had to pass the Green efficiency.

I would also argue that needed efficiency improvements that were revealed from a Green Audit could become negotiating factors. ie. Offer asking price MINUS the costs of the necessary improvements.

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