Home Energy Efficiency in Salt Lake City

Making Your Home Comfortable and Efficient

Considering the environmental and economic factors specific to this location can help us make informed choices about what we can do to ensure that we are using energy efficiently.

• Salt Lake City experiences an average of 127 days of below freezing temperatures. That's a significant chunk of the year when Salt Lake City homes are being tasked to produce and maintain heat. These are especially bad days (and nights) to have poorly efficient windows and drafty seals around the doors.
• Summer brings heat. Salt Lake City has an average of 56 days per year with temperatures in the 90s. The humidity is low, which makes the heat a bit more bearable, which is good because using air conditioners will drive up your utility bills. When we spend money to cool our home, we don't want that precious cooled air escaping because of inadequate or lacking insulation.
• At least we have cheap gas (of the natural variety, anyway) compared to most of the rest of the country: statistics show that in 2008, Utah residents paid a relatively inexpensive $9 per thousand cubic feet of natural gas, the main energy source for heating homes. Still, energy prices have been rising and homes with proper attic insulation and efficient windows end up costing a lot less to heat.
• If nothing else, the sun is definitely plentiful here, shining an average of 237 days per year!

Home Energy Audits in Salt Lake City

There are no hard and fast rules on improving home energy efficiency that apply to all cases. Each house in Salt Lake City is unique, and what steps each homeowner can take to best enact energy efficiency measures will vary from case to case. For this reason, it's important to have an energy audit performed in your home so that you can best plan to improve your house's energy efficiency.

An energy audit will help you learn how efficient your house is and which upgrades will give you the most bang for your buck. An in-home energy audit typically costs a few hundred dollars, but in many cases, it'll identify easy problems to fix that'll result in at least a few hundred dollars of savings in the short-term, paying for itself!

If you'd like to find out — for free and within minutes — whether your home is a good candidate for an energy audit and for upgrades, take our online home energy report. We'll give you a home energy score and estimate your savings potential.

Home Energy Upgrades in Salt Lake City

Taking into account the specific environmental and economic factors associated with living in Salt Lake City, what are the best things for residents to be doing to improve the energy efficiency of their homes?

• Attic Insulation: Energy Star recommends adding insulation with a rating equal to at least R39 up to R49 to any attic that has only three to four inches of existing insulation. This will ensure that you have sufficient resistance to heat escaping through your roof away into space.
• Windows: Modern energy-efficient windows rely on various technologies to keep the heat and cold in and out (or vice-versa depending on the season). Multiple panes, special glass coatings which reflect infrared light and noble element gas-filled spaces between window glasses all do their part to maximize thermal resistivity, which translates into savings through energy efficiency.
• Solar Panels: Salt Lake City is usually sunny and dry enough that a home solar system could make a lot of sense.

Have a project in mind? Find the right contractor.

Energy Rebates and Tax Credits in Salt Lake City

Saving money through energy efficiencies sounds great, but someone still has to pay for it all. The good news is that there are energy rebates and energy tax credits available to help make it happen.

Home Efficiency Upgrades: Rocky Mountain Power offers rebates for ENERGY STAR appliances, water heaters, air conditioners, heat pumps, windows, duct sealing and insulation. Also, the federal government offers a tax credit of 30 percent of cost for energy efficiency upgrades on appliances such as furnaces, air conditioners, insulation and windows.

Renewable Energy Systems: Customers of Rocky Mountain Power can take advantage of rebates on solar panels for systems up to 25 kilowatts, at $2 per watt up to $6,000. The federal government provides a tax credit of 30 percent of cost for solar panels, solar water heaters as well as other alternative energy technologies such as wind energy and geothermal heat pumps. The state of Utah also has an income tax credit for solar space and water heaters as well as solar panels among other things for up to $2,000.

Check out all energy rebates and tax credits in Salt Lake City.

Home Energy Resources from EnergySavvy

1. Home Energy Report: How efficient is your home? Find out how to improve your home's efficiency and comfort, without spending tons of money, with EnergySavvy's free online home energy report.
2. Energy Rebate and Tax Credit Directory: EnergySavvy's guide to energy rebates and tax credits can help you find all the energy tax credits and rebates that are available locally for you.
3. Energy Contractors: If you've got a project in mind to make your home more energy efficient and comfortable and you'd like to talk with an energy expert about it, we can help. We focus on the relatively small group of contractors nationwide who really understand home energy auditing and energy retrofits.
4. Educational Content: Home energy efficiency is complicated stuff. It's not just as simple as laying some insulation in the attic. We've put together a library of easy-to-read topics that cover the basics of energy efficiency. And if you have a question about anything, you can ask one of our energy experts using our "Ask an Expert" feature.

Last Updated: March 2010

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