Home Energy Efficiency in Seattle

Making Your Home Comfortable and Efficient

How do we really compare to the rest of the country in terms of our need for home energy efficiency?

• It is cold here! For 8 months out of the year, our low temperatures don't get out of the 40's at night, making for cold rooms and cold houses.
• It gets hot here! We can get into the mid-90's during summer hot stretches and very few houses have air conditioning, so when it's hot outside, it's hot inside your house.
• The average house in Washington State was built in 1977; so we have a lot of houses with poor attic insulation other efficiency problems.
• Compared to the rest of the country, we have pretty cheap electricity (around $0.08 per kWh from Seattle City Light) and our natural gas prices are about average (around $1.30 per therm from Puget Sound Energy). However, energy prices have been rising for the past 30 years, and homeowners with inefficient houses will end up paying a lot more to heat and cool their homes in the future.

Home Energy Audits in Seattle

The real answer to the question about how to make your home more efficient in Seattle is that it depends. Every house is unique, and your best bet is to get an energy audit so you can learn what the most cost-effective ways to improve your house's efficiency are.

An in-home energy audit in the Seattle area typically costs around $600, but through Seattle City Light, homeowners in the Seattle area will soon be able to have their homes audited for $95 through a subsidized program. Right now, Puget Sound Energy customers can take advantage of a $350 audit rebate, bringing the cost down to around $250. And, even at full price, most audits will quickly pay for themselves by identifying easy-to-fix problems that will result in at least a few hundred dollars of savings in the short-term.

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 Seattle

So what should Seattle residents be doing to make their homes more energy efficient?

• Attic Insulation: If, like most houses in Seattle, all you've got is 3-4 inches of insulation in your attic, you should add more. The experts at ENERGY STAR recommend insulation equal to R38 on top of that much existing insulation for attics in Seattle.
• Efficient Windows: A lot of people think about getting their windows upgraded to high-efficiency windows or getting storm windows. These measures will help, though they may be expensive.
• Solar Panels: Putting in a home solar system might be a good idea, though Seattle isn't one of the best places in the country for solar power potential. (Maybe all those people who make fun of it raining a lot here are right!) However, if your home is already very efficient, this could be the next step that gets you to the holy grail of energy efficiency, a net-zero home.

Have a project in mind? Find the right contractor.

Energy Rebates and Tax Credits in Seattle

How do you pay for it all? Energy rebates and tax credits from Seattle City Light, Puget Sound Energy, Washington State and the federal government are all lined up for you to use.

Home Efficiency Upgrades: If you're making upgrades to the efficiency of your house like Energy Star appliances, efficient windows, and insulation, you can use both the Puget Sound Energy/Seattle City Light rebates and use the federal tax credit of 30 percent of the materials cost (up to $1,500). Depending on the rebate handling from the utility, you can "stack" the rebates differently to maximize your money. And the federal government won't tax you on the utility rebates you get.

Renewable Energy Systems: If you're putting in solar panels, you can take advantage of a federal tax credit of 30 percent of the cost of the system's installation, and then get production incentives from Washington State up to $5,000/year for excess power generated by your solar panels and sold back to the grid. And Washington State won't charge sales tax on the panels or installation!

Check out all energy rebates and tax credits in Seattle.

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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