Most big home improvement projects start with a whim—a little moment of, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”.
Sometimes they start with a tiny twinge of envy when you see a breathtaking home in a magazine, or when your neighbors invite you over to see their improvements.
Many home improvement projects never get past the initial fantasy stage. After all, the next step is a tricky one: how are you going to pay for it? It’s a challenge to get out the pencil and calculator and figure out if this dream makes financial sense.
A project that satisfies the wallet and the heart is a rare find. One of the smartest, and most satisfying projects is investing in modern replacement windows.
Here’s the math to back it up.
You’ll get a serious return on investment.
Someday in the future, you may need to put your house on the market. When that day comes, you’ll be forced to do all of those little nagging projects on the list. You’ll be shelling out money to make your house fancy for someone else.
Why not do the improvements now, and enjoy your own dream house? The crazy thing is, if you are smart about where you spend your improvement dollars, you’ll get much of that money back when your house sells.
This handy little piece of accounting is called, Return on Investment (or “ROI” for those in-the-know). You aren’t going to get a high ROI if you build a greenhouse for your rare orchid collection, or a music studio for your burgeoning singing career—but everyone loves windows.
Window upgrade projects have one of the highest ROI of any home improvement project. Every year, Remodeling Magazine rates home improvement projects for ROI, and window upgrades consistently make the top of their list.
It seems we all want high-quality, energy-efficient windows.
Save a little every month on comfort.
The US Department of Energy calculated that a window’s heat loss or gain is responsible for 25%-30% of residential energy use. The more worn-out your windows are, the higher the percentage.
What if this window upgrade project came with a coupon? That coupon saved you money on your air conditioning bills every summer, and on your heating every winter. The coupon never expires, and over time saves you more and more. You’d be clipping that coupon out of the Sunday paper for sure, right?
Energy Star, the government program designed to help us all cut down our energy usage, reports that upgrading to energy efficient windows will save the average homeowner $125- $340 per year. Definitely worth factoring that into your math.
Let someone else pick up part of the tab.
Energy efficiency isn’t just a smart move for your comfort, it’s a smart move for our world. It’s in everyone’s best interest to lower energy consumption— so much so, that there are government programs designed to incentivize your window upgrade.
While Uncle Sam has no interest in your wallpaper choices, he’d really like to lessen the load on the power grid. The Energy Star website has a friendly interface that will walk you through the whole process.
You might be surprised to learn that your local energy company is also interested in window upgrades. It just takes a quick glance at their website (or actually reading all those flyers that come with the monthly bill….) to learn if your power company wants to help foot the bill. Many energy companies offer rebates or credits on window replacement.
A wise investment.
If you add up the ROI, factor in the monthly energy savings, minus-out local and national rebates and credits, that fun little fantasy of home window replacement starts to come into focus. This is a very smart way to spend your money, make day-to-day life more comfortable, and give your home a real glow-up.
Window Nation is ready to walk you through the process. Our website has a feature that’ll show you what those new windows will look like in your home, and we can talk about which windows make the most sense for your climate and budget.
Window Replacement is a project for the head and heart. Let’s take it on.
