Home weatherization and efficiency upgrades can make a big difference in U.S. carbon emissions.  As we saw in a previous post, American households (including personal transportation) are responsible for

• 38% of the overall US carbon emissions
• 8% of global emissions
• more emissions of any single country except China

Unfortunately, there’s a big disconnect between things we can do to to save home energy and the ability for folks to pay for these improvements. New insulation, solar hot water, solar photovoltaics, high-efficiency furnaces: Take your pick….Each can cost $10k or more.

Fortunately, there are a lot of creative ideas coming to the rescue to help people defray these up-front costs:

• Municipalities can issue bonds that homeowners can borrow from to pay the up-front costs of improvements.  The costs of these improvements are then payed back over an extended periods of time through raised property taxes.  Homeowners effectively get a zero-interest loan from their cities.
• Banks can issue higher mortgages that include up-front costs for major energy efficiency improvements.  These added costs are then spread out over the life of the mortgage, resulting in manageable monthly payments for homeowners.
• Or, the federal government can simply reimburse people for part of the costs of improvements.  The so-called “Cash for Caulkers” program reported today by CNN is an example.

These kinds of programs make a lot of sense and have the potential to be game changers, along with helping Americans transition to electric vehicles as soon as possible.

Related post:  Behavioral changes at home can have big impacts on U.S. emissions

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Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksee/ / CC BY-NC 2.0