Making simple repairs or improvements and changing wasteful habits will yield enormous energy savings for most families. Click here for a list of basic steps that cost nothing or little to do but fix common sources of home-energy waste. And several other projects have some upfront spend, but quickly pay for themselves via lower energy bills.

We describe below improvements that can minime or even completely eliminating your home’s net energy consumption. Unfortunately, most families can’t afford to pay $20,000 or more for a solar energy system, $35,000 for a geothermal heat pump, or $200,000 to $400,000 for a comprehensive green retrofit. During the Biden administration, generous rebate programs and tax credits were created to incentivize residential energy-efficiency projects, but on July 4, President Trump signed into law a sprawling bill that scuttled those programs.

At the local level, many utility companies offer rebate programs and low-interest loans for expensive projects. some communities are implementing codes requiring home builders to minimize energy use via better designs and installing efficient or energy-producing heating and cooling systems. The higher costs of these projects would be baked into the sales prices of homes. Buyers would then pay for them via mortgages; by spreading costs across 30 years, the considerable energy-cost savings offered would generate immediate positive monthly cash flows, vastly improving affordability.

Windows

Today’s windows are technological marvels. The frames and panes for even basic models provide much better insulation than old configurations, reducing drafts and cutting home energy costs. Modern windows are easy to clean; simply tilt in or remove them and wash them inside your house.

Such benefits come with high price tags—basic vinyl replacement windows run more than $750 each, on average. Plus, many window installation companies present overly optimistic claims about how much money their products will save you on energy costs. Even if your current windows are extremely inefficient, you likely won’t recover the full cost of new ones from resulting energy savings.

There are other good reasons to replace old windows. Maybe yours are rotting or broken, too drafty, hard to wash, or just ugly. Or you want to reduce outside noise or add a window to a blank wall. And many homeowners want to minimize their homes’ energy use and impact on the environment, regardless of costs.

To evaluate windows for energy efficiency (and for realistic utility-bill savings), check info available from the Efficient Windows Collaborative and Energy Star. Click here for our advice on buying windows.

Cost: Standard insulated vinyl models run $750 or more per window, including installation; the most efficient triple-paned options cost $2,000+ each.
Typical energy savings: Depending on region/climate, $100 to $500 per year after swapping out leaky vinyl windows for top-of-the-line triple-paned ones.

Solar

Solar-energy technology continues to advance in ways that can greatly benefit homeowners. Panels sold today cost less than those available 10 years ago, yet produce more electricity. These efficiency gains mean most families can install fairly small projects to cover all their electricity costs.

But the high upfront cost for solar projects remains an obstacle for most families: A typical-size system usually runs $18,000 or more. Lower energy bills and incentive programs available from utility companies and state and local governments should eventually add up to recoup those upfront costs but it will take several years to do so.

For many years the federal government offered large tax credits to offset upfront costs and speed up payback periods. A 30 percent tax credit is still available, but you’ll have to move fast to get it—the spending bill signed into law by President Trump on July 4 canceled all green-energy incentives, including the solar tax credit.

Without the tax credit, your payback period depends very much on where you live. Some states and municipalities have strong incentive programs; others offer little or no help. That means in some regions of the U.S. homeowners will break even within just five years, but in other areas the payback period can be 20 years or longer.

You can finance the high initial cost with a loan from an installer or a home equity line of credit. But that can add thousands of dollars in interest charges to your total cost.

Alternatively, you can sign on with a company that supplies equipment via a lease or similar arrangement in exchange for paying it a flat monthly fee—typically $75 to $150 per month. In general, we don’t think these arrangements represent good deals for most homeowners.

Start by making sure your house and its roof are good fits for solar. Homes with roofs that have unobstructed southern exposures are the best sites. Because solar panels last for 25 years or more, and because your shingles will need equal longevity, ask a good roofer if you should replace shingles where you plan to install panels.

Thoroughly vet solar contractors and collect at least three price proposals. Our undercover shoppers have received wildly different prices for one project, and some included overly optimistic or haphazardly calculated estimates of payback periods. Click here for our latest report on solar energy projects and advice on how to pay for them.

Cost: $20,000 and up. Incentives from utilities and local governments can help offset a big chunk of that; there is also a federal tax credit but it goes away at the end of 2025. 
Our energy savings: $1,000 to $2,000 per year (most solar projects are designed to eliminate all electricity costs for homes). Buying a bigger system could cover all costs for powering EVs, too.

Geothermal Heating and Cooling Systems

Ground-source heat pumps (aka “geothermal”) extract warm air (in heating mode) and cool air (in AC mode) from stable below-ground temperatures. They are incredibly energy efficient: According to the EPA, geothermal heat pumps can reduce energy consumption up to 40 percent compared to air-source heat pumps, and up to 70 percent compared to electric resistance heating with standard air-conditioning equipment. If you have a gas furnace and central air conditioning, typical savings are 35 to 45 percent.

You’ll pay a lot up front for these savings: Most systems cost $35,000 or more, mostly because coils or pipes must be buried via expensive digging or drilling. Even if you could buy and install a ground-source system for a bargain rate of, say, $20,000, it would still take a long time to recoup the upfront costs through resulting energy savings.

For many years, Energy Star-certified ground-source systems qualified for a generous 30 percent federal tax credit for the entire cost of the project, including installation. That incentive, along with other energy-efficiency tax credits, will end on December 31, 2025.

Without the tax credit, the energy savings from geothermal won’t add up to make it a practical purchase for most families. But switching your HVAC needs to geothermal or an efficient air-source heat pump, combined with solar panels, will cut electricity consumption from the grid to zero or nearly so.

Cost: $30,000+
Typical energy savings: $500 to $1,500 per year, depending on region.
 

Build a Zero-energy Home

Some architects and contractors specialize in building ultra-efficient, solar-panel-equipped homes, or retrofitting existing homes, to produce all the energy they use—maximizing warmth from sunlight during heating season; minimizing solar gain during cooling season; incorporating high-performance insulation, windows, and doors; eliminating wasteful leaks; minimizing loads on HVAC equipment; and using high-efficiency appliances and lighting.

If you’re building a new home, Phius (Passive House Institute U.S.) says one that meets its performance standards typically costs five to 10 percent more than conventional construction, once tax credits and other incentives are factored in. Some architects and builders have gained enough experience that they finish many zero-energy projects with no cost premium. Retrofitting an existing structure to achieve net-zero energy use is far more expensive.

If you’re interested in starting over from scratch, Phius has developed standards for all U.S. climate zones and offers lists of builders and designers it has trained and certified. The Zero Energy Project offers similar resources.

Cost: Net-zero builds can cost only five to 10 percent more than conventional new homes. Comprehensive retrofits typically cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Our energy savings: Likely 100 percent.