The bottom line is that it's not as simple as we'd all like to make it seem. Insulate, air seal, replace equipment for the most part, right? Right. That's what we did. But here are some of the things I'm finding a bit hinky.

1. No one tells you where you can look for tax credit information, or for rebates. In order to maximize our savings (initial investment) I've had to track down every manufacturer, mire through loads of information that's not so easy to interpret, search federal and state web sites, and even then - after the fact I got this nifty note from my utility company saying that I could recoup up to half the cost of energy improvements by submitting for their rebate program. Not that I'm complaining - I'm DELIGHTED in fact, but now I'm going to be rifling through invoices and manufacturer paperwork again until I get what I need to submit to the utility. Someone needs to write a guide to doing this before you start, I think.

2. It's confusing once you've done the work to interpret your utility bills, particulary if you've added on to your home whilst doing energy upgrades (i.e. our house). We added home offices at the same time that we swapped out the aging furnace and water heater for a new combined heat and hot water system. Last year this month (with the old system and only one very energy-miserly occupant) we were using the same amount of gas that we are this year (with three not so energy-miserly occupants, read this as water-loving two-year-old and two work from home parents). But the electic usage is triple the prior year. Is this because we use the lights too much? I just replaced all of the incandescents with CFLs, so we'll see if that makes a difference. But perhaps it's the electric needed to run pumps on the new heating and hot water system? I'm still struggling with how to iron this one out.

3. It's never done, and I'm not sure where to stop. Next step is to better run and seal our ductwork, but then do we really want and need to airseal the attic further? Our air changes were already pretty low - do we want to go lower? Then we end up with the conundrum of needing mechanical ventilation and oh yeah, heat recovery...

The bottom line is that I APPLAUD those of you without any background in energy efficiency who are retrofitting your homes. Even with my background, I find myself lost and confused...