What did you do yesterday? I spent some time standing in front of my front door, running my hands around the perimeter in search of a draft. I was loving every minute of it!

This summer, we finally replaced our house’s original door (yes, from 1928) with a new, energy efficient door. The old door fit so poorly that a mouse could (and did last year) easily squeeze into our “cozy” dwelling. When the wind blew really hard you could feel it seeping through the gaps between the door and the frame from several feet away.

Who knew a decent door would give a person such satisfaction?

And now, thanks to Congress, a tax break. Thanks to Ka-Blog reader Chris, who pointed out that these credits leap frog over 2008 and begin again in 2009! And thanks for nothing, Congress!

Most, if not all, of these tax credits for energy efficient home improvements are an extension from the past couple of years. Many of us Minnesotans who traipse into a hardware store each year to buy caulk, plastic film to stick over our windows, and the like, may qualify for a credit.

I’ll highlight some of the home energy related credits available for 2009, but if you want to learn more about the credits for hybrid cars and geothermal heat pumps, visit the Alliance to Save Energy’s handy cheat sheets.

Here are the basics, courtesy of the Alliance:

There is an overall $500 cap that can be reached in several ways with the purchase and installation of energy-efficient products:
• Insulation, exterior doors, or roofs: 10 percent of the cost of the product (but not the installation), up to $500. Includes seals to limit air infiltration, such as caulk, weather stripping, and foam sealants, as well as storm doors. Roofs must be ENERGY STAR qualified metal roofs with pigmented coatings or ENERGY STAR qualified asphalt roofs with cooling granules.
• Central air conditioner, heat pump, water heater, or bio gas (e.g. corn) stove: up to $300 towards the full purchase price, including installation cost. Heating and cooling equipment, including water heaters, must meet stringent efficiency requirements – not even all ENERGY STAR products will qualify.
• Exterior windows: 10 percent of the total cost, up to $200. Includes skylights and storm windows. All ENERGY STAR qualified windows are eligible. Windows, doors, and insulation must meet the regional requirements of the 2001 or 2004 International Energy Conservation Code, a model energy code for buildings.
• Furnace or boiler: up to $150 towards the full purchase price, and/or $50 for an efficient air-circulating furnace fan, including installation cost.
• In addition, windows, doors, insulation, and roofs must be expected to last at least five years (a two-year warranty is sufficient to demonstrate this).

Check to see if your product qualifies with the manufacturer. The retailer should be able to help you as well. I’m not sure exactly how much we’ll get back for our door because I don’t know what the installation cost was off the top of my head. But I’m guessing it will be around $200. It’s not much, but when it comes to taxes, and so much else, every dollar counts.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 1:22 pm and is filed under taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.