What is included in the Tax Credit?

1. Tax Credit: 30% of cost up to $1,500
2. Expires: December 31, 2010
3. Details: Must be an existing home & your principal residence. New construction and rentals do not qualify.

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Advanced Main Air Circulating Fan

An Advanced Main Air Circulating Fan is an efficient fan, or blower motor which blows the air that your furnace heats up through the duct system.

Requirements

Must use no more than 2% of the furnace's total energy. Note: If the fan is qualified, but the furnace is not, you will not be able to take 30% off the cost of the entire furnace. Ask your HVAC contractor to break out the cost of the fan in your bill. You can get a 30% tax credit on the cost of the fan alone.

Tax Credit includes installation costs.

More Information

1. How to apply
2. Advanced Main Air Circulating Fan FAQs

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Air Source Heat Pumps

Heat pumps offer an energy-efficient alternative to furnaces and air conditioners in moderate climates. Like your refrigerator, heat pumps use electricity to move heat from a cool space into a warm, making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer. During the heating season, heat pumps move heat from the cool outdoors into your warm house; during the cooling season, heat pumps move heat from your cool house into the warm outdoors. Because they move heat rather than generate heat, heat pumps can provide up to 4 times the amount of energy they consume.

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Central Air Conditioning (CAC)

The best way to find tax credit eligible CACs is to ask your HVAC Contractor (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning). To verify tax credit eligibility, ask your HVAC contractor to provide the Manufacturer Certification Statement for the equipment you plan to purchase. Or, search the Manufacturer's website.

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Gas, Propane, or Oil Hot Water Boiler

These are heating units that use water circulated throughout the home in a system of baseboard heating units, radiators, and/or in-floor radiant tubing.

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Natural Gas or Propane Furnace

A furnace uses the comb3stion of fuel and air to create heat.

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Oil Furnace

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Geothermal Heat Pumps

Geothermal heat pumps are similar to ordinary heat pumps, but use the ground instead of outside air to provide heating, air conditioning and, in most cases, hot water. Because they use the earth's natural heat, they are among the most efficient and comfortable heating and cooling technologies currently available.

Home Energy Audits

A home energy audit is often the first step in making your home more efficient. An audit can help you assess how much energy your home uses and evaluate what measures you can take to improve efficiency. But remember, audits alone don't save energy. You need to implement the recommended improvements. ENERGY STAR provides extensive information about home improvement projects to enhance energy efficiency, lower utility bills, and increase comfort.

You can perform a simple energy audit yourself, or have a professional energy auditor perform a more thorough audit.

Do-It-Yourself Audits

If you have five minutes and your last 12 months of utility bills, use the ENERGY STAR Home Energy Yardstick to compare your home's energy efficiency to similar homes across the country and get recommendations for energy-saving home improvements from ENERGY STAR. You will also need to enter some basic information about your home (such as zip code, age, square footage, and number of occupants). If you don't have your bills, contact your utility for a 12-month summary.

Hire a Professional Home Energy Auditor

If you are interested in getting specific recommendations for improving the efficiency of your home, consider contacting a professional Home Energy Auditor. A professional auditor can use a variety of techniques and equipment to determine the energy efficiency of your home. Thorough audits often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.

Your first step should be to contact your utility to see if they offer free or discounted energy audits to their customers. If not, you can hire a home energy professional, such as a certified Home Energy Rater, to evaluate your home's energy efficiency.

To find a Home Energy Rater, visit the ENERGY STAR for Homes Partner Locator.

Home Performance with ENERGY STAR

Where available, Home Performance with ENERGY STAR can help you cost-effectively improve your home's energy efficiency. Specially-trained contractors evaluate your home using state-of-the-art equipment, recommend comprehensive improvements that will yield the best results, and help you to get the work done.

Common Home Problems and Solutions

Is your home cold, drafty, or uncomfortable? Do you have high energy bills? Ice dams? Peeling paint? Excessive dust? Addressing these types of home problems can make your home more comfortable, and at the same time improve its energy efficiency — saving you money on utility bills and helping to protect the environment too.

High Energy Bills

High utility bills in summer and winter can often be traced to air leaks in your home's envelope, inefficient windows or inefficient or incorrectly installed heating and cooling equipment, or poorly sealed and insulated ducts.

Mold, Mildew or Musty Odors

Water leaks or high humidity can lead to mold and mildew. This can cause wood rot, structural damage, peeling paint, and a variety of health problems. Often, high humidity in homes with central air conditioners can be traced to improperly sized or installed air conditioners.

Damp Basement

A damp basement is commonly caused by moisture migrating through the foundation. As this moisture evaporates, it increases indoor humidity and can promote the growth of mold — resulting in an uncomfortable house.

Cold Floors in Winter

Some types of floor coverings (such as wood, stone, tile, or concrete) will naturally feel cold on bare feet. However, insufficient insulation or air infiltration can also cause cold floors.

Drafty Rooms

Cold air coming into or going out of your house, especially through leaks hidden in the attic and basement, can cause rooms to feel drafty and uncomfortable.

Dust

Increased dust could be a sign that it is time to change your air filter or that your ductwork is not well sealed.

Moisture on Windows

Inefficient windows or high indoor moisture levels from air leaks can result in condensation, frost, or pools of water on windows and sills.

Ice Dams

Warm air inside your home leaks into the attic and will warm the underside of the roof causing snow and ice to melt and refreeze as it runs off your roof — forming icicles and ice dams.

Peeling Paint

Peeling or cracking paint on your home's exterior may be a sign of a humidity problem or improper paint application.

Hot or Cold Rooms

Significant differences in temperature from one room to another could be caused by several factors, including inadequate insulation, air leakage, poor duct performance, and improperly installed heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system.

Dry Indoor Air in Winter

Air leaks in your home allow warm humid air to escape and draw in drier colder air.

Heat & Cool Efficiently

As much as half of the energy used in your home goes to heating and cooling. So making smart decisions about your home's heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system can have a big effect on your utility bills — and your comfort. Take these steps to increase the efficiency of your heating and cooling system. For more information, see our Guide to Energy Efficient Heating & Cooling (708KB).

Change your air filter regularly

Check your filter every month, especially during heavy use months (winter and summer). If the filter looks dirty after a month, change it. At a minimum, change the filter every 3 months. A dirty filter will slow down air flow and make the system work harder to keep you warm or cool — wasting energy. A clean filter will also prevent dust and dirt from building up in the system — leading to expensive maintenance and/or early system failure.

Tune up your HVAC equipment yearly

Just as a tune-up for your car can improve your gas mileage, a yearly tune-up of your heating and cooling system can improve efficiency and comfort. Learn more:

1. Maintain your Equipment: A Checklist
2. Finding the right contractor: 10 tips

Install a programmable thermostat

A programmable thermostat is ideal for people who are away from home during set periods of time throughout the week. Through proper use of pre-programmed settings, a programmable thermostat can save you about $180 every year in energy costs.

Seal your heating and cooling ducts

Ducts that move air to-and-from a forced air furnace, central air conditioner, or heat pump are often big energy wasters. Sealing and insulating ducts can improve the efficiency of your heating and cooling system by as much as 20 percent — and sometimes much more.

Focus first on sealing ducts that run through the attic, crawlspace, unheated basement, or garage. Use duct sealant (mastic) or metal-backed (foil) tape to seal the seams and connections of ducts. After sealing the ducts in those spaces, wrap them in insulation to keep them from getting hot in the summer or cold in the winter. Next, look to seal any other ducts that you can access in the heated or cooled part of the house. See our See our Duct Sealing brochure (1.13MB) for more information. for more information.

Consider installing ENERGY STAR qualified heating and cooling equipment

If your HVAC equipment is more than 10 years old or not keeping your house comfortable, have it evaluated by a professional HVAC contractor. If it is not performing efficiently or needs upgrading, consider replacing it with a unit that has earned the ENERGY STAR. Depending on where you live, replacing your old heating and cooling equipment with ENERGY STAR qualified equipment can cut your annual energy bill by nearly $200. But before you invest in a new HVAC system, make sure that you have addressed the big air leaks in your house and the duct system. Sometimes, these are the real sources of problems rather than your HVAC equipment.

Ask about Proper Installation of your new equipment

Replacing your old heating and cooling equipment with new, energy-efficient models is a great start. But to make sure that you get the best performance, the new equipment must be properly installed. In fact, improper installation can reduce system efficiency by up to 30 percent — costing you more on your utility bills and possibly shortening the equipment's life.

Make sure to ask your contractor if their work meets guidelines set by ENERGY STAR and the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA). These guidelines include:

1. Proper Sizing of Equipment

   Installing the right size equipment for the home is essential to getting the best performance and comfort. Many homeowners believe that bigger is better when buying new heating and cooling equipment. But in reality, a system that's too large will not keep your home comfortable because of frequent 'on/off' cycling. Incorrect sizing can also put stress on system components and shorten the equipment's life. To ensure proper sizing your contractor should provide a copy of the home's heat gain/loss calculations for your records.

2. Sealing Ducts

   To ensure that ducts are properly sealed your contractor should test the leakage rate. If the ducts are very leaky (i.e. more than 20% of the air moving through the system is leaking into spaces you do not want heated or cooled) your contractor should use duct sealant (mastic), a metal-backed (foil) tape or an aerosol sealant to seal the seams and connections of ducts. After the ducts are sealed ask your contractor to wrap them in insulation.

3. Proper Refrigerant Charge (Central Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps Only)

   A properly charged system will operate more efficiently and help prolong the life of the heating and cooling system. To ensure the system has the correct amount of refrigerant a contractor must test and confirm that the system is properly charged. If the system is not properly charged the contractor should make the appropriate adjustment by adding or removing refrigerant.

4. Optimizing Air Flow

   If air flow in your heating and cooling system is too high or too low, you may confront problems and higher utility bills. A contractor should test air flow and make any needed adjustments for optimal performance.
   
   Use the ENERGY STAR quality installation checklist (350KB) when soliciting bids from contractors to help ensure that your system is properly installed.