How to save energy without really trying

It turns out that I’m going to be saving a whole lot of energy and money. I didn’t plan it; all I wanted was clean windows.
The windows in our ranch-style home date back to 1955, and they’re just about impossible to clean. The last time I tried to wash them, it took all day to get the storm windows and screens out and back in again.
That was about 10 years ago. This spring we decided to replace the windows with something we could clean. On a neighbor’s recommendation, we called Swift Companies, and Terry Alfermann told us about the city of Columbia’s Home Performance with Energy Star program, which would help us pay for new energy-efficient windows. But we had to have an energy audit first to qualify. Because the audit cost also was covered by the city program, we went ahead.
Energy auditor Dan Riepe of Home Performance Experts used a blower door (a door with a fan in it) to pull all the air out of our house to find out where our home leaked air. The process is designed to scientifically show homeowners exactly what improvements are necessary. As part of the process, Dan took scores of infrared photos to show us exactly where we were losing heated and cooled air. That’s how he found something we hadn’t noticed yet — a leak in our roof.
But at least we found it before it had done too much damage.
At first we debated whether to get a more typical asphalt shingle roof, but I wanted a metal roof. I liked the way they looked, and I’d heard from a friend of ours that they saved energy.
Three companies said they’d give us a bid, but only the company recommended by our friend came by. Excel Roofing of Versailles, Mo., estimated costs for a metal roof versus an asphalt roof, and the difference wasn’t as great as we’d feared.
A few days later, on the hottest day of the year, Excel Roofing workers were installing our new metal roof, right over the old roof. The job was done in two days, and before we knew it, people were stopping by to ask what we thought of our metal roof. Was it noisy? Did we like it? No, and yes!
A few days after the roof was completed, the head of Excel Roofing stopped by again, this time to take pictures of the roof for the warranty and paperwork so we could apply for a federal tax rebate. It turns out our pretty new roof qualifies as an Energy Star roof, so we’ll be getting financial help from Uncle Sam. It won’t cover the entire bill for the roof, but it sure will help, especially because it wasn’t an expense we’d anticipated.
Soon, I’ll have new energy-efficient windows to go with the new roof, which combined could end up saving my husband and I up to 20 percent on our energy bills.
What a deal. And to think all I wanted was clean windows.