New windows have a 50-year Payback in Energy Savings....

Buyers love new windows. Everybody wants new windows--including me! Strictly from an energy efficiency standpoint, however, there are a lot more cost effective ways to spend your money. At Penn State, recently, I took an all-day course on The House As a System put on by a great group called Affordable Comfort. One of the instructors offered this analysis: If your heating bill is $1500 a year, heat that you lose from your old windows is costing $300 a season--a 20% loss from windows. If you spend $7500 for new windows, you'll save 10% a year--$150--with new low-E windows. At that rate, it will take you 50 years for the $7500 payback. Wow. New windows, of course, are very attractive to buyers. I'd say you get at least a $2500 increase in sale price. Anyone have any more precise value????And you get the Federal Tax rebate--as long as you buy windows that meet the guidelines. Your state should kick in a little too! Still, the math is clear:Insulation, weatherstripping, duct wrapping and good old caulk are all more cost effective energy savers than new windows.