2009 the year of the Stimulus. OK not really real creative and maybe health care has now taken a lot of the headlines, but one positive action that did come out of the stimulus (An NO I am not being political or suggesting that this is the only positive thing to come from the stimulus bill.) is the Tax Credits for homeowners who install certain designated energy saving products in their homes.

Visit the following site for more information on the up to $1500.00 tax credit http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits
The new credit is different than the prior one passed by congress because in an effort to further lower overall energy cost the new bill does require window products to outperform the ratings of just a few years ago. For example the new U-Factor Requirement is < or = to .30 whereas a few years back it was .35. U-Factor measures the amount of heat that transfers through a given material.

So has you consider replacing your windows make sure they meet the requirements for the tax credit because not only will you get the credit, but you will also have a better performing product for the future.

Tax Credits are great but I also think a homeowner should also look at the other benefits a great window could provide ease of operation, security, long term warranty protection and increased home value (Visit www.CostvsValue.com for home value information) and many manufacturer's are now backing their products with Energy Savings Pledges that guarantee certain percentages of energy consumption decreases. Yes their are certain requirements, but if things don't change in the home over the following year the consumers should see the tangible benefit.

Also we have noticed that more manufacturers are getting aggressive to sell more windows that they are offering a variety of promotions to the contractors that many are passing on to consumers. Like buy 10 windows get 1 free (OK maybe selfish to use that one because that is a current promo for one of the manufacturers we work with www.gorell.com and you can also see that our partnership with them gives you a 40% energy savings pledge with there best performing glass package which will take the U-Value to a .17) Look for quality products with great glass packages and a lot of times the cost to upgrade can be easlily justified by looking at the savings of money and time.