If you’ve been thinking about making energy-efficient home upgrades, 2025 is the year to act! Thanks to excellent rebates and tax incentives, you can save on home improvements that reduce your energy usage and lower utility bills. Plus, you’ll benefit from a healthier and more comfortable home.
Total Home Performance is a locally owned energy efficiency company that’s been serving homeowners in Maryland and Delaware for over 16 years. We take a whole-home approach that ensures every part of your home is working together to save energy while maximizing comfort, indoor air quality, and durability.
Here are five energy-saving home upgrades we recommend prioritizing in 2025:
1. Crawl Space Encapsulation
Crawl space encapsulation is one of the most important energy efficient home upgrades you can make, especially in humid climates like ours. An unsealed crawl space will let heat escape your home during the winter and flow into it during the summer, driving up your energy bills. It’s also an easy entry point for moisture, humidity, and pests, which can lead to mold growth, indoor air quality problems, and even structural damage.
Encapsulating your crawl space by sealing it with a vapor barrier, adding insulation, and controlling moisture can dramatically improve your home’s efficiency. Total Home Performance is the local crawl space expert with over 2,000 encapsulations under our belt. We’re also one of the only local contractors certified to offer Home Performance with ENERGY STAR rebates, which can save you thousands of dollars on crawl space encapsulation.
2. Home Insulation Upgrades
Insufficient insulation is one of the biggest contributors to home energy waste. If you don’t have sufficient insulation, your house will quickly take on heat during the summer and lose it during the winter, driving up your heating and cooling costs and making your home uncomfortable. Improving the insulation and air sealing in your attic, basement/crawl space, and exterior walls can save you 15% on heating and cooling costs.
With the 25C tax credit for insulation, you can get up to 30% back on qualifying insulation expenses, up to $1,200. If you’re a Delmarva Power or BGE customer, you may also be eligible for up to $10,000 in insulation rebates. Total Home Performance is a participating contractor with both utilities and can help you take advantage of these savings.
3. Duct Sealing
Leaky ductwork can waste up to 30% of the heated or cooled air that moves through your duct system! Duct sealing puts a stop to this waste, helping heat and AC reach your living spaces more efficiently.
Not only does this reduce energy waste and save you money on your heating and cooling bills, but it also improves your home’s health. Ducts are usually located in dusty, dirty, and potentially moldy spaces like your attic or crawl space. If they have leaks, all those contaminants can get inside, infiltrating the air that your family breathes. Duct sealing enhances indoor air quality by keeping dust and allergens from entering the system.
4. Heat Pump Installation
A heat pump is one of the most energy efficient ways to heat and cool your home. Heat pumps work by moving heat from one place to another instead of generating heat the way a furnace or boiler does, which is a highly efficient process. Plus, they provide both heating and AC, so it’s like getting two HVAC upgrades for the price of one.
Not ready to switch to a heat pump? You can still save energy by upgrading to a high-efficiency furnace, boiler, or central AC. We install all types of energy efficient HVAC systems and can help you find the best fit for your home.
5. Energy Audits
It’s hard to solve energy efficiency problems like poor comfort and high heating and cooling bills if you don’t know what’s causing them. Our comprehensive energy audits test your home for common issues like air leakage, insufficient insulation, and HVAC inefficiencies so we can identify the most cost-effective improvements for your home. If you’re a customer of Delmarva Power or BGE, you may be eligible for a free or reduced-cost energy audit!
Start saving energy and money! Call 410-822-1390 to upgrade your home with Total Home Performance.