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AUSTIN (KXAN) – Austin Energy will provide an additional $200 bonus starting Friday and continuing through Sept. 30 for residential customers who make all the recommended “whole house” energy-efficiency improvements.

The bonus adds up to an average of $700 in rebates when all the recommended improvements are made at once. In total, customers are eligible for about $2,300 in rebates and bonuses and up to $500 in federal tax credits.

In addition, customers can save as much as 32 percent on their summer cooling bills when all the improvements are made by having a more efficient home, the city-owned utility said.

“Any way you look at it, these incentives add up to huge savings and benefits for our customers,” said Karl R. Rábago, vice president of Distributed Energy Services.

“Customers who invest now get upfront benefits and lifetime savings on the improvements, and all of Austin benefits from clean, cost-effective energy efficiency investments that avoid more costly electric generation. That’s the profitable good sense of energy efficiency in a tough economy.”

The whole house improvements through Austin Energy’s Home Performance with Energy Star program provide bonus rebates for multiple measures (when they include replacement of old air conditioning equipment) or, through an outside lender, loans starting with no interest.

Residents who are customers of Austin Energy and Texas Gas Service can receive rebates from both utilities that together can pay up to 40 percent of the cost of adding attic insulation, sealing ducts, weather-stripping around entry doors and attic entrances inside the home and caulking around plumbing that comes out of the wall under sinks.

To participate, residents can call any Austin Energy participating company and schedule an energy assessment of the home. Assessments for older homes are free. More than 50 local heating and air conditioning companies participate and are listed on Austin Energy’s website.

Tagged Austin Energy, Enegry Star, Energy Efficiency, Energy Efficiency Improvement, Energy Efficiency Incentives, Energy Efficiency Rebates