After the success of cash for clunkers program President Obama has now come up with Cash for Caulkers proposal to revive the economy. The proposal has almost all homeowners thinking as to what the program is all about. So here is a small preview of the program and what to expect from it. As of now the program is still being drafted and hence nothing definite can be said about the same. However experts feel that the program is more or less like the New York State’s home energy efficiency program. The program plans to incentivise homeowners to get new energy-efficient appliances, windows and other such items.

New York Energy Efficiency program

Since the program is more or less modelled on the New York energy Efficiency program lets see how the New York program worked. The first step in the New York program was to get an energy audit done by a licensed contractor. You can find the contractor for doing energy audit in your home either by going through the list of contractors available on the New York state website or by calling up the toll free number.

After you decide on the contractor and call him up he will come to your place and for a fee will determine how much energy is being wasted in your home. He will check each and every appliance to determine how energy efficient they are. Also he will check for leaks in windows,doors and walls and check for the thickness of the insulation. All this data will then be inputed into a computer model which will then create a list of all that could be replaced and at what cost and how much energy saving can result from this. This estimate will be given to you to decide on what all needs to be replaced. Also you can bargain a price with the contractor.

Once the work is over you will pay the agreed price to the contractor. The contractor in turn will submit the relevant paperwork to the state agency that conducts the program. Within 30 days after the submission of paperwork you will receive a reimbursement check from the agency for 10% of the total renovation cost, maximum up to a limit of $3,000.

This was how the New York energy efficiency program worked. The proposed cash for claukers program is expected to be more or less similar but on a much larger scale with rumours of bigger reimbursement to the tune of 50% rebate, with a maximum limit of $12,000.

But how will this program help the economy and create jobs. For contractors who are on the list of licensed contractors this is a golden opportunity to revive their business. This segment has been hit badly by recession and collapse in home building. The segment which had sale of $1.5 million in 2007, registered sale of only $400,000 in 2009. Also there were many layoffs in this sector. With such a proposal contractors will definitely see increase in work and they will increase their workforce to cope up with additional work and hence create jobs.