<p>"monydad, what if the most energy efficient color turns out to be the ugliest, gloomiest color that your wife hates? "</p>
<p>We have two schemes that both look good, one with the walls in a light color and another with a dark color.</p>
<p>If the most energy efficient color turned out to be the ugliest, gloomiest color that my wife hates, we wouldn’t use it. Actually she is the one who raised this question, she does not want to blithely **** away money for no good reason either.</p>
<p>Maybe if we find out the light one is more efficient we still might decide to go with the dark one. Or vica versa. But at least we might strive to make this decision informed of the economic consequences, to the extent they exist. Money does not grow on the trees on our street, at the moment.</p>
<p>If it seems likely to make $1,000 per year difference to go with one color scheme we like instead of another color scheme we like, I think that’s worth knowing, and considering. Given the findings of that Texas study, and the probable differences in utility costs between there and here, it seems worth looking into to me. YMMV. According to Payscale, the cost of utilities is 93% higher in NYC than in San Antonio, TX. Plus,that study was done a while ago probably.</p>
<p>But actually, pointlessly depleting the earth’s fossil fuel resources, for no good reason, is of some importance to me as well, money aside. We will probably never be in the house long enough to recoup the cost of the insulation work we had done this past year, but I thought it was just the right thing to do. Again, YMMV.</p>