Home heating 101: six cold facts on staying warm this winter

Oil prices are high, while natural gas and electric costs have either stayed the same or gone lower. Here is the outlook for the winter home heating season.

3. How many people have improved the insulation in their homes?

Joanne Ciccarello/Staff
'Green' insulation is installed by Ruben Rios of Anchor Insulation.

Of America's 120 million homes, only 1 million new homes have been built to the 1995 Energy Star standards and only 21.4 million existing homes have been insulated since then, according to Larry Laseter, president of Daytona Beach, Fla.-based WellHome, which does performance assessments of people's homes. He estimates that 98 million houses across the country are underinsulated.

"Most homes were built before modern building codes were in place," says Mr. Laseter. "Even homes built to code 10 years ago are not at the DOE recommended levels of insulation."

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