There are both Federal Energy Tax Credits that we can take advantage of as well as State Energy Tax Credits. First we will look at Federal Energy Tax Credits.

Federal Energy Tax Credits
For homeowners wanting that energy efficient home, the Federal Government will give you a energy tax credit up to $1500 for installing energy efficient roofs, doors, cooling and heating equipment, windows, etc. The energy tax credit is for 30% of the cost. Not bad if you are thinking of getting radiant barrier installed in the attic. This credit is valid from January 1st 2009 till December 31st 2010.

In addition home owners who want to install renewable energy systems to create a more energy efficient home, will receive a 30% energy tax credit. This credit is valid until December 31st 2016. This tax credit does not have a cap.

For those of you interested in having a more energy efficient home and wish to use the Federal Energy Tax Credit, I suggest spending some time on the EnergySTAR website to get a better understanding of what is available to you. The information on their site written in an easy to understand language.

State Energy Tax Credits
Very few people think about State Energy Tax Credits or rebates when we talk about energy efficient homes, but it is a category we should not overlook. Since every state has their own legislation, the kind of energy tax credits varies dramatically from state to state.

Here are just a few very interesting tax cuts from several states, but all the states offer some kind of energy tax credit:

• Texas: Renewable Energy Systems Property Tax Exemption. Exempt a percentage of your property tax if you have a renewable energy installation.
• Arizona: Exempt 25% of renewable energy installations.
• Wyoming: 50% or $3000 grant towards an instillation of residential Photovoltaics.

Do not forget to also see the incentive programs from your electricity or gas provider. They offer incentives like the home weatherization as well as other energy tax credits and incentives. As you are reading this you are probably thinking it is hard to get all this information for your state. Do not worry.

I want to refer you to a website that I found very useful. It is the Database of State Incentives and Efficiency. If you want a energy efficient home, finding your local energy tax credits and rebates is a must. They have a database of all the energy incentive programs for every State. In addition they also have Federal incentive information, but I prefer the EnergySTAR site for federal information.

Energy Tax Credits and Rebates can make it more affordable for home owners to make their homes more energy efficient or to install a solar or wind energy system for their homes. Make use of your State and Federal assistance programs. They want you to become more energy efficient.

Assembly:

I have assembled many products in my life, but this one from the start I was not looking forward to. The first hurdle was to get the crank itself out of the box and into our lounge. The assembly is a 2 person job in any event, but you need 2 strong people for it. Once we got all the components in the lounge where we assembled, we thought we are half way there – but little did we know.

Five minutes into assembly we ran into our most challenging task. The power ramp has a shaft that you have to grease and insert at the bottom of the power ramp. Now I have to explain, that in the beginning of the assembly instructions they tell you that you will need 2 of your own tools in addition to their ellen keys – a rubber hammer and a screwdriver. Yes, a hammer. Nowhere in the instructions do they ever tell you where to use the hammer, but getting the greased shaft into the power ramp clearly called for it. The great challenge was once we greased it and hammered it in; it would simply get stuck 80% into the power ramp. If we hammer even more we would pop out the component on the other side.

I think it took us about an hour to get this little greased shaft in. A very simple little component that made life real difficult for a while. The rest of the assembly was not too difficult. One other little snag was how they reference the screws washers and bolts. If you look at the diagram you will see for example you need crew # 116. Then you have to look on the bolts and screws reference page that will tell you that screw #116, is known as a 6mm crew. Then when you look in the bolts and screw package, find the 16mm screw. The numbers they tell you in the diagram like “#116″ is not written on the package itself, so you need to double reference to get the correct screws and bolts. But once you get the hang of it, it is not too bad.

The upper body cover needs 5 screws of which 2 goes directly into the metal. It was impossible to get the little screws into the metal without stripping the screws. We got the ones into the plastic, but in now way could we get the screws in the metal. I think if I drill the hole a little bigger it would work, but decided not to for now.

Quality:

When we went to Sears the first time to look at this Elliptical Trainer the floor model was squeaking very much. I thought it was because people are on and off of them all day so we decided to go to a different Sears to look at one. At the other Sears we found one that were smooth and quite, thus we agreed to buy.

After assembly the elliptical is smooth and quite. I will really only get a good workout on it today, but on my test run, I have no complaints. Having said that, I do want you to be aware of 2 other things I ran into which did not impress me too much.

When we unboxed the Elliptical Trainer, I looked at the construction and welding. Joints are not welded very smoothly. I noticed some joints will be welded, then not, then welding continued again. I am sure it is welded enough to withstand the weight of most adults, but when you pay this money and hear the great reviews, I at least expected to see nice welding done. As a side note, as most of our products we have in our home today, this product too is “Made in China”.

When I opened the box initially I noticed the plastic cover that is under the power ramp, did not close properly. It was of such a nature that I had to unscrew the molded plastic, re-align it and screw it back together. This was a plastic cover I was not suppose to have had to open, but it was obvious on the eye that it did not “click” together as it should have. I was not impressed that I had to rectify this before even starting to assemble the elliptical, but it was not too bad to fix.

Electricity Use and Money Savings:

Let’s look at the electricity use of the AudioStrider 990. It has a Ghost Load of 10 Watts. This means that even just having it plugged into the socket, it will draw 10 Watts. While working out on it, the power it drew increased to 16 Watts. What does this mean in Dollars and Cents?

At 9.99c per kWh as your electricity rate, if this unit were running on standby 24x7x365, it will cost you $8.55 per year, simply for being on standby. If you will disconnect it during times you do not use it or use a Bye Bye Standby Energy Savings Kit, assuming you work out for 2 hours a day (365 day a year), it will reduce your energy cost from $8.55 to $1.14 per year. That is a 87% reduction in energy cost.

As with every review I take the savings from every device and see how much it will add up to if you invest the savings in a conservative 1.75% savings account over 18-years. I call it your children’s little College Fund. If you invest the savings of $.7.41 per year for 18-years @ 1.75% interest it will add up to a $155.27 contribution towards your little College Fund.

The other savings component that is applicable here is if you had a Health Club Membership. Since it is reasonable to use the same elliptical for 6-years we will buy 3 Elliptical Trainers in 18-years. Using a 3% inflation variable, we will buy our first one for $1000 today (2009); second one for $1195 in 2015; third one at $1425 in 2021. This is a total hardware expense of $3620 over 18-years.

Since we no longer have a Health Club Membership of let’s say $30/month, let’s look at the savings. If you invest $30/month into a conservative 1.75% per year (0.145%/month) savings account, over 18-years (216 months) it would have grown to $7603. This $7603 is simply your Health Club savings. Deduct your investment into your 3 Elliptical Trainers over the 18-years and you have a gross savings of $3983 that you can put tight into your College Fund.