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We spent money about 7 years ago to "update" the house a little. It was spurred on by a relentless woodpecker who had decided that our house was wonderful. He actually had damaged some of the wood on our home enough for us to decide to put alumninum siding on it. At the same time we updated our windows.

I have a beef with all of the products that people try to sell you that are "green" and will save you money on your energy bill. In terms of appliances, they reduced the power with which the appliance works (washing machine, dishwasher); but, increased the time they need to run in order to complete a cycle (my dishwaser now takes 2 hours and 9 minutes to do a load of dishes). The kicker is that I have never seen any savings coming from appliances.

When we put new siding on the house and better windows, I finally did see some savings. Unfortunately, it didn't last long because the electric co. decided to raise it's rates shortly after and all the savings I had gotten from the upgrades went away and I was back to paying what I had been paying prior to the upgrades.

Long story short, good windows do make a difference; and, I live on a busy street and it made a difference in noise reduction as well.