<prompt> Human: Hi rpersonalfinance!I am new to this subreddit and over the past week its helped me create a solid budget for my wife and I and get us on the right track to paying off our debt. Its also given us the right idea on where to be putting our money to get the most return on our investments.I create this thread to ask you if youve given thought to saving with other things besides dont buy this here or put your money in x, instead of y. My wife and I bought our first home about a year ago which came with electric heat house was built in 1981 . Last year our average electric bills were nearly 500-600 a month from November - March were located in New England. This year, we decided to invest in a pellet stove in our living room. The initial investment was about 3,000. I installed the stove myself to save us some money. We bought 3 tons of pellets from Home Depot which cost us 700 with delivery and taxes. Its almost December and we havent turned on the heat yet and our entire house is consistently 72 - 78 degrees. Were on track to only use the 3 tons this winter, thus heating our house at an extremely comfortable temperature for 700. Attempting to do the math, last year we spent just about 2750 from November - March on electric bills. This year, our electric bills so far this fallwinter have been floating around 200 a month. So taking that as average we should spend a total of 1700 this winter on electricity plus pellets. Thats a savings of nearly 1000 a year! Not to mention I love the look of the stove and thats increase of ambient temperature in the house of about 10 degrees F. We would keep the electric heat at about 65-68 degrees last winter.So at a savings of about 1000 a year, well pay ourselves back for our initial investment in 3 years -- not bad!Does anybody else have any similar experiences with home improvements that youve done to improve your personal finances?tl;dr Installed a pellet stove that should save us 1,000 a year Edit: ufec2455 pointed out my bad math. Its averaging 200 now, so 200 5 months of winter 1,000. That, plus 700 for the pellets totals 1,700. Oops!  <response>: People tend to overlook HVAC when it comes to saving money, but upgrading to something more efficient whether it is an alternative source or simply a more efficient traditional unit tends to have a very high ROR.Its important to note that, depending on the units installed, there may be tax benefits beyond the lower cost of heating. Not sure on the pellet stove, but many states provide tax credits for upgrades to more efficient units. Worth checking into.I know this is a personal finance subreddit, but any business owners need to take note of this as well. The EPACT 2005 provides SUBSTANTIAL tax benefits to businesses that increase their efficiency. Typically requires an audit with pretty minor costs. Used to do these audits for a living, and generally speaking the tax credits and energy savings paid for the initial investment within 2-3 years. 