The Jonah Center for Earth and Art and the city of Middletown’s Clean Energy Task Force join in presenting home energy specialist John Greeno, President of New England Conservation Services, on “How To Make Your Home More Energy Efficient” on Tuesday, February 15, at 7 p.m. at First Church of Christ, Congregational, 190 Court Street, in Middletown.
Residents (homeowners and renters) will learn about the most common ways their homes lose heat and waste electricity, and how these problems can be addressed at little or no expense. Topics to be covered include air leaks around chimneys and pipes, insulation in attics and above basement walls, door sweeps, water heaters, hidden energy wasters, and more. There will be a slideshow instructive for do-it-yourself homeowners, and time for questions and answers.
The goal of the presentation is to encourage Connecticut residents to take advantage of a program, “Home Energy Solutions” (HES) for which they have already paid. Millions of dollars are collected in monthly bills from electric and natural gas customers for energy conservation programs directed by the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund and administered by Connecticut Light & Power.
Trained technicians go to a home and set up a door-fan to slowly pull air from within the house. This lower pressure inside exaggerates all the drafts, so the leaks can be sealed up right on the spot, using insulating foam, caulk, and weather stripping. HES services may also seal leaky ducts, install energy efficient lighting, provide incentives and rebates for insulation, heating and cooling systems, appliances and more for eligible customers.
For a payment of $75 (subject to change, based on funding) customers receive an average of $750 worth of energy-efficiency upgrades. There are no extra charges or obligations. For every residence that the Jonah Center recruits for these services, New England Conservation Services makes a donation to support the Jonah Center’s work in environmental sustainability. The City of Middletown is recognized by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund as a Clean Energy Community and this presentation fits into the city's efforts to save residents money by becoming more energy aware and efficient.
For more information, contact John Hall (Jonah Center) at 860-398-3771.
7 comments:
Does anyone know what is happening with the former Super A&P building on Washington Street? Big Y said they were going to open a supermarket on that site after they did an evaluation of it. They said they were going to open it as a "No Frills" supermarket. I am seeing a lot of dumpsters & activity in front of the former Super A&P building. Is Big Y still planning on opening a market there? If they are when will it open? If not, is there another business that will open up?
We had this service done last year. Although my energy costs did not go down one cent (they've actually gone up) it did help with getting rid of a couple of drafts in the house.
Check those coupon books you get free in the mail. We had one with a $50 off on this energy assessment so it only cost us $25.
Jennifer Peifer
your cost may not go down if the rates went up. You still may have reduced your energy usage and had you not done so might have seen your regular cost increase even more.
Energy costs are affected by the weather and the cost of the heating fuel. Electricity costs have gone down, but oil (the most common heating fuel around here) has gone up, and it's been a cold winter.
For what it's worth, my electric bills fluctuate wildly (sometimes $50 higher from one month to the next). According to CL&P their meters are infallible, so it's my fault. We use Public Power (savings insignificant), and our lifestyle is exactly the same month to month. I've given up on ever saving any money on energy costs, especially electricity. New curly light bulbs, drafts sealed, $1,000 to insulate the attic, new windows, oil co-op membership and we still don't get any break. The money we've invested in home energy improvements would have been better spent in Maui considering we are paying more the same services anyway.
The Home Energy Audits are a good idea and everyone should take advantage of them if they can. However, if someone had the audacity to charge me $750 for that service I would have laughed in their face. Seriously.
Jennifer Peifer
Geothermal heat saves so much money monthly. It is expensive to put in but the savings is great!
Tim
http://www.frugal-save-wave.com/cost-of-geothermal-energy.html
I have been keeping track of electricty usage in a spreadsheet since May 2007. I had the audit done for $75 in DEC 2008. When I compared usage for non-AC months pre-audit and post-audit, there was a significant drop in Kw usage. As my house was well insulated and tight, the only change was swapping our incandescent bulbs for CFLs. At the time there were two rebate programs that qualified us for a total of $300 off a new energy star fridge.
Keep in mind when you look at your bill the usage is for X number of days. If you compare month to month, you could be comparing 28 days to 31 or more days depending on when they do the actual reading.
John, thanks again for spearheading this effort back then. It is definitely $75 well spent both in terms of what you get and decreased usage. I'm paying a premium for 100% renewable sourcing, so this helps offset it.
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