By ROBIN WARD
Last year, Gov. Sean Parnell proclaimed October as the first Alaska Energy Awareness Month. This year, we can continue to take small steps toward big results and improve Alaska's energy efficiency 15 percent by 2020.
Get an energy audit.
• Change your light bulbs.
• Seal tight and ventilate right.
Alaskans are hearing ads for heating system replacement, new door and window products, and weatherization improvements. How does a typical house or condo owner know what is needed in their home to reduce their utility bills each month? How do they know what their homes can best benefit from? What energy-efficient improvements will give the homeowner the best return on their investment? Perhaps it is time to obtain an energy rating.
Hiring a professional energy rater to audit the energy efficiency of your home can provide a clear path to improving the performance of your home and save you from wasting money, increase your return on investment down the road, and solve those comfort issues you have been living with since the purchase of the home.
An energy rating is an in-depth but noninvasive survey of the energy performance of a home. An energy auditor inputs all the characteristics of the house or condo into AK Warm software -- a computer model specifically designed for Alaska homes.
A typical energy rating includes:
• An initial interview to determine the homeowner's daily behavior, such as the number of occupants and the time normally spend inside the house each day.
• A blower door test to measure how much air leakage is coming into the home and where it is coming from.
• A combustion safety test for the potential of carbon monoxide presence.
The software report then tailors a menu of improvement options for a home, a plan to follow to make sure that the money spent on energy efficiency is not wasted. Each improvement option contains a detailed description along with information on estimated annual savings, break-even costs and rating points gained.
Alaska homeowners have a unique, but limited, window of opportunity to obtain an initial energy rating and be reimbursed $325 toward the cost of that rating. The Alaska Legislature appropriated $37.5 million to the AHFC Energy Rebate Program to help home, condominium and mobile home owners improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Owner-occupied, year-round residences are eligible.
The program reimburses qualified receipts for a portion of an initial, or As-Is, energy rating and completed eligible improvements from the Energy Improvement Options section of the energy rating up to $10,000. A portion of the cost of the final, or post-improvement, rating is also eligible. The actual rebate amount will depend on efficiency improvements receipts as required by the program.
Funds have also been allocated to provide workshops for homeowners who want to either do the work themselves or to oversee contractors completing the improvements.
For those Alaskans who may not have available cash to pay for the improvements up front, Alaska Housing Finance Corp. has a Second Mortgage Program for Energy Conservation to finance the cost of energy-efficient improvements from their energy rating. Approved homeowners can then borrow the funds needed for the improvements and repay all or some of the loan balance with the reimbursement.
Funding for these programs is limited and homeowners are encouraged to apply for the programs as soon as possible. Visit the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. website at www.ahfc.us and click on the energy page to obtain guidelines and other information.
The real benefit will be reduced utility bills, a more durable home and a more comfortable living environment.
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