by Keli Hite McGee
The great thing about my business is learning so much about a variety of industries and issues. A recent “gig” led me to a greater awareness of the opportunities for energy efficient homes. Businesses long have known the benefit of energy efficiency on their bottom line and the contribution to our communities. Many current and potential homeowners don’t realize the savings and comfort in investing in energy efficient homes.
I spent the week with Rob Jordan, executive director of Alaska Craftsman Home Program (ACHP), traveling around the state listening to energy raters, builders, appraisers, realtors, and mortgage lenders discuss the need to build residential awareness about the savings from energy efficient homes. As Fairbanksans, I think this is a discussion we can initiate for consumer education. Below is an article written by Robin Ward also of ACHP and long time mover and shaker in the Anchorage community. Please share this with other community members, family, and friends. Have a great week and stay warm.
Gov. Sean Parnell has proclaimed October 2011 as Energy Efficiency Awareness Month. 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 non-invasive survey of the energy performance of a home. An energy auditor inputs all the characteristics of the house or condominium into AK Warm software; a computer model specifically designed for Alaskan Homes. The software report 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. 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. It will include a blower door test to measure how much air leakage is coming into the home and where it is coming from. It also includes a combustion safety test for the potential of carbon monoxide presence.
Alaskan homeowners have a unique, but limited, window of opportunity to obtain an initial energy rating and reimbursement of $325 toward the cost of that rating. The Alaska Legislature has appropriated $37.5 million dollars to the AHFC Energy Rebate Program in fiscal year 2011, 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 also have been allocated either to provide workshops for homeowners who want to 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 Corporation 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 Corporation website at www.ahfc.us and click on the energy page to obtain guidelines and other information on available energy efficiency programs and incentives for improving the energy performance of a home. The real benefit will be reduced utility bills, a more durable home and a more comfortable living environment.
Keli Hite McGee is an executive coaching and strategic planning consultant for Hites Consulting Inc. and an instructor for the UAF Community and Technical College Professional Development and Corporate Training Program. She can be reached at hites@mac.com. This column is provided as a public service of the UAF Applied Business Department. Copies of this column can be found at www.AlaskaLS.com.
I spent the week with Rob Jordan, executive director of Alaska Craftsman Home Program (ACHP), traveling around the state listening to energy raters, builders, appraisers, realtors, and mortgage lenders discuss the need to build residential awareness about the savings from energy efficient homes. As Fairbanksans, I think this is a discussion we can initiate for consumer education. Below is an article written by Robin Ward also of ACHP and long time mover and shaker in the Anchorage community. Please share this with other community members, family, and friends. Have a great week and stay warm.
Gov. Sean Parnell has proclaimed October 2011 as Energy Efficiency Awareness Month. 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 non-invasive survey of the energy performance of a home. An energy auditor inputs all the characteristics of the house or condominium into AK Warm software; a computer model specifically designed for Alaskan Homes. The software report 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. 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. It will include a blower door test to measure how much air leakage is coming into the home and where it is coming from. It also includes a combustion safety test for the potential of carbon monoxide presence.
Alaskan homeowners have a unique, but limited, window of opportunity to obtain an initial energy rating and reimbursement of $325 toward the cost of that rating. The Alaska Legislature has appropriated $37.5 million dollars to the AHFC Energy Rebate Program in fiscal year 2011, 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 also have been allocated either to provide workshops for homeowners who want to 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 Corporation 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 Corporation website at www.ahfc.us and click on the energy page to obtain guidelines and other information on available energy efficiency programs and incentives for improving the energy performance of a home. The real benefit will be reduced utility bills, a more durable home and a more comfortable living environment.
Keli Hite McGee is an executive coaching and strategic planning consultant for Hites Consulting Inc. and an instructor for the UAF Community and Technical College Professional Development and Corporate Training Program. She can be reached at hites@mac.com. This column is provided as a public service of the UAF Applied Business Department. Copies of this column can be found at www.AlaskaLS.com.
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