Dena Wood: Out & About

Last

June, in this col­umn, I wrote of at­tending a Sustainable Living Fair and Green Home and Garden Tour. Both were sponsored by the Sustain­able Living Center (SLC) - a 501c3 organization that focuses on informing and educating consumers about the benefits of conserving resources and making use of sustainable or renewable energy sources.

I walked away from the tour particularly impressed with a project by Tim Ben­nett, who had added solar panels to his home. A 20% payment by the Sustain­able Living Center added to a 30% Federal Tax Credit left Bennett responsible for footing only half the cost of the panel installations. At that time, Bennett said he paid out $17.50/mo. to be connected to the grid and was on board to receive a check from Columbia REA for $2,700 - the amount of excess power he had gener­ated in the six months since installing the panels.

As homeowner of a 130-year-old, very large, very drafty dwelling, the thought of someone paying ME for electricity is beyond exciting. I made a mental note to check into the pro­gram further. Unfortunately, that's as far as I got.

In September, I spoke with City Clerk Randy Hinchliffe regarding the city sidewalk program - a great deal whereby the city cov­ers labor for installing new sidewalks if the homeowner covers the cost of materials - and explained that adding insulation was a priority over sidewalks at the time. Randy reminded me that the SLC helps with energy upgrades and shared that he was able to have his home insulated very inexpensively.

I visited SLC's website, sustainablelivingcenter.com, and took a closer look at their Community Energy Efficiency Program (CEEP). SLC has teamed with WSU to provide incentives for insulation, windows, smart thermostats, coil cleanings and filter replacement, duct­less heat pumps, heat pump water heaters and solar sys­tems.

The first step in the pro­cess is to order a home en­ergy audit. The audit costs $95 and is a "comprehensive diagnostic evaluation of the energy efficiency" of your home or business. I filled out a simple online application and immediately received a call to set up an audit ap­pointment.

On Sept. 30, Certified Energy Assesor Maurilio Lopez paid us a visit. He spent several hours examin­ing the attic, ductwork, crawl spaces, measuring windows and probably doing a lot other stuff that I didn't catch. He was extremely pleasant and friendly and didn't seem the least bit irritated with my repetitious "I have no clue," responses to several of his questions.

Before leaving, Maruilio produced a "blower" from a large, black suitcase and pro­ceeded to set it up in a door­way to test the "airtightness" (I couldn't help but laugh) of the house. Maurilio ex­plained what all the numbers meant and what we wanted to see. I don't recall the specifics, but it's safe to say we weren't anywhere close. That evening I received a CEEP Home Improvement Form via email, recom­mending energy upgrades in the attic/ceiling, floor, duct and windows.

The next step was to get an estimate from one or more of the CEEP-approved contractors. We chose to work with Smith Insulation, who came out on Oct. 28. They made a brief examina­tion of the house - working from Maurilio's assessment -- and provided separate estimates for replacing win­dows, insulating the attic and insulating two crawl space areas. Each estimate included the amount of the Pacific Power Rebate and a blank spot for SLC fund­ing which was marked "to be determined." (It is worth mentioning that individuals who are customers of both PP&L and Columbia REA are eligible for rebates from both utilities as well as the SLC funding.)

Here's where we encoun­tered the only glitch in the process. I was notified that once the SLC received final approval from their funders for their incentive package, I would be sent a participation agreement. I asked when they expected approval and was told they had anticipated it by the first of October but it would likely be "a few more weeks."

Since it was already Oc­tober, we chose to go ahead and insulate the attic our­selves. The estimate, after PP&L rebate (and not in­cluding the SLC funding) was $1,116 plus tax. We purchased 15 bags of blown- in insulation from Home Depot, which came with a free blower. My husband and son handled the job easily, but I ended up making an emergency run for another ten bags of insulation. The total cost was $870 and the loss of a Saturday. It may ac­tually have been slightly less expensive through the SLC, had we been willing to wait.

On Nov. 23 I emailed the SLC again to see if they'd heard anything on their funding. I received an Acceptance Agreement on Nov. 25, detailing the total cost, PP&L rebates and SLC funding. We accepted the agreement for the crawl space insulation. The total estimate was $1722 (plus tax) with the SLC and PP&L each paying $471. That left us owing $921 after tax. We felt that was well worth it for such a dirty, unpleasant job. Smith Insulation came out on Jan. 29 and did a beauti­ful job.

I would highly recom­mend working with the SLC to anyone considering energy upgrades. Our only difficulty was the delay in determining SLC funding, which was out of their con­trol. With the utility rebates and SLC funding, you can have a professional job done for about the same price as doing it yourself. What's not to like?