Palo Alto company helps homeowners save energy

Oct 06 - San Mateo County Times

Karen Keefer wasn't sure what to expect from the two Acterra volunteers who showed up on her doorstep in September wearing matching T-shirts, one with a toolbox and the other with a briefcase full of folders.

She'd scheduled a "house call" visit by locals trained to help her save energy and conserve water through Acterra's Green@Home program, a free service to residents in Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Cupertino and Sunnyvale.

Keefer watched Kit Durgin string a clothesline across her backyard -- more energy-efficient than using a clothes dryer -- while Jonathan Taylor measured the temperature in her refrigerator and freezer and took notes. They installed a water-efficient faucet aerator in her kitchen and left her with a long checklist of recommendations to follow up on, such as insulating the water pipes under her Craftsman-style house to prevent loss of heat.

"Although we considered ourselves pretty energy smart, they were smarter," Keefer said.

Acterra says residents deserve credit for embracing the Green@Home program, which has made 661 free house calls and trained 326 volunteers since it was created in 2008.

Green@Home program director Twana Karney said the potential to save money by being more efficient with electricity, heat and water use has made the program very popular. A visit from an Acterra volunteer team, she said, can save a household as much as $180 per month on utility bills.

"There are 14 million

households in California, and 21 percent of the energy used in this country is related to home energy use. There is a big opportunity to save energy and reduce (greenhouse gas emissions)," Karney said.

For those who doubt that the simple act of switching to energy-efficient light bulbs and weatherstripping make a difference, the nonprofit estimates that volunteers' house calls prevent 935,801 pounds of carbon dioxide from reaching the atmosphere each year. That's the equivalent of saving 49,000 gallons of gasoline per year by taking dozens of cars off the road.

Jonathan Taylor, 22, completed Acterra's six-hour volunteer training this summer -- the Palo Alto-based nonprofit offers training sessions each month in Spanish and English. He says his job is to help people lower their energy bills.

"It's perceived as a bigger time thing than it actually is," Taylor said. "It's an easy process once you decide to do it, but actually going out and doing it isn't as easy as flipping a switch."

That's because more expensive upgrades, such as installing double-paned windows or buying a more energy-efficient appliance, can seem out of reach.

But this fall, single-family households that have been putting off more elaborate improvements can take part in a new statewide program called Energy Upgrade California, which offers up to $3,500 in rebates for "green" home retrofits after a visit by a qualified energy auditor. The program is administered by each county in partnership with PG&E.

The original impetus for Green@Home was AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act -- the cornerstone of California's drive to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions about 30 percent by 2020. Many Peninsula cities responded by adopting "climate action plans" to achieve tangible benchmarks on carbon dioxide emissions, and some of those cities are supporting the Acterra program with federal stimulus grant money, according to Karney.

To volunteer for Green@Home or sign up for a free home energy audit, visit www.acterra.org/programs/greenathome/.

Contact Julia Scott at 650-348-4340.

-----

To see more of the San Mateo County Times or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.