Weatherization effort kicks into high gear

Oct 9 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Cyndy Cole The Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff

 

There's a big push going on in Flagstaff, stretching from NAU and City Hall into local churches and schools -- and even into other countries.

Worldwide, various communities are taking Sunday to show what they're doing to fight global warming.

Locally, kids, churchgoers, environmentalists, bike riders and even local clergy are asking residents in Plaza Vieja, Sunnyside and Southside to apply to have their homes made more heat-efficient for winter this Sunday afternoon.

Some local clergy are even building the effort into Sunday sermons, and more than 1,000 homes are being canvassed by local students, said Northern Arizona University graduate student Jason Lowry.

His goal: To sign up 350 households for retrofits in one Sunday afternoon.

The overall reason is three-fold, said one of those involved, NAU Professor Rom Coles: To persuade one state agency to make a home-improvement loan fund for low-income households big enough to help hundreds, to help permanently cut utility costs for people barely making ends meet, and to redirect money formerly spent on these utilities to other purposes or creating new jobs.

It doesn't make sense for anyone to live in a home that leaks hundreds of dollars in heated air out of an old attic, for example, Coles said.

"That is money that is going into the sky. Take those hundreds of thousands of dollars and put them into buying food and everything else you do here," he said, rather than warming the earth.

Yet, sometimes people living in the poorest housing can least afford the up-front costs of these repairs.

Coconino County Sustainable Economic Development Initiative and others are pushing the Arizona Corporation Commission to approve a loan fund of about $10 million to help cover these up-front costs, to improve homes, following a rate increase.

UniSource is pushing for a smaller amount.

At the same time, the Corporation Commission is requiring utilities to aggressively cut electricity and natural gas demand by 22 percent for 2020 for electricity.

For homeowners who apply, the revolving-loan fund gives them, for example, $3,000 for home repairs.

That money is repaid over the next 10-12 years because bills for the homeowner stay mostly the same, but energy use is less, repaying the loan slowly to the utility.

Ultimately, the house ends up more energy efficient, the money is repaid, and the loan moves to a new homeowner.

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Kris Mayes, near the end of her term, said that while ratepayer money goes to fund these improvements, making homes more energy-efficient is an important part of the commission's energy plan.

"This is a hugely important piece of our strategy for meeting our energy efficiency targets for Arizona," she said.

There are 214 Coconino County households that have already had weatherization improvements to some degree (some funded with federal stimulus money) such as duct sealing, attic and floor insulation, HVAC repair/replacement, air sealing, or refrigerator repair or replacement.

For the more substantial weatherization jobs, utility bills have been cut by one-third on average, said Northern Arizona Council of Government's Bob Baca.

That's an electricity savings of about $400 annually for these households, or slightly less in natural gas savings.

Home-retrofit sign-ups are Sunday at Killip Elementary or Murdoch Center from 1 to 3:30 p.m.