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| Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet Using a fan to blow air out of a house, shown here affixed to the doorway of a Caribou home, contractor Paul Libby of Hole In Your Bucket Audits can determine where cold, outside air is getting in homes — and where the warmth is leaking out. Through an Efficiency Maine program, conducting an energy audit and the resulting energy improvements are as affordable as they are cost-saving. |
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
“Audit” may be the last thing folks want to hear directly following tax season, many in the region are seeking them out — energy audits, that is.
A program through Efficiency Maine is making energy audits affordable for Mainers, and repairs identified through the process can yield long-term savings for residents.
There are two contractors in Aroostook County that are certified to perform the audits and implement energy savings projects — Hole In Your Bucket Audits based out of St. Francis and Buildings Etcetera based out of Houlton.
Through a Better Buildings Neighborhood Program grant received through the Department of Energy, Efficiency Maine is able to fund the first $600 for an energy audit and energy conserving repairs.
Paul Libby of Hole In Your Bucket Audits has been working with Efficiency Maine on their residential air sealing promotion for a couple of years; utilizing the promotion, the highest bill Libby ever gave a homeowner after applying the Efficiency Maine funding was for $178 — for a three-apartment home.
“It’s a wicked good deal,” Libby said. “I do at least six hours of work — I do the test and I do the work — but I hardly have to charge the homeowner because of Efficiency Maine.”
While the deal sounds a little too good to be true, Efficiency Maine Residential Program Manager Dana Fischer explained that the program is available for any residential housing unit containing up to four domiciles.
“It’s actually happening, and it’s something folks should jump on right away … we’re coming to the end of this grant period in September and there’s a limited amount of funding,” Fischer said.
Fisher explained that over 900 residential air sealing promotions are being completed each month from across the state.
“Really we want to encourage people to jump on it now because we don’t know how long we’ll be able to offer the incentive,” he said.
When Libby does a home energy audit and corresponding repairs, he said it normally takes him between six and eight hours.
“Getting an energy audit is like going to the doctor for an annual physical,” Libby said. “Just like you get your blood pressure checked, I do a pressure test to find out how the house is doing, and then I find out where it’s leaking. [Efficiency Maine] doesn’t just want me to find the problem, they want me to take a few hours to fix it.”
But even without looking at a specific home, Libby offered a piece of money-saving advice: “If you put on a hot water heater jacket, you’re going to save at least $50 a year because heat is always escaping form the hot water heaters,” he explained.
Libby says that a good water heater jacket that does not skimp on the insulation will run customers about $30 to $50.
