Weatherization stops unwanted chills from entering your home in the winter and it prevents excess heat from escaping during summer scorchers. It also improves indoor air quality for households with asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
State and local weatherization programs leverage federal, private and utility rebates to reduce up-front costs for low-income homeowners. These programs have proven to be extremely cost-effective, returning $2.78 in non-energy benefits for every dollar invested (national evaluation).
Energy Savings
A well-performing home energy efficiency retrofit can reduce a household’s heating and cooling costs by up to 20%. This is particularly important for low-income households, which tend to spend three to four times more on their energy bills and live in homes with heating problems and inadequate insulation. Many also report that they have to choose between paying for food and medication and paying their energy bill.
The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) is the nation’s largest residential whole-house energy efficiency program. Its core program funding goes to all states, the District of Columbia, Native American tribes and the five U.S. territories-American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands-through formula grants. Each state then contracts with local organizations to deliver the weatherization services. These local organizations are often community action agencies or other nonprofits that employ their own in-house crews, as well as private contractors.
Weatherization includes installing new or replacing existing insulation, as well as sealing and caulking in areas that leak air. Other measures include duct sealing, door and window upgrades, and ventilation improvements. An energy audit is done to identify all cost effective energy saving measures. These are then installed in the order of highest energy savings.
Eligible households that meet certain income thresholds could receive powerful whole-home weatherization upgrades for NO upfront cost through ENE or NextZero, which are both run by Massachusetts’ municipal utilities, as well as other utility rebate programs like Mass Save. If you’re interested in a free home energy assessment, contact Sealed.
Increased Home Value
Whether you are looking to sell your home in the future or want to enjoy its comfort and savings for as long as you own it, whole-home weatherization can increase your home value. Whole-home weatherization includes insulation and air sealing to prevent leaks that waste energy, while reducing heating and cooling costs.
In addition, professional air sealing and insulation can help solve moisture issues such as mildew and mold that are often found in homes with a lot of air leakage. PSEG LI customers can also receive a rebate for ENERGY STAR dehumidifiers that reduce excess moisture in the air throughout the house.
While the monetary benefits of whole-home weatherization are clear, there is also an inherent societal benefit that comes with it: weatherization makes our country less dependent on foreign oil and saves precious fossil fuels; it builds communities by improving housing stock; and it helps the climate by lowering greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, every $1 invested in the Weatherization program returns $2.78 in non-energy benefits (National Evaluation).
If you are ready to take advantage of these significant, life-changing rebates and make your home more comfortable and energy efficient, contact us today to schedule a free, no-pressure, comprehensive home energy audit. Our experienced team will identify all upgrades you are eligible to receive and help navigate the rebate options available in your area.
Health Benefits
In addition to energy savings, Weatherization upgrades help lower a homeowner’s risk of health problems due to poor home insulation and ventilation. A survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy found that households who received Weatherization services experienced a decrease in medical attention and hospitalizations. The path from a simple survey question to monetized mortality reduction benefits is circuitous, but it is easy to see how the DOE’s findings could be misinterpreted to imply that Weatherization saves lives, rather than simply helping people live more healthy lives.
These health co-benefits are often overlooked when calculating the cost-effectiveness of EE programs. Slipstream’s experience in designing a weatherization program for CenterPoint Energy in Minnesota shows that incorporating non-energy benefits into savings-to-investment calculations can double—or even triple—the cost-effectiveness of the program.
Weatherization is not just for homeowners; it also helps improve rental homes and multifamily housing. However, many income-eligible households defer weatherization because of a list of urgent repairs that may be too costly to complete before WAP can install insulation and other energy efficiency improvements. This is a missed opportunity for many of the most vulnerable families, who need to stay in their homes and have nowhere else to live.
The good news is that some utilities and other partners are working to address this issue. Keeping application processes simple and transparent can make it easier for households to access these vital upgrades. By doing so, we can empower more families to save money, improve their homes and help reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil while reducing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.
Environmental Benefits
Weatherization improves a home’s health by improving indoor air quality. Poor ventilation and sealing can lead to a build-up of mold, mildew and other contaminants that contribute to asthma. As a result, people living in houses that haven’t been weatherized often need to visit the doctor more frequently. But in homes that have been weatherized, there is a reduction in respiratory issues and a decrease in emergency room visits.
But the health benefits of weatherization don’t stop there. By reducing carbon emissions, they also reduce climate change’s impacts. By lowering energy costs, they also reduce the amount of fossil fuels used by households. These benefits accrue to individuals as well as society as a whole.
To maximize the impact of WAP, policymakers should continue to invest in weatherization research and support its implementation. In addition, they should consider offering incentives for ensuring that energy upgrades are accompanied by appropriate indoor air quality (IAQ) protections. That will enable more energy savings per house, while protecting occupant health and avoiding costly retrofit failures due to pollutant exposure problems. And to reach a wider audience, policymakers should explore the possibility of including subsidized rental housing in the program’s energy-saving initiatives. This will help to address the disproportionately high energy costs in this segment of the population.