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Faith AND good works

City weatherization grants are helping to keep hundreds warmer this winter, including two elderly Catholic sisters.

By CYNDY COLE
Sun Staff Reporter
Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Sisters Elizabeth and Augustine are cold in the winter and hot in the summer in their home next to Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel, across the street from NAU.

Wind comes through the attic, up from the foundation and into the rooms used for prayers, sleeping and sometimes feeding those who knock at the door seeking help. The insulation in the attic is probably 50 years old and mostly useless, because it is compacted and covered with thick black dust.

"There's hardly any insulation up there," said Chris Watson, president of home-improvement company ReGroup. "I don't know how they don't freeze."

The sisters (they don't call themselves nuns) will have their old home improved, courtesy of volunteers donating time and supplies.

Such projects are in swing around Flagstaff, due to private demand from residents who are cold or environmentally concerned, and because of stimulus money being passed to the county and city.

In mid-November, the city of Flagstaff plans to start taking applications to upgrade another 550 homes using $587,100 of stimulus money. It is part of about $39 million the White House says it has sent to this region for all kinds of economic stimulus projects.

Another 90 homes for the low-income in Flagstaff already received new furnaces, appliances, windows or roofs earlier this year via stimulus money.

The upcoming city-based home weatherization plans have homeowners apply for either a basic or a larger retrofit, to be done starting in December or January.

Residents share some of the cost of the work with the city, and they have the option of adding these costs to a utility bill, to be paid over a span of six months.

RETROFIT FOR $75

The simpler retrofit is on a sliding scale and costs nothing, or up to $75 for a household making more than $70,000.

It provides carbon monoxide detectors, compact fluorescent light bulbs, water-efficient facets, showerheads and toilet tanks, insulation for their hot water lines, air filter replacements, and helps them seal leaks with weather stripping, gaskets and caulking.

About 225 homes will be eligible for it.

The more complicated weatherization does all of the above and adds energy testing for air leaks, duct sealing, furnace inspection, carbon monoxide testing, and blankets for the hot water heater.

About 325 homes will get that more extensive makeover, at a cost of $25 for those making up to $50,000 annually, to a maximum cost of $625 for households making more than $80,000.

That more extensive makeover is also charged on a sliding scale.

It's estimated that households undergoing the more simple retrofit could save $225 annually on utilities, while the ones getting the bigger fixes could save $450 per year.

Citywide, that adds up to an estimated $196,875 per year not going to utilities, along with greenhouse gas emissions avoided.

Residential buildings are the third greatest source of carbon dioxide emissions in Flagstaff, behind commercial buildings and transportation.

Back at the Guadalupe Chapel, there will be a celebration Nov. 14 to kick off other energy-saving projects around the neighborhood, with live bands.

City Hall employees plan to be there that morning, handing out information on energy efficiency.

Northern Arizona University faculty and students, faith groups, the Coconino County Sustainable Economic Development Initiative, Friends of Flagstaff's Future and the Northern Arizona Council of Governments are all involved in either talking about or construction to weatherize more homes.

Recent and upcoming efforts involve going door to door in the South Side , Sunnyside and Plaza Vieja neighborhoods to talk with people about energy efficiency and hand out information, and getting NAU students involved, said Rom Coles, NAU's Frances B. McAllister endowed chair and director of a program for community, culture, and environment.

"...We'll become famous for being the city that bridged difference and rallied together to create an affordable just community, a green economy that pays livable family wages, and set a major example of how communities can act to stop the madness of global warming," he wrote in an e-mail. "Some people have expressed skepticism about whether we can pull this off. I say: Watch us!"

LOOKING TO GROW

The question people like Coles are working on now is how to do this on a larger scale, and how to pay for big retrofits in advance with future energy savings.

A number of possible financing tools -- like a loan fund that fixes homes and then has homeowners pay off the improvement costs over years with savings from their reduced energy bills -- are not used in Arizona, but are used in other states.

At the sisters' home, Watson and volunteer Tyler Rose are replacing all of the sisters' faucets with low-flow ones, changing all of their light bulbs to compact fluorescents, weather-stripping the doors, sealing holes in the walls, plastic-wrapping some single-paned windows, putting a blanket over the hot water heater and sealing the ducts around the furnace.

When all is done, the residents will lose 25 percent less heat and save about $1,000 a year on utilities, Watson said.

He typically gives his customers those numbers, telling them what they'll save in energy bills.

"For every $100 spent in heating, literally $20 or $30 is going right out the window," Watson says to some.

But that's rarely the real selling point for them.

"A lot of our clients," he said, "they say 'I just want to be warm in the winter. I don't want to be sitting here with blankets on me.'"

Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at ccole@azdailysun.com.

Want help improving your home?

Visit www.flagstaff.az.gov or write to sustainability@flagstaffaz.gov or call 779-7685, ext. 3208. There is an application process. The Web site has a number of do-it-yourself tips, too.

Celebrate with the sisters

Groups that helped weatherize the sisters' home will be having an event at Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel on Saturday, Nov. 14, (224 S Kendrick) near South Kendrick Street, Butler Avenue and Benton Avenue, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with food and drink, educational materials, light bulb swaps (traditional for energy-saving ones), applications for energy-saving home improvements, a bluegrass band and bands Sambatuque and Low Cash.

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