By ELIZABETH GIBSON Correspondent

Vermonters can save about 20 percent or more on their home heating costs by making their homes more efficient, according to Paul Markowitz, the coordinator of Button Up Vermont. But many people are unaware of the benefits or daunted by the upfront costs. Button Up Vermont is an intensive public education program that is helping homeowners across the state appreciate the potential of some very simple energy-savings measures.

Ludy Biddle, director of NeighborWorks in West Rutland, describes her epiphany with energy efficiency: "I have an old house, and while I had been fervently advocating for our clients at NeighborWorks to take on projects to make their homes more efficient, I thoroughly believed that the idea did not apply to me. My house was too old and porous — nothing would work, and it would cost too much. But because it was available and I was curious, I asked Bill Morrissey and Ken Welch to do their standard energy audit beginning in my dirt basement. I learned that my hopeless house could be made so efficient that I could save 69 percent of my energy use. The financial incentives would cover almost half of the costs of the improvements, and payback would kick in after about four years. No investment on Wall Street or any other way would earn money for me faster than an investment in air sealing and insulation. How could I resist? Why had it taken me so long to let this information penetrate my thinking?"

To help people realize similar benefits, Button Up Vermont works with town energy committees, educational centers, civic groups, businesses, and nonprofit organizations throughout the state to organize free home energy-savings workshops. Residents learn about the fundamentals of how homes lose energy, simple do-it-yourself measures for incremental energy savings, significant saving opportunities associated with extensive energy retrofits, and available technical and financial resources. Workshop participants receive educational materials on measures they can undertake themselves, contact information for energy audit services, lending institutions that offer low-interest loans for energy retrofits, and other information.

Button Up Vermont arranges for trained energy auditors to visit communities, businesses, and nonprofit organizations — at no-cost — to deliver presentations and provide educational and publicity materials. Participating communities, businesses, and nonprofits are responsible for publicizing the workshop and distributing educational materials.

A lot of communities have already signed on to host workshops — about 50 Button Up workshops are already scheduled to be held across the state over the next few months. To check for a workshop near you, see the complete list of the workshop dates, locations, and contacts at the Efficiency Vermont Web site. To organize a Button Up workshop in your community, contact Diana Peduzzi at button-up@cvcac.org or 279-1708.

Button Up Vermont is an initiative of the Central Vermont Community Action Council, in partnership with the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network and Efficiency Vermont. Funding is provided under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. NeighborWorks is a nonprofit housing organization that offers affordable loans and construction services to residents for health, safety and efficiency improvements.



ON THE NET

www.efficiencyvermont.org/

www.efficiencyvermont.com/pages/Residential/Home Heating/button up vermont/ NeighborWorks of Western Vermont.

www.nwwvt.org/