Author’s note: I didn’t write this piece as a requiem, but a few days before press time the state announced that the Home Energy Rebate Program would stop taking applications at 5 p.m. on March 25, 2016. If you’re thinking about improving energy efficiency, or want to talk with your representative in the legislature about the program, then follow the old Steve Goodman song, “You Better Get It While You Can.”
We’re gaining five minutes of sunlight per day. The late February sun shining on me as I write is coming through a thermally efficient window, something that wasn’t around when our house was built. That window’s there because in 2008 the Alaska Legislature designated funds for the Home Energy Rebate Program, which is administered by the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. Information Officer Jimmy Ord says 24,328 Alaskan households have worked with this program to upgrade their energy efficiency. Ours is one of those homes. For our family, oil consumption is down about 40 percent compared with before the first energy audit. We’ve saved a couple tons of fuel, saved money, raised the property value and knee-dropped the carbon footprint of the place.
We’d have replaced windows and doors eventually, done the caulking, sheet rocking and got a new woodstove, but we would have done it piecemeal over years. It might still be a work in progress. Instead we did it in 18 months. Under the program, you pay an approved inspector to come to your house and do an energy audit. Among other things he or she conducts a blower test by sealing off an outside doorway, putting a fan in it, then measuring how much air flow the fan pulls out of the house. The inspector gives you a report with recommendations on how you can tighten things up and be more energy efficient. You turn the report in to AHFC. From that point you have 18 months to do whatever recommended upgrades you choose. Then the inspector comes back for a second audit.
Typically people pay costs up front, save the receipts and get a rebate based on how much more efficient they’ve made the house. Rebates can be up to $10,000 but are usually less. The program also reimburses $325 for the first audit and $175 for the second. Labor and materials are eligible for rebates except homeowners don’t get paid for work they do themselves. For households that want to upgrade but can’t pay up front there’s a Home Energy Loan Program which can make loans of up to $30,000 available. People who get those loans have 365 days from the day their loan closes to make improvements. Their rebate goes towards repaying the principle of the loan. Rebates are taxable but at the same time, you may be eligible for tax credits for having improved your energy rating.
The AHFC has a wonderfully coherent website. It’s a snap to find what you’re looking for and the materials are easy to understand. The Home Energy Rebate Program is for existing, owner-occupied properties. Other programs and options are: Energy Efficiency Interest Rate Reduction, Energy Rebate for New Construction, Home Energy Loan, and Weatherization at No-Cost for homeowners and renters (yes, it includes condos). There are income limits with this one but they’re pretty liberal and based on average income in the community where the house is.
The 23-page “Home Energy Rebate Program Guidelines” is online at Alaska Housing Finance Corporation’s Website. It includes everything from the phone number you call to sign up (1-877-257-3228), to parsing out the difference between a ‘non-conforming structure,’ which qualifies for energy rebates, and an ‘ineligible dwelling,’ which doesn’t. Some houseboats and float homes qualify, which is good, since we have so many in Southeast Alaska. Mostly-finished homes may qualify, and also bunkers. Yes, you read that right, bunkers. A guy prepping for the-end-of-civilization-as-we-know-it isn’t about to tell some government inspector where his bunker is, but it’s nice that he could if he wanted to.
Speaking of bunkers, as the Alaska Legislature huddles in the Juneau “Flakbunker” wrestling with the stern realities of cutting budgets, it would be a hoot if we were able to stack the cumulative benefits of each program outside the capital building to better visualize savings per dollar spent. Picture more than 24 thousand households statewide who have saved millions of dollars, sitting on thousands of tons of saved oil. Even then, it’s hard to quantify a program that will keep on giving for decades after it is closed. Here’s to warm thoughts for the Energy Rebate Program. It has been a great deal for the Great Land.
Juneau writer Dick Callahan can be reached at harborsealpress@gmail.com.
