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House of Worship “Biggest Loser” Challenge
The aFewSteps House of Worship “Biggest Loser” Challenge aims to help local houses of worship lower reduce their energy bills and their carbon footprint.
An aFewSteps volunteer will visit a partipating HOW’s facility, do a short “walk-through” audit and get the HOW started by entering its energy use into the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tracking software. If aFewSteps recommends based on the walk-through audit, and the HOW is interested, it can then pursue a more thorough at-cost audit from the Philadelphia-based Interfaith Coalition on Energy (www.interfaithenergy.com). aFewSteps will help assemble the information needed to minimize the ICE survey cost and optimize its benefit. Lastly, for those HOWs wanting to pursue capital retrofit work, aFewSteps will provide counseling on contractors and financing.
The competition will compare HOWs’ energy use in 2013 – the baseline year – and compare those figures to their performance in 2015. Two winners – the one with the overall lowest energy use in 2015 and the “biggest loser,” will be awarded prizes. Any HOW that reduces its use by 15% will be given a “winners’ circle” commendation.
How have initial participants fared? Beth Israel Synagogue followed the recommendations from their audit and switched their heating fuel from oil to natural gas. This involved purchasing new high-efficiency equipment, not an inexpensive endeavor, but initial indications are that savings will be on the order of $12,000 to $13,000 per year; this means the job will pay for itself in about six years, after which all the savings will be “gravy!”
“On behalf of Beth Israel and myself, thank you! We were grateful for your assistance and personally it was a pleasure working with you.” (Elaine Feldman, Beth Israel congregant and project manager)
Any HOW in the aFewSteps footprint (the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District) is eligible. If you are interested in finding out more about the aFewSteps’ HOW Challenge program, please share the following information with us:
House of Worship “Biggest Loser” Challenge
The aFewSteps House of Worship “Biggest Loser” Challenge aims to help local houses of worship lower reduce their energy bills and their carbon footprint.
An aFewSteps volunteer will visit a partipating HOW’s facility, do a short “walk-through” audit and get the HOW started by entering its energy use into the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tracking software. If aFewSteps recommends based on the walk-through audit, and the HOW is interested, it can then pursue a more thorough at-cost audit from the Philadelphia-based Interfaith Coalition on Energy (www.interfaithenergy.com). aFewSteps will help assemble the information needed to minimize the ICE survey cost and optimize its benefit. Lastly, for those HOWs wanting to pursue capital retrofit work, aFewSteps will provide counseling on contractors and financing.
The competition will compare HOWs’ energy use in 2013 – the baseline year – and compare those figures to their performance in 2015. Two winners – the one with the overall lowest energy use in 2015 and the “biggest loser,” will be awarded prizes. Any HOW that reduces its use by 15% will be given a “winners’ circle” commendation.
How have initial participants fared? Beth Israel Synagogue followed the recommendations from their audit and switched their heating fuel from oil to natural gas. This involved purchasing new high-efficiency equipment, not an inexpensive endeavor, but initial indications are that savings will be on the order of $12,000 to $13,000 per year; this means the job will pay for itself in about six years, after which all the savings will be “gravy!”
“On behalf of Beth Israel and myself, thank you! We were grateful for your assistance and personally it was a pleasure working with you.” (Elaine Feldman, Beth Israel congregant and project manager)
Any HOW in the aFewSteps footprint (the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District) is eligible. If you are interested in finding out more about the aFewSteps’ HOW Challenge program, please share the following information with us: