Washington, DC – Arizona has reached a significant milestone under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, completing weatherization work for more than 30 percent of the homes the state had planned to weatherize.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the announcement today. Through June 30, Arizona has weatherized more than 1,900 homes under the Recovery Act. As a result of the progress in the program to date, the state will now have access to an additional $28.5 million in Recovery Act weatherization funding to continue providing energy efficiency services to Arizona’s low-income families.

Secretary Chu also announced that three high-performing local weatherization agencies in Mesa, Phoenix and Yuma have been selected to receive a total of more than $3.1 million to expand their successful weatherization programs.

The funding will allow the local agencies – Mesa-CAN, the City of Phoenix’s Neighborhood Services Department and the Western Arizona Council of Governments – to install solar hot water systems and heat pump and hybrid water heaters in residents’ homes. The award selections were part of nearly $120 million in awards announced nationally to complement and expand existing weatherization programs, drive innovation in the program and deliver even greater energy bill savings for local families.

“The weatherization program is successfully delivering energy and cost savings for American families, while helping to rebuild our economy,” said Secretary Chu. “These investments in energy efficiency under the Recovery Act are putting thousands of people to work in Arizona and across the country as part of our clean energy future.”

The weatherization program is also creating thousands of jobs locally – putting carpenters, electricians, and factory workers back to work installing insulation, upgrading appliances, and improving heating and cooling systems.

According to state reports, the Recovery Act Weatherization Assistance Program supported more than 13,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2010, including nearly 150 jobs in Arizona.

Through Recovery Act funding, Mike Uniacke’s company, Advanced Insulation, Inc., was hired to oversee weatherization projects for clients including the City of Phoenix, the Northern Arizona Council of Governments, and the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona.

“The Weatherization Assistance Program has been a company-saver in our case, helping us keep our doors open,” he said. “The residential construction market in Arizona had all but collapsed due to the recession, and as a small business that employs about 45 people, we were facing the reality of shutting our doors. The opportunity to be involved in the Weatherization Assistance Program has saved those jobs and allowed us to expand the business in new ways.”

Under the Recovery Act, Arizona was allocated more than $57 million to weatherize approximately 6,400 homes under weatherization program. The state previously had access to the first 50 percent of the funding. By weatherizing more than 30 percent of their total estimated homes under the Recovery Act and meeting a series of aggressive accountability and reporting milestones, Arizona now has access to the full $57 million to continue weatherizing homes across the state. Together with the nearly 1,150 additional homes Arizona has weatherized with annual program funding, the state has now weatherized nearly 3,100 homes since the Recovery Act began.

Arizona’s efforts are contributing to the success of the program nationwide. After ramping up last year, the Weatherization Assistance Program is now weatherizing homes at its optimal rate – approximately 25,000 homes per month. In June, states reported that nearly 31,800 homes were weatherized with Recovery Act funding – the most ever in a month. This summer alone, more than 80,000 homes will be weatherized across the country.

Under the weatherization program, local agencies provide whole-home weatherization services, including conducting an energy audit in the home to identify the most cost-effective improvements, and implementing solutions that range from installing additional insulation and weatherstripping, sealing windows and doors, caulking cracks in the building, and replacing inefficient heating and cooling systems.

originally posted:  kvoa.com

For energy efficiency, your home should be properly insulated from the roof down to its foundation. This includes the following areas:

• Attic spaces
  • Attic access doors to unfinished attics
  • Knee walls in finished attics
• Ducts in unconditioned spaces
• Cathedral ceilings
• Exterior walls
• Floors above unheated garages
• Foundations
  • Basements
  • Crawl spaces
  • Slab-on-grade floors.

If you’re not sure where you should insulate, see our information on adding insulation to an existing home or selecting insulation for new home construction.

provided by and additional info:

U.S. Department of Energy – Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Can green homes really be affordable? To stand out in a still sluggish housing market, more builders are beginning to offer average-priced, ultra-efficient homes.

This rendering shows a development in Beaverton, Ore., known as Sage Green, that will have 18 solar-equipped homes that aim to produce at least as much energy as they use. Starting price? About $258,000.

CAPTION

Courtesy of Sage Green

In Beaverton, Ore., Green One Construction Services is building a zero-net-energy development of 18 homes designed to produce at least as much power as they use.

• Follow Green House on Twitter

The three-bedroom Sage Green homes, the first five of which are complete, come with superior insulation, triple-glazed windows and solar panels. Prices start at $257,900. (You can see more pictures on Preston Koerner’s Jetson Green blog.)

In the southeast Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, Meritage Homes unveiled a development of homes this month that aim to use 80% less energy than regular homes. Starting price: $174,900.

CAPTION

Courtesy of Meritage Homes

This month in Gilbert, Ariz., a southeast Phoenix suburb, Meritage Homes unveiled a new development — Lyon’s Gate — that aims to be 80% more efficient than regular, code-compliant homes.

Included in the $174,900 base price are nine-inch thick exterior walls, a thermostat that can be remotely programmed using an iPhone and an ECHO solar electric/thermal system that can produce up to 10 kilowatts of power annually — about half the amount consumed by a regular house.

“If customers respond to this, this will become the way we build houses,” C.R. Herro, Meritage’s vice president for environmental affairs, told the Arizona Republic. “If we built these with $50,000 worth of (green) features and charged $50,000 more, we wouldn’t sell one…I’m building these for people who couldn’t care less about energy efficiency.”

Energy bills are estimated to run about $734 annually for the 1,640- square-foot model and $1,218 per year for the largest, 3,062-square-foot one.

Info provided by USA Today/Green House.

You can save 5%–15% on your cooling bills by raising the temperature setting on your thermostat when you are away and don’t need cooling. Only lower the setting to 78°F when you are home and need cooling. A programmable thermostat can make it easy to adjust the temperature on a regular schedule. At what temperature do you set your thermostat when you are home and awake in the summer? How about when you’re asleep or away?

Call Banker Insulation at 602-273-1261, or visit our web site for other ways insulation can help you go green, save money and help the environment.

Originally Posted on EnergySaversBlog

Originally Posted on Fact Sheet Insulation

Heating and cooling account for 50 to 70% of the energy used in the average American home. Inadequate insulation and air leakage are leading causes of energy waste in most homes. Insulation:

• saves money and our nation’s limited energy resources
• makes your house more comfortable by helping to maintain a uniform temperature throughout the house, and
• makes walls, ceilings, and floors warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

The amount of energy you conserve will depend on several factors: your local climate; the size, shape, and construction of your house; the living habits of your family; the type and efficiency of the heating and cooling systems; and the fuel you use. Once the energy savings have paid for the installation cost, energy conserved is money saved – and saving energy will be even more important as utility rates go up.

To continue the story click here, the original article resides on the Department of energy’s pages.

Adding adequate insulation is one of the most cost-effective home improvements that you can do.

Insulation is a great low-cost method of conserving natural resources. What is not as well known is that insulation is considered one of the best sustainable technologies available. In fact, insulation can be considered effectively “greener than trees.” For example, consider a chemical facility that uses steam traveling in uninsulated pipes at 350° in a manufacturing process.   Simply insulating the pipe will reduce the heat loss from the bare pipe by about 95 percent!  As a result the fuel required to create the steam is also reduced by about 95 percent!  By using 95 percent less fuel there is then a 95 percent decrease in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the facility.

Insulation is a much better way for many businesses to help reduce the amount of CO₂ in the environment than planting trees.  Using insulation will also greatly reduce energy expenses, eventually paying for itself in savings.  It is faster, easier and much more cost effective than planting trees.  Call Banker Insulation at 602-273-1261, or visit our web site for other ways insulation can help you go green, save money and help the environment.

Original article, by Christopher P. Crall was published in Insulation Outlook magazine.

Did you know that insulation saves money, increases the comfort of your home, and helps the environment by reducing the amount of energy required to heat and cool your home?  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) says that the average US family spends almost $1500 per year on their energy bill with 50 to 70% of that going towards heating and cooling.  They also state that inadequate insulation and air leakage are mostly to blame!  A fully qualified Banker Insulation Estimator will be glad to review your specific home needs and recommend ways to reduce your energy costs in the most efficient way possible.

Also, the federal government has extended and expanded their existing tax credit for installed insulation!  You can file for 30% of the purchase price, up to $1500 in tax credit. The credit is for insulation that was installed in an existing home in either 2009 or 2010.

In addition to this federal tax credit, some states are also offering their own credits for the purchase and installation of insulation.    Please call Banker Insulation to have one of our estimators come and evaluate your home or visit our web site for more information on ways we can help you save money and energy this summer!