Community members gathered at Cook Inletkeeper’s Community Action Studio in Soldotna Dec. 5 to discuss a plan that would reduce energy consumption for homeowners. The meeting began with a general outline of the proposed idea, followed by concerns and suggestions from the attendees.
The idea centers around a “Do It Ourselves” club, a mutual self-help group of homeowners who are interested in improving the efficiency of their homes. The club would help offset related costs, information and time for homeowners who are interested in making their homes more energy efficient but are unable to do so themselves.
“The basic goal of this idea is to make energy efficient homes more accessible,” said Ben Boettger, Inletkeeper’s energy policy analyst, who led the night’s discussion. He says the proposed solution would aim to work on low-level energy retrofits, one home per weekend.
The program would follow a similar model to Solarize the Kenai, a volunteer-led campaign sponsored by Inletkeeper that aims to make solar energy more accessible on the peninsula. Following that model, the “Do it Ourselves” club would pool the buying power of interested homeowners to bid on materials and professional services.
“The solution would be maybe a group of a half dozen people coming together, maybe organized by neighborhoods, and these groups would work together to identify low-level things that can be done on homes and price out the materials,” Boettger said. “Potentially, they would be able to pool their resources with everyone else interested in this project to get bulk discounts on these materials.”
The first step to improving home energy efficiency is to receive an energy audit. The homeowner would then decide to invest in the recommended retrofits. Because of potential liabilities, safety training and liability waivers will likely be necessary for people working on others’ homes.
Some attendees were concerned with how this plan could overlap with existing government programs. Organizers say the solution will aim to work in tandem with these programs, and said they’ll look into why these existing programs may not be taken advantage of.
Inletkeeper’s next step to achieving this solution is to form a committee. Organizers will also attempt to recruit volunteers via community information sessions throughout the central peninsula.
