Story Photos
 Jelina Carlsen, who recently insulated her attic with help from the Cowlitz PUD's energy conservation program, does all kinds of things to save money on electricity. On hot summer days, Carlsen keeps the blinds closed on the sunny side of the house. Bill Wagner / The Daily News
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Green lining: Economic pinch gets people thinking about wise energy use
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 3:51 PM PDT
By Cathy Zimmerman
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe clouds of doom that have shrouded the American economy — a housing crisis, high oil prices and related surges in fuel and food costs — may have a green lining. They’re forcing many people to get serious about their energy use.
Jelina Carlsen of Kelso has always cared about saving energy and keeping costs down, she said, but especially since prices have skyrocketed.
“My income is so stringent, it’s a matter of do I buy groceries or do I pay utilities? And I want to eat!” she said, laughing. Her latest monthly utility bill was $12, she said, so she must be doing something right.
Carlsen doesn’t use a clothes dryer. In the winter, she rolls up rugs against the bottom of exterior doors to keep heat in and uses small space heaters, keeping one on only in the room she’s using.
In summer, she uses fans and closes her wide-slat blinds on the sunny side of the house. And recently, she called the PUD to check out how well her house is padded.
“The walls have already been insulated,” she said, “but they could do the attic.”
PUD workers blanketed the space above her ceilings with 7-inch thick R-36 insulation, Carlsen said. “I paid my portion, and they paid the rest. ... It makes being warm affordable.”
For those who want to follow Carlsen’s lead, the Cowlitz PUD has some bright ideas — and cash rebates for taking them up on some of them.
Helping customers conserve is a tradition at the local, publicly owned utility, PUD officials said.
Since 1981, the PUD has helped thousands of county households cut back on electricity and water use by wrapping water heaters, insulating attics and outer walls, and installing water-saving shower heads.
“The cheapest source of new power is not using power you already have,” said Grant Sawyer, who works on conservation for the utility.
“It reduces the load on transmission lines, and we get credit for that from BPA,” Conservation Manager Jim Wellcome said.
It pays off in a broader way, too, because when customers conserve energy, they’re banking benefits for the whole community, Wellcome said. “For every kilowatt hour saved, we don’t have to go out on the open market and purchase that -- at higher and higher rates.”
The PUD has spent over $46 million in 26 years on weatherization programs, saving close to 205.2 million kilowatt hours a year, Sawyer and Wellcome said.
In the first weatherization wave, customers were lined up around the block, Sawyer said. To do the work, the PUD employed 40 contractors during the tough economic downtown of the ‘80s. “It was a real boon to this community.”
Back then, as now, economic pressures created the incentive, said Dave Andrew, PUD communications manager.
Many older homes were insulated back then. Homes built since 1978 adhere to strict weatherization codes. But there’s still room for improvement, Sawyer said, and the BPA is still funneling money for conservation programs, to the tune of $2.1 million a year.
“The PUD decides how to use it,” he said. “We look for great enough savings to justify our investment.”
Do a checklist of your property and apply for the help that’s available.
• Check your weatherization history.
If your house was built before 1978 and still needs insulation in its exterior walls, you’re wasting energy. If you depend on elecrical heat sources, the PUD will help pay a large portion of the cost of several types of insulation.
Aside from weatherizing a home, ratepayers can cut back on electricity costs in the following ways:
• Switch to CFLs.
Compact flourescent lamps, the coiled white light bulbs that use 75 percent less energy than regular light bulbs, are available at reduced prices at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Fred Meyer and Costco in Vancouver and Portland in a special program through Sept. 30.
The one drawback of CFLs is that they shouldn’t be thrown in the trash when they burn out. Locally, Home Depot will safely dispose of burned-out CFLs — but the store can’t take broken ones, the manager said.
• Eye those energy-saver appliances.
If your refrigerator, clothes washer, dishwasher or water heater are old and ready to be replaced, choose Energy-Saver appliances and take advantage of rebates. The PUD offers rebates from $25 to $70 per appliance. Save your receipt, and get a form from the PUD to apply for the rebates.
• Pump up the efficiency of your heat pump.
Older heat pumps can lose 30 percent of heat through leaks in duct work, and the PUD has a program to seal duct work, then test it to make sure it is working. Sawyer said the PUD also offers incentives to homeowners who upgrade existing furnaces or heat pumps.
• Make your school or business “energy smart.”
The PUD will set up an energy-smart audit for industries, commercial businesses, schools and other institutions, Wellcome said.
“We do a lot of work with schools and commercial businesses like grocery stores and restaurants,” Wellcome said. Grocery stores, for instance, can save on refrigeration costs, he said. And the PUD has helped more than 750 businesses install energy-efficient lighting over the years.
“We’re on our second round of energy-efficient lighting fixtures in school gyms,” Wellcome said. “We pay for part of the installation.”
Motion sensors can help turn off lights when nobody’s in those spaces, Sawyer said. The janitor comes in, maybe just to get a mop, and the sensor automatically lights only the space where that person is working.
“Warehouses are dark, but maybe you only go in there twice a day,” Sawyer said. “How often are you in those spaces? Every two hours to pick up a pallet load? It’s amazing the difference in cost that motion sensors make.”
“You can set them for whatever amount of time you want them to stay on,” Wellcome added. “Woodland High School did that; they did the same thing at Weyehaeuser, Columbia Cold Storage and Longview Fibre.”
“Industrial customers use so much energy,” Sawyer said. Not only do they provide the majority of jobs here, but they also “pay into these conservation coffers. With them, we can get a greater savings for fewer dollars.”
The utility uses an independent auditor to inspect all work. “We don’t have financial gain,” Wellcome said. “This looks out for the customer. And it reduces the carbon foot print.”
Any business owner or home owner who doesn’t know if they need weatherization can find out easily, Sawyer added. The PUD kept records of all its weatherization work. “It’s in the computer,” he said. “And we don’t charge for a phone call.”
As Jelina Carlsen points out, “it’s all about using your common sense — and your motivation.”
Discounts, rebates
To find out more about conservation and rebates, stop by the Cowlitz PUD, 961 12th Ave., Longview, call the utility at 577-7514, or visit the Web site www.cowlitzpud.org.
Cash rebates are available for insulating ceilings, floors and exterior walls of homes that heat by electricity, for energy-saving appliances, and, if you qualify as low-income by CAP, for new windows.
Consumer alert: The PUD urges consumers not to buy windows from contractors from outside the local area. Some of these businesses are selling good, efficient windows — but at very inflated prices, charging up to $100 more a square foot than reputable local dealers. Before you buy new windows, call the PUD for a list of local contractors who will charge between $18 and $23 per square foot for contractor-installed, efficient vinyl windows with a U-factor of 0.30 or less.
Dave Andrew of the PUD will give a presentation on senior discounts and reducing energy use at 11 a.m. Sept. 12 at the Longview Senior Center.
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