Paying for it

Costs, Savings and Financing for Energy Saving Retrofits

SustainableWorks is helping to build the new Green Economy that is sustainable, equitable and self sufficient.  It promises to benefit home and building owners, workers, communities and the environment.  Building it depends on a viable economic model for all – SustainableWorks will provide energy retrofit options to homeowners that can pay for themselves with energy savings.  The elements of this economic model and their workings are as follows:

1. Community Outreach and Education – Organizers, supported by a network of volunteers, help get neighbors involved and spread the word on energy efficiency. Keeping these costs low and participation high helps drive long term sustainability. 
2. Audits, a $95 cost to you, are supported by local utilities and federal funds.  The total cost of an “investment grade” audit is actually $400-600.  Although the audit itself doesn’t save energy, we and our partners know that this is essential in gathering the information necessary to prescribe cost-efficient energy saving retrofits.   Since we do a pre-audit evaluation, we can assure that you will benefit from the audit and a retrofit.  If we are wrong you get your $95 back.
3. Retrofit Prices – We strive to keep cost of energy saving retrofits low so that your retrofit can pay for itself.  Bundling the retrofits, in lots of 50 to 200 by neighborhood, allows us to get the best prices from contractors and equipment manufacturers.  It’s similar to a buying club or a buying health insurance in a group.  Additionally, our neighborhood approach saves contractor travel time, improves worker efficiency and reduces carbon emissions.  We augment these low prices with utility incentives that support energy savings.  We are continually working with the utilities to provide additional incentives that help them replace the use of coal and other green house gas producing fuels with renewables.  We represent you in pushing for more support to make your investments cost-effective. 
4. Energy Savings – We take projecting energy savings seriously.  Our projections are based on your home.  We have researched all of the software that projects energy savings and adopted one that is highly accurate and will under-project energy savings rather than over promise savings.  Multiple energy savings measures impact one another and reduce the total savings – we take this into account for your house and will share the realistic savings opportunities with you.  Your energy savings will also be impacted by your energy saving behavior.  We will help you understand how to save energy without sacrificing comfort – a well programmed thermostat and properly adjusted water heater are a couple of the key elements to this.  But we cannot control your behavior; if you add more household members, turn up your heat settings or add new appliances (such as a Plasma TV), your energy savings might not match our projection. 
5. Energy Cost Savings - Your projected cost savings are based on the current energy costs in your area.  We cannot predict future energy prices but with a finite supply of oil, natural gas, coal and hydro power there is likely to be an upward pressure on prices and hence electric gas and oil rates.  As rates rise, your energy savings retrofit will yield a better return and shorter payback. 
6. Financing – Financing your project with a loan, your own or one that we assist you with, helps to spread the cost of the project over time to match the long term energy savings.  We work with banks, credit unions, municipal governments, and utilities to identify the best loan products in your area.  We seek loans with low interest rates, a 10-15 year loan period, low fees and without early payment penalties. Click here to download our loan application.