New Orleans Launches Home Energy Efficiency Retrofit Program For Parish Homeowners
February 2, 2012 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has launched a new partially-federally funded program called NOLA Wise to help local homeowners make energy efficient retrofits to their homes.
Diagram courtesy of energyauditinstitute.com.
The program will be available to all local homeowners and will be a one-stop-shop for the process from evaluation to the completion of the renovations.
NOLA Wise is one of the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Neighborhood projects and it will be managed by the environmental nonprofit Global Green USA.
The nonprofit expects the program to give “homeowners the opportunity to reduce their utility use by 15 percent or more.”
Special financing will be provided to homeowners depending their needs, and free assistance to those eligible.
NOLA Wise says that “there are no income requirements for the program” and final upgrade costs, after incentives are applied, will either be paid out of pocket by homeowners or through special low income loans provide through the program. Loan application approvals will depend on credit scores.
The program will take a holistic “a house-as-a-system approach,” explaining that “if one system has a problem, it impacts the other systems’ ability to function properly.”
High energy bills can result from issues such as uneven temperatures from room-to-room, drafts, pest infestations, and premature deterioration of building materials, according to experts at NOLA Wise.