I’m at a house in north Springfield where the Ozarks Community Action Corporation is performing weatherization. The crew leader, Jeff Strickland, is tapping on the windows.
"You can hear the difference in that: that's a tight piece of glass," he said, tapping one pane, "and that's loose. So, we know that this one, this bottom one, we need to either re-glaze it on the outside or — this one's not too bad, so what we'll probably do is just caulk on the inside to help seal that up a little bit."
OACAC, as it's known, administers many federal services, including the federal Weatherization Assistance Program. Authorized by Congress in 1976, the program was intended to address the ongoing oil crisis by helping qualifying Americans weatherize their homes at no cost. The need to conserve energy is even higher now than it was back then. As global temperatures rise, keeping your home air-conditioned is going to put more of a strain on the power grid but also on your wallet.
Enter weatherization. Broadly speaking, the term refers to anything you do to your home to keep inside air in and outside air out.
"You want to make sure it’s sealed tighter," explained Marsha McClanahan, director of Energy Services at Springfield City Utilities.
McClanahan recommended few low-cost or no-cost ways to cut down energy usage: If it’s hot outside, close the drapes. Change your air filters twice per season, and have a professional check your A/C units once every two years or so. If you have an A/C unit outside, see if it has any dirt or leaves stuck to the surface.
The thermostat is also your friend here. Seventy-eight degrees is the Department of Energy’s gold standard for conserving power during the summer. But even if you keep it cooler, every degree closer to 78 represents a full percentage point of savings on your energy bill.
"You can [also] install a smart thermostat." McClanahan said. "That will automatically adjust for you any time you leave the home or if you have a set schedule. And we do have a rebate for that. That's $75 per smart thermostat."
Some homes, though, require more weatherization than the owner or renter can afford. That’s where OACAC comes in. OACAC covers 10 counties, and their weatherization program includes not just air sealing and insulation but also the health and safety of heating and cooling equipment.
The process starts with an application. Todd Steinman, director of the program, explained, "once they come up to the top of the waiting list — and right now it’s taking anywhere from a year to a year and a half for their name to come up to the top — an auditor will come out to assess the home...so once the audit is done, then a crew is sent out to work on the home to make the home more energy efficient."
"As far as the temperatures and the area that we live in," Steinman continued, "that's all within the computerized energy audit. All that information is calculated to determine if a measure is going to be cost effective or not for this particular home. And as far as savings, a nationwide estimate on savings after home is authorized is around 350 a year. And as energy costs are going up and up, even if you can keep your energy bill close to what it is now, [that] will be a benefit instead of it going up another 20%."
That conversation happened right outside the house I mentioned earlier. There, I got a chance to ask the owner, Dennis Gant, a retiree and a father, how much he thinks he stands to save from the weatherization being done on his home of seven years.
"Oh, I want to lean towards the thousands, because the repairs they have been doing are astronomical," he responded. "It helps me to get other projects sewed up to where I can move on to something else, maybe a new car or a motorcycle. Yeah."
The crew did a lot. In addition to sealing up gaps where air could escape all around the house, they built a barrier around some pull-down attic stairs and insulated several rooms by sticking a hose in the wall (which I thought was cool). The crew leader, Jeff Strickland, is meticulous — he's been at OACAC for 16 years and a crew lead for around 14 of those.
"I get to help people for a living," he said of the job. "It makes it worth it. Most of the clients are elderly, and they just can't afford to do this stuff, nor do they have the knowledge to do it. And being able to go into a house and actually make a difference — I love the job for that."
This is what struck me about every local expert I consulted on the topic of weatherization. It’s a form of climate preparedness, yes, but first and foremost it’s a way for working people to save money on their energy bill. There’s something to be learned from that attitude.