Israel and Petrone Hoping to Turn You On

Huntington's version of Elwood and Jake; Green Brothers Steve Israel & Frank Petrone

Earlier today Huntington Supervisor Frank P. Petrone, Councilman Mark Cuthbertson, U.S. Rep. Steve Israel announced details of a cutting-edge program that will use federal stimulus funds to show up to 2,000 town residents how to make their homes more energy efficient. Huntington residents Marilyn and Frank Urso offered their home for the test run.  Supervisor Petrone said that he’s ” hoping to turn homeowners on” to greener living.

Here’s how the town describes the program: “Under Huntington’s new Residential Energy Efficiency Retrofit Program, an energy efficiency service technician will visit a home, conduct a computer-generated home energy survey and prepare a work plan for low-cost improvements.  The technician will also provide energy education, explain the recommended Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs), provide a list of certified contractors and help homeowners identify federal tax credits, utility rebates and other available efficiency incentives to assist with financing.  The ECM’s can be as simple as installing weather stripping around doors or as extensive as replacing heating,ventilation and air conditioning units.Homeowners would either  hire a contractor to undertake the ECMs;or  do the work themselves. The cost of the technician’s visit is being funded from $345,000 of the Town’s allocation under the Federal Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program.”

If you are like us here at the VT you probably need to read that over a few times to get the point.  What the VT walked away with from the press conference at the Ursos’ was this:

Congressman Steve Israel, the Town Council, Lipa and Long Island Green have worked to get Federal Stimulus money to help residents lower their energy bills and help the environment.

- All you have to do is schedule a survey at www.ligreen.com/huntington or call 631-721-1908 to see if your home qualifies (basically if your house is not brand new you’ll qualify).

- The first 2000 families to sign up will get an energy technician sent to their home with a device that looks like a walkie talkie.  The technician will spend about 1.5 hours holding this instrument in front of windows, doors and electrical units to assess what’s sucking up and wasting energy.

- Homeowners will receive a computer printout recommending energy efficient changes (the aforementioned ECM).  The recommendations range from simple and inexpensive like caulking around doors , to more complex and expensive tasks involving heating and HVAC units.

- A homeowner can save literally 100′s of dollars a year by changing some light bulbs and habits such as turning off computers and stereos when not in use.

- As a result of doing some or all of the recommendations homeowners will save money, new jobs will be created for our local contractors and Momma Earth will be treaded upon a little bit less heavily.

The Huntington program will be run by non-profit technical energy services provider Long Island Green. Homeowners wishing to participate will make a fully refundable $100 deposit to LI Green.  Upon completion of the recommended ECMs ( which will not be more then $1,000), the deposit will be refunded.  If there are recommendations for replacement of large items like windows or major appliances the town will help the homeowner to find the best deal and the homeowners will not be required to make these more expensive changes in order to get their $100 deposit refunded.

Congressman Israel stated that he would be really happy if more then 2000 homeowners call in for a survey of their home because there is money set aside in Washington for these green programs. It’s a great opportunity to save some green and see some personal benefit from the tax dollars you’ve sent to Washington.

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