Button-Up Program offers an incentive for increasing your home’s efficiency and your comfort through simple upgrades like air sealing and adding insulation to your ceiling or sealing your HVAC ductwork in unconditioned spaces. It’s a weatherization program that saves you money!
Here’s how it works. If your home is served by Nolin RECC, is at least two years old and uses electricity as the primary source of heat, you’re a candidate.
Simply call Nolin and request a BUTTON UP inspection. We will then make arrangements for trained personnel to conduct blower door tests of your home before and after the improvements are made. These tests determine how much heat is lost from your home through floors, walls, ceilings, doors, windows and other areas that allow heat to escape. This heat loss is measured in British thermal units, or BTU’s .
The rebate inspection also identifies ways to help reduce some of that heat loss through air sealing and insulation. Typical air sealing could include caulking, improved weather stripping, sealing attic accesses and other weatherization techniques.
Now, here’s where the fun begins — that part about saving money. For every 1,000 BTU’s of heat loss reduced, Nolin will pay you a rebate of $40, up to a total of $750. The total amount you receive will depend on how successful you are in reducing heat loss.
As an example, insulation and caulking added to a test home in Central Kentucky cost $1,187 (including installation). The added insulation reduced heat loss by 13,000 BTU’s . The cooperative incentive was $520, or $40 for each 1,000 BTU’s reduced. So the consumer’s total expense to upgrade the insulation was only $667. But the savings don’t stop there.
The HVAC duct sealing portion of the Button up is a standalone measure that can be utilized to air seal HVAC duct systems located in un-heated spaces. Air sealing ducts with traditional mastic sealers is an effective way to lower energy costs.
- Limited to homes that have accessible centrally ducted heating systems in unconditioned areas.
- Initial duct leakage must be greater than 10cfm per 100 sq ft
- Contractor or Co-op Representative are required to conduct a “pre” and “post” blower door test to verify reductions. Only contractors trained or pre-approved by EKPC may be used.
- Duct leakage per system must be reduced to less than 8cfm per 100 sq ft (Ex: Duct system serves 1200 sq ft. 1200 sq ft/100= 12 x 8cfm= Duct Seal Target of 96cfm)
- All joints in the duct system must be sealed with foil tape and duct mastic. Foil tape alone does not qualify as properly sealing the duct system.
For homes that have two or more separately ducted heat systems, each system will qualify independently for the incentive. The HVAC duct sealing portion of the Button Up program will pay a $400 incentive to residential members (or their contractor) that meets the eligibility requirements for duct sealing listed above.
Remember, now you will save money on your electric bill because your home is more energy-efficient. When you factor in the added comfort the insulation brings to you and your family, BUTTON UP is even more attractive.
O.K. Now the big question we know you’re dying to ask. Why would an electric utility offer an incentive for someone to use less of its product?
It has to do with being better stewards of the energy produced today. Heat that escapes as a result of poor insulation is simply a waste of today’s precious resources. By making your home more energy-efficient, the entire utility becomes more efficient.
Also, reducing current energy requirements curtails the need for future generating capacity. It’s less expensive for everyone — including you, the consumer — to pay an incentive today that reduces demand, than it will be to build an expensive power plant in the years to come.
What do you do next? Call Nolin for a rebate inspection. After the inspection is completed, the energy advisor will work with you to design specific steps you can take to BUTTON UP!