Building a community of home energy savers

The Montgomery County Chapter of Sierra Club leads an energy efficiency education information session for homeowners titled, “Top Ten Energy Savings Tips”. The session helps homeowners plan energy conservation projects. 

The top ten tips include information on

• how much energy and money homeowners can save on efficient lighting;
• proper insulation and air sealing;
• the use of programmable thermostats;
• and more!

The “Top Ten Tips” session also provides information on the benefits of home energy audits and incentive programs offered by the government and utility companies to help people save money. The committed volunteers who lead the sessions provide information and planning forms for attendees to assess and decide upon specific actions to reduce their energy use.

The goal is to help homeowners do at least one of the “Top Ten Tips” and create a peer network with follow-up emails and calls to provide additional information and encouragement to do energy saving projects.

The evaluation results show that the program is making good progress. Here’s a summary of the feedback:

• Most people have done a few energy saving projects.
• Everyone plans to do at least 1 of the Top Ten Tips recommended.
• Most people thought the presentation was very useful.
• The most frequent listed “most useful things learned”: PEPCO rebates, MyGreenMontgomery.org, Energy Audits
• Most people were “very likely” to do at least 1 of the “Top Ten Tips”.
• Most people thought the presenter was “excellent.”

In August of last year, the Montgomery County Chapter received a grant from the National Sierra Club to support the Energy Efficiency Education Project. Prior to the grant award, the Montgomery County Chapter refined the presentation materials, recruited 7 volunteers to provide presentations, held a training and then began promoting the programs. Since April 2012, they’ve held seven presentations that impacted 99 homeowners.

If this project interests you, the Montgomery County Chapter is looking for people to host Energy Efficiency Presentations in their neighborhoods. Please contact Susan Eisendrath at susan.eisendrath@gmail.com if you can host a presentation or if you know of a Civic Association that can host one.