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Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Crews help families prepare for winter
By Michael Becker
October 29, 2007
“It's kind of like a puzzle,” Montana Conservation Corps volunteer Dan Rycerz said as he wrapped a fiberglass blanket around a hot water heater in a cramped utility closet.
But once installed, the blanket will keep water in the tank hotter longer, saving money for the family who lives in the home, particularly during the winter months when heating and utility bills can skyrocket.
Rycerz and other volunteers working at the home Friday are with Warm Hearts Warm Homes, a state-funded program that, among other efforts, provides free weatherization gear for low-income families statewide. The program partners the local Human Resources Development Council offices with the Montana Conservation Corps, said the corps' executive director, Jono McKinney.
“This is linked to conservation work,” McKinney said. “It brings our service back to the personal level and into people's homes.”
Volunteers target homes on the HRDC Weatherization Assistance Program's eligibility list, said Mark Habib, a field supervisor for the Bozeman HRDC office. He said 900 to 1,000 low-income households are eligible in Gallatin, Meagher and Park counties.
Money for Warm Hearts Warm Homes comes through the state Department of Public Health and Human Services and is spent locally through HRDC. The program serves households with annual incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that would be an annual income of about $31,000 or less, according to the department's Web site.
“This is an opportunity for the HRDC to be serving more people,” Habib said. “It's also an effort to help people take their money a little bit further.”
Rycerz's was one of four Conservation Corps crews working in about 120 homes over two weeks in the Bozeman area, providing basic weatherization equipment such as door sweeps, window insulation and low-energy CFL light bulbs.
Rycerz said some homes were repeats from the previous year, and those homeowners reported that the winterization efforts had cut as much as $15 a month off their monthly heating bills.
According to the U.S. Energy Department, weatherization reduces heating bills by an average 31 percent, or about $358 a year.
Dawn Rhodes, a resident at the apartment on the Montana State University campus where the crew was working Friday, said her family's heating bills last winter were around $120 a month.
“It goes up every year too,” she said.
A mother of three whose husband is an MSU student, Rhodes hopes the weatherization will shave some money off this winter's bills. Meanwhile, she said, her family tries to be as energy efficient as they can, though it's hard at times.
“I think our culture is designed to make it difficult to make the right choices,” she said. “We're trying to do what we can to use less.”
Habib said about 17,000 low-income households statewide are on a waiting list for free weatherization services, either the basic services like the ones provided by volunteer crews or more comprehensive services that include air leakage tests to locate a home's drafts, and air quality and mold tests.
For those who don't qualify for low-income weatherization assistance, Habib said Northwestern Energy also offers some weatherization assistance for its customers.
Habib said perhaps the biggest benefit is that even the smallest amount of weatherization work gets people thinking about what else they can do to shore up their homes.
“It really draws attention to the fact that a few simple things can make a difference,” Habib said. “People start paying attention to things they would have otherwise let go by.”
The Conservation Corps crews wrapped up work in Bozeman last week, though the HRDC and state programs are still operating. Households can apply for the low-income state programs from Oct. 1 through April 30. For more information, call the Montana Citizen's Advocate at 1-800-332-2272.
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