Cassandra Landes recently moved to her home in Tompkins County with her four children. When they moved in, the house was extremely drafty, but thanks to some new insulation, their house is now much more comfortable. And Cassandra is looking to continue her energy savings efforts by switching to renewable energy to better meet her heating and cooling needs.
Cassandra’s family relies on propane to heat their home, but they still felt cold in the winter because their home was poorly insulated.
“It was an old drafty house and the windows and things were all old, and so I was trying to insulate it and then also figure out ways to not [have] to use propane to heat,” she said. “And I didn't have cooling systems. I was just trying to find out more ways to upgrade it so I didn't have to utilize propane the whole time.”
A community member told her about Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), which leads the Southern Tier Regional Clean Energy Hub, better known as Smart Energy Choices.
“I was looking at stuff on how to fix up the house and get it more updated,” she said. “I asked someone [for] information and they told me about Cornell Cooperative Extension, and so I reached out to them.”
Cassandra’s house was partially insulated through the Energy Warriors’ Cozy Basements program, where a trained cohort of students go to qualifying households to insulate rim joists at no cost to the homeowner. The rim joists were insulated, helping make some small improvements.
Once Cozy Basements finished Cassandra’s house, her contact information was passed along to Community Energy Advisor Jack Wright, who reached out to Cassandra to let her know about other opportunities she could benefit from. He told her about EmPower+, a state-run program that provides financial assistance for qualified homeowners to make energy improvements.
Cassandra said that she was a bit nervous going into the process, but her interactions with Jack helped simplify things.
“It was just a normal conversation trying to figure out what I needed and what ways to help,” Cassandra said.
Cassandra successfully applied to EmPower+ and was connected with a local contractor, who went on to provide attic insulation and air sealed her home. So, Cassandra was ultimately able to get her whole home insulated, a project valued at over $6,000, all at no cost to her.
The insulation work happened in the spring, so while it was no longer frigid, it still got cold enough that Cassandra could see a noticeable improvement.
Whereas before, her heater would struggle to heat her upstairs, after, “I was able to heat the majority of my upstairs with just my electric heater,” she explained.
Now that Cassandra’s house is insulated, she’s looking to expand her energy savings by switching from her existing propane heater to a far more efficient mini split, a type of air-source heat pump. She’s reaccessing EmPower+ to do so since new funding was recently made available through the Inflation Reduction Act. With this new funding, residents can access up to $24,000 in grants to make heating or other related upgrades. She said in addition to the heating benefit, the mini split should make it possible for her to not use separate air conditioners, like she’s using now.
To learn more about how insulation can help your home’s heating and cooling work more efficiently, contact your local Community Energy Advisor at smartenergychoices.org/get-help.
You can also read this story on our Success Stories page.