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Home Energy Magazine Online March/April 1993
FIELD NOTES
Weatherizing Sieves
by Thurman B. Everett
It all started in October 1988, when the Brunswick Country Public
Housing Agency received $20,000 to develop a weatherization program. The
purpose of the program was to improve the thermal environment of poor, elderly,
and disabled citizens of the county. Of the $20,000, no more than $1,400 could
be spent per unit. It was immediately apparent that many of our applicants
would continue to suffer because most of their problems couldn't be solved by
weatherization alone. Some houses didn't even have walls or floors to retain
heat!
I began looking for ways to stretch the dollars to include basic
rehabilitation, but couldn't figure how to do it. During a routine visit to
audit a run-down house, I found a way. It turned out that the particular family
who lived there had never applied for weatherization, but apparently a family
with the same name, on the same street, had. When I nevertheless began
an inspection of the house, I noted that there was no ceiling overhead in four
rooms, just rafters. There were no walls in the three bedrooms, just stud
cavities and cardboard. I could look through the holes in the floor and see the
ground underneath. The back door was so cracked that I could see the field
outside. Some windows were missing or broken and without panes. The missing
windows had cardboard in their places. The missing panes had rags stuffed into
the openings. There was no bathroom or running water.
The occupants told me that there were 13 people living in this house including
eight children. I asked why two of the children were home and not in
school--and why were they wearing overcoats in the house in the middle of the
day. Their mother said they had severe colds caused by going to bed cold,
sleeping cold, and waking up cold. When I left that house, I was overwhelmed by
what my eyes had seen and my ears heard. I gave my word to do
something--without knowing how it could be done.
And so, on the drive back to the office, Helping Hands was born. Gaps in
people's lives needed to be bridged, and I suddenly saw a way for people to
help others. If local government did not remedy these types of housing
rehabilitation problems, a non-profit organization could be the catalyst needed
to solicit help. Helping Hands soon became official, and I labeled our first
rehabilitation case "The King Project," named after that family I had visited
by mistake.
I called upon colleagues, co-workers, and friends, explaining the situation and
how it could be corrected. All agreed to donate time and labor to the family if
we could get the needed materials. We prepared a letter and took it to the
building suppliers of the county, requesting donated materials to correct the
existing problems in the King family house. The building suppliers responded
wonderfully. Once the materials were on site, the "Hands" began working at
night and on Saturdays to rehabilitate the house. The project was completed on
schedule, at no expense to the Kings. Volunteers installed approximately $750
worth of materials: sheet rock, drywall nails, 3/4 in. plywood (tongue and
groove edges), wood nails, felt paper, studs, and wall and attic insulation.
Using the Retrotech calculations, we saved 2,100 heating units. [Editor's
Note: Heating units here are normalized values derived from the Project
Retrotech Home Weatherization Job Book, Department of Energy Weatherization
Assistance Program publication No. EIA-29D.]
The annual budget for the Brunswick County weatherization program
increased to $89,000 last year, and dropped this year to $69,000 due to cuts in
Low-Income Heating Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). We have weatherized 173
homes, with 401 occupants, saving 48,966 heating units. In July, the program
began using the North Carolina Blower Door Energy Audit Program, part of the
North Carolina Field Test for a new audit process. We still need to find a way
to get some houses into condition for weatherizing although regulations allow
us to use only 25% of our funding for materials for roof, ceiling, or floor
repairs.
Helping Hands has made ten homes eligible for weatherization. All needed
sheetrock for walls and ceilings, windows, and wall insulation. Three needed
wiring, four needed new studs, four needed flooring, three needed new roof
shingles, and one needed the floors ripped out and new girders and flooring
installed because of termite damage. Because Brunswick County is near the
ocean, it gets cold here only three months out of the year. Yet no instrument
could measure the heat lost or saved before these houses were fixed. Currently
we are working on the "Green Affair"--rehabbing a grandmother's house which was
burned on the inside. She and two children lived there for four years without
electricity, running water, a bathroom, ceilings, or interior walls.
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