[Chat] Notes from Retrofit Baltimore meeting

[Emil Volcheck]

Notes from Retrofit Baltimore meeting

On Monday evening, Kathleen and I attended an information session
offered by Retrofit Baltimore, which is a project of the nonprofit
Civic Works.  The staff are Americorps/VISTAs.  Their website is

    http://retrofitbaltimore.org/  .

Retrofit offers home energy audits, recommends ways to make your house
more energy efficient, and can refer you to contractors to do the
work.  They emphasize whole house energy "make overs" rather than
small-scale improvements like weather-stripping.  Retrofit is
affiliated with a Civic Works social enterprise called EnergyReady,
which acts like the contracting arm of the organization.  EnergyReady
and Retrofit cooperate with Bmoregreen, which is a nonprofit that
offers green job training to individuals who face barriers to
employment (e.g., ex-cons).

Amanda Giorgio from Retrofit gave a slide show presentation.  Other
Retrofit staff there were Evie, Jasmine, Kevin, and Jeremy.  The
energy audits from Retrofit sound comparable to those you can get from
Terra Logos (http://www.terralogos.com/).  They analyze your "building
envelope" meaning the the rooms and the volume of air you want to
protect or climate control.  Their "house doctor" Paul brings a
"blower door" to the front of your house, which forces air out to
create negative pressure that exaggerates air leaks.  Then using an
infrared gauge, they look for leaks and the right way to seal them.
For example, they look at making air barriers to prevent cold air from
seeping in through the basement.  Giorgio stressed that you don't want
to seal so tightly that you lose healthy ventilation but that you need
to seal enough so that you don't simply make the remaining leaks
worse.

Some ways to improve building energy usage include
  * spray foam to seal basement air leaks
  * cellulose insulation for attics (made from recycled newspaper)
  * cool roof coating made from white acrylic

The energy audit costs $495.  If you then do a certain basic amount of
work on your home, you qualify for a $250 rebate from BGE on the
audit.  You can get a 21 percent rebate on a retrofit, with about 6
percent federal and 15 percent from the state.  The federal rebate is
currently approved only through the end of the year.

Giorgio promoted their partnership with EnergyReady.  Retrofit,
EnergyReady, and Bmoregreen have a warehouse on Frankfurt Ave. in West
Baltimore where they offer hands-on training in doing retrofits in a
lab that simulates a house.  Bmoregreen training lasts 3 months.
Their goals are to ensure high training standards and to create local
job opportunities by steering business to local companies that offer
living wages and high training standards.  EnergyReady offers better
than a living wage, about $15/hour.  Their retrofits comply with
Building Performance Institute standards.  Retrofit is interested in
partnering with other companies, but so far it's only EnergyReady.

If you'd like more information, you can contact Amanda Giorgio at
agiorgio at retrofitbaltimore.org .  She's interested in giving the
presentation again.  This presentation was aimed at Abell, but she's
willing to meet other community associations.  The presentation ran
about 30 minutes, but with questions and discussion, it ran about an
hour.

Thanks,

--Emil


-- 
Emil Volcheck
volcheck at acm.org
http://EmilVolcheck.com/