A $40,000 rebate program handed by the Freeport City Council Tuesday night time could possibly be the primary of a number of boons in 2023 for residents seeking to slash their heating payments and carbon footprints, in response to the advocacy group behind the proposal.
The brand new “Electrify Every little thing” rebate program, which developer Freeport Local weather Motion Now modeled off of comparable choices in cities like South Portland and Auburn, will provide as much as $2,000 to qualifying Freeport households that buy energy-efficient measures like warmth pumps, insulation upgrades, vitality assessments and extra.
“The local weather just isn’t certainly one of a number of priorities; it’s an existential precedence,” Councilor Ed Bradley mentioned earlier than voting to approve this system. “We have to do one thing as quickly as we will.”
Residents have already voiced settlement, Freeport CAN Secretary Bob Sullivan mentioned. Because the group developed its proposal over the past a number of months, about 700 folks signed a petition supporting the mission, which might be paid for with federal COVID aid funds.
“Individuals didn’t must be bought,” Sullivan mentioned. “They stopped at our desk and mentioned, ‘We’re for it. The place do I signal?’”
Households making as much as 90% of the realm median earnings ($70,380 for a person or $100,530 for a household of 4) might be eligible for this system.
Using warmth pumps has exploded in Maine because the expertise has improved over the previous decade, Andy Meyer, residential program supervisor at Effectivity Maine, informed the Occasions File in December. Switching to warmth pumps can lower the quantity of vitality wanted to heat a house by 50%, reducing heating payments in half and eliminating 1000’s of kilos of carbon dioxide emissions every year.
As of early December, Effectivity Maine’s personal warmth pump rebate program was on monitor to assist greater than 20,000 Maine households pay for the expertise in 2022, which Meyer referred to as “the most important revolution in heating for the reason that invention of fireside.”
That recognition has lengthened set up wait occasions, which can forestall Freeport residents from having fun with the fee saving advantages of warmth pumps this winter, mentioned Freeport CAN Coordinator Kathleen Sullivan, who’s married to Bob Sullivan. Rebates for insulation, air sealing and different weatherization efforts might have a extra speedy impression for these struggling to pay their heating payments.
“Getting any individual to return do an audit takes a very long time and to put in the warmth pumps takes a very long time,” she mentioned. “However there are issues you are able to do your self with out having to rent any individual.”
Talks on DIY heating effectivity initiatives and residential vitality audits might be two of 4 featured panel discussions at an upcoming house vitality options workshop on the Freeport Neighborhood Heart on Feb. 25. The occasion, organized by FreeportCAN, Freeport Neighborhood Providers and Balsam Realty, may even function periods on excessive tech effectivity upgrades and assets to assist finance weatherization efforts.
Extra assist might arrive from the federal authorities later this yr. The Excessive-Effectivity Electrical Dwelling Rebate Act, a part of the Inflation Discount Act President Joe Biden signed into regulation in August, will present qualifying households with as much as $14,000 in rebates for qualifying electrification initiatives, together with warmth pump installations and weatherization.
With these bigger rebates across the nook, Freeport CAN and members of the City Council urge residents to contemplate ready to drag the set off on main purchases like warmth pumps. However for individuals who can afford it, they are saying, there’s worth in racing to chop emissions.
“It’s nice that folks can get monetary savings,” Bob Sullivan mentioned. “However look, we’re attempting to save lots of the planet.”
Extra details about Freeport’s rebate program might be obtainable in town web site as soon as the registration course of is finalized.
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