Empowering Families to D-Power Their Homes
• An HKS student’s social enterprise
Would you be interested in saving $200 to $500 on your annual home energy bills at no cost to yourself?
If you answered yes, then you should learn more about energy efficiency. It reduces your energy consumption and carbon emissions while saving you money. Big businesses, governments, universities, and hospitals have caught on, and are working with energy service companies to invest billions of dollars in large-scale efficiency projects. In residential homes, however, efficiency projects have been slow to take off. With the costs of home energy rising, families need a better model to help make their homes more energy efficient.
The Problem: Why families are not greening their homes
The average U.S. family spends about $2,000 on their annual home electricity and heating bill. About half is spent on heating and cooling; the other half on lighting, refrigeration, cooking, electronics, and washing.
For most families, reducing their energy use is a headache. First, they have to schedule an energy audit from their utility company. After waiting up to three months for an appointment, they must accompany the engineer on a tour of their home. The auditor then provides a complicated list of recommended changes, which can range from a $5,000 re-insulation of the attic to a two dollar compact fluorescent light bulb, each with a different payback in savings.
Low-income families often do not have the resources to invest in an ENERGY STAR appliance or home upgrade. Families that rent their homes face an even greater challenge, since they have to convince the building owner to also take action.
It’s no wonder that most families don’t know about these programs, decide they are too costly or too much of a hassle, or are unable to set aside time to implement the recommendations.
In light of these barriers, over the past few years, utilities and state governments have made it easier for families to save hundreds of dollars every year on their energy bills. Unlike solar and other renewable technologies, which cost more than electricity and heat derived from fossil fuels, an energy efficient refrigerator can pay for itself in one year. A programmable thermostat can pay for itself in one month.
To promote efficiency, fourteen states, including California and Massachusetts, have passed “decoupling” laws, whereby state utilities are no longer paid based on how much energy customers use. This means that for the first time, utilities like NStar can make money by helping families use less energy. This profit incentive, combined with state requirements for efficiency spending whenever cost-effective, is leading power companies to invest in efficiency in unprecedented numbers.
Almost all utilities now offer free energy audits, and many even pay the entire upfront cost of the efficiency investment. Massachusetts recently launched the Cambridge Energy Alliance, an innovative nonprofit that partners with utilities and banks to spread efficiency across the city by paying all upfront investment costs and recouping them out of future savings. The biggest remaining challenge is how to find enough trained engineers to conduct energy audits, and enough families willing to sign up and take action.
The Solution: D-Power
To help families achieve energy efficiency savings, I am working to launch D-Power, a social enterprise to train and motivate youth to reduce their families’ energy usage. The program combines environmental youth activism and technical training in the newest generation of low-cost efficiency technologies. The aim is to empower students to reduce their home energy bills by up to $500.
D-Power will lower the barrier for families, especially low-income families, to invest in efficiency. It will engage youth in a 12-week after-school program to learn how to (1) audit the homes of their families and neighbors and (2) install low-tech, low-cost efficiency technologies, including programmable thermostats, compact fluorescent light bulbs, low-flow showerheads, water heater blankets, and appliance upgrades. Students will use new smart meters and software to track energy use and savings. Similar to current programs, D-Power will partner with utilities and community development banks to fund the initial investments for families, which potentially will be repaid from future savings.
D-Power will make efficiency fun, offering prizes to student teams that achieve the most savings. It will translate the engineering language of efficiency into an action plan to which youth can relate. Instead of utility audits and complicated reports, students will work directly with their parents and neighbors to implement common-sense, low-cost investments, and to inform them of more costly appliance and structural upgrades.
Other nonprofits have demonstrated that this model can work. The Go Green Initiative, for example, has engaged over one million students and teachers in making their schools more environmentally friendly. Green For All is promoting the next generation of “green-collar jobs” for urban youth. In Germany, the Power Scout program has made video games to teach youth about energy efficiency and has created a contract that enables students to split any savings with their parents. D-Power will combine the strategies of these diverse organizations to help low-income families save millions of dollars on their bills, while training a new generation for the green jobs and sustainable lifestyle of the future.
Little steps, big change
The clean energy movement often focuses on the big changes: dozens of new nuclear plants, billions of gallons of biofuels, or windfarms as far as the eye can see. But to transition to a low carbon economy, small steps must be taken at the most local level – within the home of every family. D-Power is just one idea for combining money savings, new technologies, and youth energy to help move a generation towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
Comments
2 Responses to “Empowering Families to D-Power Their Homes”
Got something to say?
Adam - I’m thrilled to see that you are folllowing your dream with this project.
I love the fact that this approach will not only educate communities about saving energy but will also help families work together on a common goal. Let’s talk more about the incentives for the students. . . Well done!!!! Very exciting. . .
Love, Mom
Adam,
I am very fond of your idea. I even shared it with my class this morning! Keep up the hard work.
Love,
Raquel