'Shrink Your Energy Bills' Presentation

2024-01-26 · board not identified · 1:08:28 · watch on YouTube →

A recorded public presentation, not a board meeting, given by a volunteer speaker addressed at the end as Sam, on how residents can use Inflation Reduction Act tax credits and Efficiency Maine rebates to cut their energy bills. He worked through four topics in order: home improvements and electric appliances, weatherization, solar, and electric vehicles, pointing throughout to the Efficiency Maine website, its toll-free help line and its registered vendor list, and to the Rewiring America calculator. He gave specific figures for what things cost and save, including an annual heating cost comparison, and described his own church's rooftop solar project and his own heat pump and electric car. Nothing was moved or voted on. Roughly the last quarter of the recording is questions from attendees, covering multifamily buildings, heat pump water heaters, air sealing without a full energy audit, and a caution about moisture. The host said the recording would be posted on the town YouTube channel.

No written minutes could be matched to this meeting. The transcript records that the speaker changed but never who was speaking, so any name attached to a statement below is inferred from context and is marked (?).

What was discussed

1. 0:03
   Scope of the presentation

   The speaker introduced the talk as covering electrifying a home, making it more energy efficient, going solar, and making a next vehicle electric. He noted the house shown on the slide is deliberately an ordinary one, because many of the rebates and tax credits are set up to benefit lower and middle income people rather than the wealthy.

2. 0:03
   Offshore wind and future demand

   A map showed a floating wind farm to be developed about 45 miles off Portland, far enough out not to be visible on the horizon and sited to avoid impacts on migrating birds. He cited a Maine economist and energy expert, whose name is garbled in the recording, as projecting that by 2050 the state will use about three times the electricity it uses now, with the hope that about half will come from offshore wind.

3. 0:03
   What can be saved on

   The categories listed were energy efficient electric appliances such as heat pumps, building envelope upgrades to walls, roof and basement, solar systems including an ownership share in a solar farm or a 10 to 15 percent discount on the electricity bill, and tax credits for new and used vehicles.

4. 0:03
   Two buckets of savings

   The speaker separated federal tax credits, harvested from the Internal Revenue Service rather than state taxes, from Inflation Reduction Act rebates, which in Maine are administered through Efficiency Maine. He flagged that a tax credit cannot be claimed until the year after the work is done, which can be a stumbling block for anyone without the upfront cash. Efficiency Maine has run its own rebates for years, funded largely through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

5. 0:03
   Why the incentives are confusing

   A slide of fine print from the Efficiency Maine website was shown to make the point that there are so many credits and rebates that the small print is only the tip of the iceberg. The speaker said his intent was to make it simpler.

6. 5:14
   Structure of the talk

   The material was broken into four topics taken in order: home improvements, weatherization, solar, and electric vehicles.

7. 5:14
   What qualifies for a home improvement tax credit

   Heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, energy audits, exterior doors, windows, air sealing, upgraded 200 amp breaker panels where the existing panel cannot handle electrification, and electric vehicle chargers. The speaker stressed that taking a tax credit does not rule out also taking a rebate on the same work.

8. 5:14
   Income tiers for Efficiency Maine rebates

   The largest rebates go to households with income below 80 percent of the area median. Households between 80 and 150 percent of area median income get smaller rebates, and everyone above that still qualifies for something.

9. 5:14
   The Rewiring America calculator

   Rewiring America is a national nonprofit whose home page carries a calculator. Entering five items, ZIP code, homeowner status, household income, whether you file singly or jointly, and the number of people in the home, returns a list of what you can claim. The speaker cautioned that because the site is designed for national use he does not think it is necessarily accurate on rebates, which are designed for Maine, and recommended checking those against Efficiency Maine.

10. 5:14
    Gas stoves

    The speaker acknowledged people like gas stoves for being quick and responsive, but noted burning gas releases carbon dioxide and that many gas appliances leak natural gas, which is primarily methane.

11. 10:36
    Methane and the scale of the problem

    Methane warms the climate faster than carbon dioxide but does not last as long in the atmosphere. He said methane pollution from gas stoves in the United States is roughly equal in climate impact to 500,000 non-electric cars, and argued that the moment a fossil fuel appliance is on its last legs is the moment to consider the alternatives.

12. 10:36
    How clean Maine's electricity is

    Answering the objection that electric appliances still draw from the grid, the speaker said about 64 to 65 percent of Maine's standard offer electricity comes from renewable sources, the largest being wind at around 25 percent, then hydro, then solar and biomass. He said the work of the Maine Climate Council should make it cleaner over the next couple of decades.

13. 10:36
    Induction ranges

    The speaker bought an induction range during the covid period and has been pleased with it. It costs somewhat more than a conventional range, though the very expensive models are high end rather than necessary, and only the cooktop is induction while the oven is conventional.

14. 10:36
    Replacing appliances at end of life

    He described his sister-in-law losing her hot water heater with water all over the floor and not knowing heat pump water heaters existed, and being able to steer her away from what the technician recommended. Heat pump hot water heaters cost much less to operate than conventional electric ones, and heat pumps for space heating save money for households heating with oil.

15. 10:36
    Electrical panel and wiring credit

    Electrifying a home may require a panel upgrade, a sub panel or rewiring. There is a 30 percent tax credit covering labour as well as materials, up to a $600 limit. He worked the example: $1,000 of electrical work yields a $300 credit, which is under the cap.

16. 16:00
    Efficiency Maine's help line

    The speaker said the Efficiency Maine website is rich but sometimes hard to navigate, and recommended its toll-free number, staffed weekdays during the day, where the operator connects the caller to someone expert in the particular area.

17. 16:00
    Cost of heating calculator

    One of his favourite pages compares the average annual cost in Maine of every way of heating a home, updated monthly, with a calculator you can put your own numbers into. He downloaded the version shown on January 14th. He highlighted heating with an oil boiler at $3,373 a year, the most common heating source in Maine, against $1,698 a year to run a ductless heat pump.

18. 16:00
    Caveat on that comparison

    In fairness to the oil dealers he said it is not an apples to apples comparison, because a ductless heat pump does not send air to all the rooms of a house and works best with a fairly open floor plan. He said his own two-storey home has two heat pumps, so his heating cost might come close to what he had spent on oil, although that has not been his experience, which he attributed to heat rising from the ground floor so that he may effectively use only about one and a half heat pumps.

19. 16:00
    How a heat pump works

    A head mounted on the inside wall and a condenser unit outside, moving heat from the outdoor air into the house by compressing and decompressing gas, and reversing in summer to act as an air conditioner, which the speaker finds quieter than an air conditioner. He said there is plenty of evidence they work down to about minus 15 degrees, using more energy but still viable, and that Efficiency Maine is anxious for people not to switch over to their backup oil or gas heat when they should let the heat pump run.

20. 21:13
    Whole house heat pump rebates

    A newer programme offers rebates for whole house systems, where one outdoor unit serves two or three indoor units in different rooms. Rebates go as high as $8,000, but the speaker stressed the words up to, because that maximum is for a fairly low income household. Federal tax credits can be taken on top.

21. 21:13
    Heat pump water heaters and a store offer

    Heat pump water heaters are tall, need plenty of air circulation, and cool the surrounding air because they harvest warmth from it. He described a Lowe's offer of a $1,050 rebate now taken as a discount, bringing the unit itself to $349, while noting that plumbers and electricians do not come cheap so the working unit will cost considerably more.

22. 21:13
    Rebate at the checkout by QR code

    At Lowe's or Home Depot a QR code near the appliance opens a form on your phone that you fill in before going to the checkout, so the rebate comes off as a discount at the point of sale. The speaker noted this avoids paying credit card interest on money you will later get back.

23. 21:13
    Finding an installer

    Efficiency Maine's registered vendor page lets you search by ZIP code and by distance, within 10, 25 or 50 miles, and shows how many installations of a given appliance each vendor has done. He used it to find a contractor near Harpswell for his sister-in-law who had done many heat pump installations.

24. 21:13
    Weatherization and negawatts

    The speaker introduced weatherization through the joke term negawatt, a unit of energy you do not use. Beyond the direct saving, reducing electricity demand makes cleaning up the grid easier because less new generation is needed.

25. 26:27
    Comfort as well as cost

    He made the point that these changes are not meant to make a home less comfortable. Eliminating drafts from small holes makes a house noticeably more comfortable in cold weather as well as cheaper to run.

26. 26:27
    The stack effect and the blower door test

    Warm air rising and escaping high up draws cold air in low down, creating the stack effect and the drafts that waste heating energy. A blower door test mounts a fan in a nylon fitting in an open doorway to depressurise the house while a second person finds the leaks with a caulking gun, a smoke candle or an infrared camera and seals them on the spot. The speaker said there is a fairly inexpensive way to get this done through Efficiency Maine without paying for a whole house energy audit.

27. 26:27
    Insulation, doors and windows

    In an attic with 12 to 14 inches of loose fill it is hard to reach leaks around light fixtures and plumbing penetrations. The tax credits he listed were 30 percent up to $1,200 overall, $250 toward a new door with a $500 maximum, and up to $600 for replacement windows, with the warning that only certain designs and brands qualify and that the IRS website or the contractor will know which.

28. 26:27
    Credits that reset each year

    Some Inflation Reduction Act credits reset annually, so timing projects to fall in successive years lets a household claim the same cap several times over a number of years.

29. 26:27
    Heat loss through windows

    The speaker cited the Department of Energy as saying about 30 percent of heating money goes out through the windows, and that leaky old windows mean larger energy bills.

30. 31:51
    Window Dressers inserts

    Window Dressers is a nonprofit started in Rockland, Maine, which the speaker has been involved with for over a decade. Since 2011 it has built 68,000 insulating window inserts with community groups across Maine, Vermont and now New Hampshire. Each insert is a one by two frame, screwed and glued at the corners, wrapped in foam weatherstripping with a layer of film on each side; volunteers measure every window individually and guarantee a pressure fit that lasts around ten years.

31. 31:51
    Cost and free inserts

    The average cost for a mid-sized window is about $45, which the speaker said is exactly what it costs to make. Money (?) raised from foundations and individuals lets the group supply about a third of its inserts free to low income households, up to ten per home with no paperwork if it is clear the household is struggling with energy bills. The catch is that recipients help build them, in person or by sending someone, and the Brunswick build aims for about 300 inserts next year for 25 or 30 families. Inserts do not qualify for a tax credit or rebate.

32. 31:51
    Solar and net metering

    Solar produces no carbon or methane pollution and is generated locally. Under net metering a Maine solar owner gets a one for one credit for excess power sent to the grid, drawn back when the sun is not shining. The speaker advised sizing a system close to, and usually slightly under, actual usage, since a larger system throws money away.

33. 31:51
    Solar tax credit and cost

    The federal credit allows 30 percent of the total installation cost to be deducted, is available until 2033, and can be carried from one year to the next if the household's tax liability is too small to absorb it all. He said his church's rooftop system cost $23,000, and used a $24,000 system as the worked example, giving close to $8,000 off. He recommended the site energysage.com.

34. 37:12
    What a solar installation involves

    Panels produce direct current, so an inverter to convert it to alternating current is part of the system cost, and nothing can go out to the grid unconverted. A homeowner needs to own the property and have the right to install on the roof, must check for land use restrictions, should re-roof first if the roof is in poor shape because removing and replacing panels costs several thousand dollars, and should have a contractor assess orientation and tree shading.

35. 37:12
    Payback and oversizing

    Systems pay for themselves in roughly 9 to 12 years while the panels function far longer, the upper figure garbled in the recording but given as up to 30 years. The speaker holds a community solar farm share and said his bills are under $20 a month for most of the year. He suggested oversizing a system if an electric vehicle is a possibility within a few years.

36. 37:12
    A historic zone that banned solar

    His church discovered it was in a historic zone where solar was forbidden, and spent an extra year working with the planning board to change the zoning regulations. They succeeded, so with the proper preparation and qualifications panels visible from the street are now allowed in that zone.

37. 37:12
    How the church financed it

    Four lenders lent at 3 percent, to be repaid over five years, after which the church owns the system free and clear. As a nonprofit the church could take no tax credit. For a homeowner he said a home equity line of credit is the more likely route, with interest rates coming down as inflation comes under control.

38. 37:12
    The case for electric vehicles

    Lower operating cost, reduced maintenance with fewer moving parts, no oil changes and no exhaust system, overnight home charging, fewer emissions and less dependence on fuel from away. The speaker bought one a year and a half ago and said his wife, who had not wanted him to buy it, will not give it up.

39. 37:12
    The Chevy Bolt

    The speaker's car is a Chevy Bolt, taken out of production but going back into production in 2025 after complaints. He said that last winter, if you met the income restrictions on the tax credit, the car could be had for under $20,000 after the $7,500 credit.

40. 42:32
    Affordability and transport emissions

    He said he is tired of $50,000 Teslas and that more affordable vehicles like the Nissan Leaf and the Bolt are what is needed. He cited 54 percent of Maine's carbon pollution as coming from fossil fuel transportation, and a typical gas vehicle emitting over 5 tons of CO2 a year, more than four times an electric vehicle charged on the New England grid.

41. 42:32
    Public health figures

    He said that if the country went fully electric nationwide by 2035, which he does not expect, it could avoid over 89,000 premature deaths and more than two million asthma attacks, and yield close to a trillion dollars in public health benefits.

42. 42:32
    Range, charging and battery technology

    He said he would not own an electric vehicle as his only car, because he visits a son in Connecticut and there are not enough working chargers to avoid long interruptions. He described solid state batteries already going into new factories as offering more range, lower cost and easier recycling, and called the misinformation about electric vehicles baloney.

43. 42:32
    Three ways to charge

    A standard wall outlet takes about 13 hours; a 240 volt dryer circuit charges overnight in about 7 hours depending on the vehicle; a level three DC charger at a dealership is fastest but degrades the battery a little faster with frequent use. He said Maine has received a federal grant, the amount garbled in the recording, to install nearly 600 charging stations in more than 70 cities and towns, money that is about to arrive; the first chargers went along the interstate routes and the focus is now shifting to people in urban areas who do not own homes.

44. 42:32
    Checking whether a vehicle qualifies

    A state incentive funded by the Volkswagen settlement reduces the vehicle cost on top of the federal credit. Before putting money down, he advised copying the VIN and checking on the relevant website where the vehicle was manufactured, because a vehicle not manufactured in North America does not qualify. He noted the list changes constantly as manufacturers respond, and that the restriction has been controversial.

45. 47:40
    Vehicle and charger tax credits

    The credits are $7,500 on a new vehicle and $4,000 on a used one. As a change taking effect in 2024, the buyer no longer waits until the following tax year: the dealer takes the credit and passes the saving on at purchase, so the buyer can take out a smaller loan. Home charging equipment carries a credit up to a $1,000 limit.

46. 47:40
    Electric bike incentive

    The speaker said an electric bike incentive is coming. He was initially puzzled by it, then thought of the people he sees walking or cycling to work who plainly cannot afford a car, and said he had been told the programme is set up particularly for low income people who need some form of electrified transport.

47. 47:40
    Closing advice

    He recommended making a multi-year plan and doing one thing at a time rather than several at once, with the end goal of getting off fossil fuels as far as possible. He said he asked Annie Meyer (?) of Efficiency Maine where people should start, and was told that people wrongly think they must get an energy audit first, that these cost about $500, and that people should start wherever they want, perhaps with a heat pump.

48. 47:40
    Two closing figures

    He gave two statistics, the first partly garbled in the recording: that a heat pump is sold on average every five to six minutes around the clock, and that nearly one in every ten heat pump hot water heaters sold in the country is sold in Maine. He also mentioned Citizens Climate Lobby, showed a photograph of the group outside the United States Capitol, and gave out his phone number.

49. 53:35
    Question on multifamily buildings

    A property manager said she is constantly doing this kind of work but that multifamily buildings fall under a different rebate system, and that she is replacing a hot water heater about once every couple of weeks without knowing how to use the credits in that setting. The speaker said he did not know, describing himself as a volunteer rather than a professional, and suggested Efficiency Maine, the Maine Department of Housing and possibly the Greater Portland Council of Governments.

50. 53:35
    The sister-in-law's water heater in detail

    On MaineCare and with disabilities, she could have qualified for a free heat pump water heater. The technician who came out, from a company that sells them, told her only to get a new tank and hook it to her oil boiler. When she did reach Efficiency Maine the qualifying contractor list was restricted and carried a month-long wait while her tank was about to fail and empty onto the floor, so she took $3,700 out of her retirement savings and used a contractor she liked. The speaker's conclusion was that with these programmes the more you know and the more small print you read, the better off you are.

51. 58:42
    Advice on heating multifamily units

    The property manager described a three unit building where two floors have no heat at all, and an electrician whose first proposal was one heat pump plus electric baseboard. The speaker pointed back to the heating cost chart showing electric baseboard as the most expensive option, and they discussed multiple heat pumps instead. He also raised the through-the-wall heat pump units now being installed across New York City apartments as a possible fit, and advised calling the Efficiency Maine hotline.

52. 58:42
    Question from Roberta on heat pump water heaters

    Asked whether a heat pump water heater in a basement needs ducting or a vent to the outside, the speaker said no, it uses the air already there and in his experience lowers the basement temperature by only a degree or two. He confirmed one can run alongside an existing oil burner; his own basement is unheated because they no longer run the oil burner.

53. 58:42
    The church's propane water heater

    A propane hot water heater in the church attic failed with a repair quoted at around $4,200. Instead they brought in Fred Horch, an energy efficiency consultant in Brunswick whose company is Spark Applied Efficiency, who worked out how to fit a heat pump water heater in a bathroom with no basement, including arranging for a fan to come on when the door was closed. The speaker recommended him to the property manager as someone who would at least know where to send her.

54. 1:03:45
    Comment on the church solar install

    An attendee said her husband, Ian Hubbard, appears in the slide deck as the crew lead on the roof for that solar installation. He worked for Maine Solar Solutions at the time and now works for a company based in Gray.

55. 1:03:45
    Comment on negawatts and night lighting

    The same attendee said she had not heard the term negawatt before and liked the idea that one of the solutions is simply not to use the energy in the first place. She raised neighbours who run outside lights all night, which the speaker noted is also bad for migrating birds.

56. 1:03:45
    Air sealing without a full audit

    An attendee said she had not known leaks could be found and caulked on the spot, and that the cost of a full audit had been putting her off. The speaker said the programme used to be called the air sealing programme and included before and after blower door reports showing what had been saved, that crews often deal with chimneys and fireplaces in attics, and put the current cost somewhere in the four to seven hundred dollar range against about $500 for an energy audit alone.

57. 1:03:45
    Caution about moisture

    The speaker added something he had meant to say earlier: do not tighten up a house that has a moisture problem, because tightening can make the problem worse and cost a lot of money. An attendee said this was exactly the kind of thing a website would not tell her.

58. 1:03:45
    Close

    The host thanked the speaker, observing that the same information would otherwise require visiting a great many websites and would not include his own experience, and said the recording would be made available on the town YouTube channel.

Worth knowing

• 16:00
  Efficiency Maine's cost of heating comparison, as downloaded on January 14th, puts the average annual cost of heating a Maine home with an oil boiler at $3,373 against $1,698 for a ductless heat pump. The speaker's own caveat is that this is not an apples to apples comparison, because a ductless heat pump does not reach every room.
• 53:35
  The speaker's sister-in-law, on MaineCare and with disabilities, could have qualified for a free heat pump water heater. The technician who came out told her only to replace the tank and hook it to her oil boiler, and by the time she reached Efficiency Maine the qualifying contractor list carried a month-long wait, so she paid $3,700 out of her retirement savings. His conclusion was that these programmes reward whoever reads the small print.
• 31:51
  Window Dressers gives away about a third of its insulating window inserts, up to ten per household with no paperwork, to people who are clearly struggling with energy bills, on condition that they help build them. Otherwise a mid-sized insert costs about $45, which is what it costs the nonprofit to make.
• 47:40
  As of 2024 the electric vehicle tax credit, $7,500 new and $4,000 used, no longer has to wait for the following year's tax return. The dealer takes the credit and passes the saving on at the point of sale, so the buyer borrows less.

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