Residents and staff are gaining valuable knowledge about how to reduce their utility bills.
Last week, five UVA undergraduate students of the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering held home energy efficiency workshops for members of Building a Bridge. The team of students consisting of Jessica Hayes, Arianna Parsons, Monique Agüero, Neil Place, and Joey Muething demonstrated energy-saving tips, as well as specific findings from energy audits conducted at two of the organization’s homes, that the residents and staff can use to improve their home’s efficiency and lower their energy bills.
The student team conducted these workshops as part of a University course this spring that teaches students how to develop and build community-based projects in the Charlottesville community. Mentored by Paxton Marshall, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UVA, the students have spent the semester conducting energy audits on several Charlottesville homes. They received training on conducting these audits at Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Construction Academy. There, Charlie Carter, Program Manager at the Academy, trained several teams of students in concepts such as identifying inefficient hot water heaters, locating air leaks in windows, and how to calculate the annual amount of money lost through home inefficiency.
The spring student energy audits are part of a pilot program being conducted by the Local Energy Alliance Program in Charlottesville. LEAP, a community-based nonprofit funded by a $500K grant from the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, will conduct energy audits, energy efficiency retrofits, and behavioral education in residential and commercial buildings. LEAP will work directly with property owners as well as stakeholders in government, local utilities, the contracting community, and other nonprofits in hopes of reducing total building energy use by 20-40%. As part of the pilot program, several Building a Bridge homes were audited.
We are currently working on many of the tips and hope to be able to save much more energy and money in the future.