Politics & Government

Town Launches Free Home-Energy Audit Program

U.S. Rep. Steve Israel joined Supervisor Frank Petrone Wednesday at the Urso home in Huntington where the first audit of the pilot program was performed.

Two-thousand Huntington residents now have the opportunity for a free energy audit that town officials say they hope will translate in to lower utility bills.

Well, make that 1,999. The first Huntington family has already been audited. They are the Urso family who live on Rusco Street in Huntington.

They opened their home for the pilot program, allowing a representative of an energy efficiency web-based software supplier called EnerPath in to their home to provide an audit.

Their audit found several ways that their 12-year-old home could become more energy efficient and a list was provided for their reference right on the spot via a wireless computer brought by the EnerPath representative.

Supervisor Frank Petrone noted that is a fairly new house for the area. "Imagine the improvements that could be made in older homes," he said.

The so-called Huntington Energy Efficiency Retrofit Program will use federal stimulus funds for the program.

Find out what's happening in Huntingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The program places Huntington at the forefront of efforts by the United States Department of Energy to identify residential and commercial energy efficiency and conservation programs that are replicable, scaleable and sustainable, according to U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, D-Huntington, who appeared with the supervisor as well as councilmen Mark Cuthbertson and Mark Mayoka and Councilwoman Susan Berland to announce the program  at the Urso home. It will also likely provide local contractors with jobs, he said.

Town officials estimate this program will save twelve times as much energy and reduce twelve times more greenhouse gases than pursuing complex energy improvements before simple improvements have been made.

Find out what's happening in Huntingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In Los Angeles, a similar program for small businesses ended up not only saving 72,000 MWh per year, the equivalent of removing 7.200 homes, it created direct jobs for 20 auditors and over 200 local contractors who performed the recommended improvements.

Homeowners wishing to schedule a survey should go out to www.ligreen.com/huntington or call 631-721-1908.


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