Financial Options for Energy Efficiency: A Program to Reduce the Energy Cost Burden on Low Income Residents.

摘要

A significant proportion of New Orleans' residents have incomes below poverty level and often rent living quarters in houses which were built over eighty years ago. Original building designs often included passive cooling elements such as high ceilings, functioning transoms, shutters, overhangs and proper site orientation. Subsequent modifications which include installation of air conditioning, lowered ceilings and security devices have negated many of the effects of the original passive design features. Infiltration is also a significant problem during both heating and cooling seasons. Increasing utility costs coupled with recent reductions in energy cost assistance programs impose a severe stress on residents with lower incomes. A potential solution to these increasing cost burdens was to combine simple physical weatherization techniques with more efficiency in the use of energy in the home. This project sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of low cost and no cost weatherization techniques in New Orleans and to illustrate that such investments can be recovered in a short period of time through reduced energy bills.