United Way’s Community Energy Challenge counters high home energy costs with volunteer-built windows – Daily Bulldog

At last year’s workshop, Maria Ross and Ed King assemble a window frame while Lois Greenleaf adds handles to another frame for easy installation.

FARMINGTON – United Way of the Tri-Valley Area’s Community Energy Challenge will be once again be held this year, seeking to assist families hoping to reduce their heating costs this season.

The challenge is a volunteer-led, weatherization initiative operating in Franklin and northern Androscoggin County over the past five years. Families receiving fuel assistance can qualify for up to six free interior windows, each measured and built specifically for their windows. For those that don’t qualify for heating assistance, panels are priced at the cost of $1.50 per linear ft. The cost of the panels will pay for themselves in energy saved within the first heating season.

Interior window panels are available to householders living in Franklin County, Livermore and Livermore Falls. Part of the CEC program, according to the United Way, is engaging with homeowners and renters to participate in the workshops when possible and become more proactive toward reducing their home’s energy consumption.

The windows are constructed during workshops held on Saturday at Henderson Memorial Baptist Church on Academy Street. This year, United Way will be taking COVID-19 precautions for volunteers at the workshop as well as those that go into homes to install the windows, providing hand sanitizer and requiring the use of masks.

Community Energy Challenge window panel workshops will be held at Henderson Memorial on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon, beginning this Saturday, Oct. 3 and ending on Dec. 12.

Previous experience isn’t required and all are welcome to come help. According to United Way, more than 1,175 volunteers have spent more than 18,238 hours, building and installing 2,748 windows in roughly 500 households and community buildings. Those installations have saved an estimated $82,000 in energy costs, a number that continues to increase as more windows go into local houses.

The effort is supported by United Way and the Susan and Fritz Onion Component Fund of the Maine Community Foundation.

For more information about either volunteering for the program or obtaining windows for a home, call the United Way office at 778-5048.

Original Source: http://www.dailybulldog.com/db/features/united-ways-community-energy-challenge-counters-high-home-energy-costs-with-volunteer-built-windows/