EOC Program Success Stories
Conifer Home Upgrades & the CARE Program
The Colorado Affordable Residential Energy (CARE) program provides income-qualified Coloradans with free home energy efficiency upgrades for homeowners and renters statewide.
This past summer, EOC began much-needed weatherization work on a home in Conifer, CO only to find that the home needed many more upgrades than originally anticipated. The home is occupied by Amy and her dog Annie. There was no insulation in the floor, or walls, and almost no insulation in the attic. It had become impossible for them to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Amy was struggling to afford her gas bill each month with rising costs, and without the CARE program, she may not have been able to remain in her home.
Total cost: $13,757.25
To bring the home to proper efficiency standards, our program partners at Northwest Colorado Council of Governments — did a complete furnace clean, performed air sealing, and installed attic insulation, floor insulation, wall insulation, duct insulation/sealing, and six storm windows.
Your CARE program crew weatherized my house this summer and I am so grateful for all the many things you did to my place. The time and effort you took to insulate has made the house feel solid. Not too hot inside this summer and now with winter here, the heat is working throughout the house. It had been very hard trying to stay warm through the winters and I have struggled to pay my gas bill. Now I can look forward to staying warm for a long, long time. My old dog Annie says thank you too.
In life we make plans, we work hard and think we can do it all until you find yourself living alone on a beautiful, but freezing cold, windy mountain wondering how you can buy groceries and pay your gas bill.
Thanks to the CARE program, my story has changed. Pride is no longer a self-can-do attitude to me. Pride means being thankful for the helping hands in my life.
From the bottom of my heart – thank you!
Amy and Annie
Women's Bean Project
& The Nonprofit Energy Efficiency Program
Women’s Bean Project is a Denver 501c3 that hires women experiencing chronic unemployment to develop their job readiness skills and break the cycle of poverty. The women are employed as production assistants, making and packing the dry goods that are sold to individuals in their retail stores or distributed to big box stores. This income supports their programming and wrap-around services provided to the women, such as case management and life skill classes. Their building is comprised of offices, meeting rooms, a manufacturing floor, and retail space. With the need for their services rising, they relocated from their location on Curtis Street to a larger building on Alameda, doubling the space.
Energy Outreach Colorado has a strong relationship with the Women’s Bean Project, having worked on their old building and provided them with Bill Payment Assistance during the COVID pandemic. When plans were made to relocate to the new building, the EOC Nonprofit Energy Efficiency Program (NEEP) was involved from the design stage to ensure that energy efficiency was considered as a part of the remodel. The building was previously a used car sales and repair garage which needed a lot of envelope and HVAC work to make the space usable and comfortable as a warehouse.
Overall NEEP was able to provide a grant of $75,000 leveraging funding from D-ONE, Xcel, and Energy Outreach Colorado.
Updates included ceiling and wall insulation and the installation of four high-efficiency rooftop units. Almost an entire wall of garage windows was converted into wall space and insulated. And all lighting was converted to LEDs.
The organization is expected to save 46,186 kWh and 526 therms annually, funding that can be directed back into serving more women.
Keep The Lights On Colorado Campaign Hosted by Namaste Solar
made solar energy more accessible to 395 Colorado families
Through the generosity of 16 corporate sponsors, 60 individual donors, and one matching gift, the campaign raised $98,900. All of the funds raised will purchase community solar subscriptions to help Colorado families struggling to afford their home energy bills.
Each subscription provides long-term stability in the form of monthly bill credits that reduce the burden of home energy costs by up to 37%.
Another impact is that the credits placed on families’ bills will offset 1,402,236 pounds of CO2 this year, the equivalent of 1,598,503 miles driven by one car.
