Are your home heating and energy bills high? Did you know that home weatherization and heating system upgrades (insulation, cold climate heat pumps, etc.) can reduce yearly energy bills by 35% to 50% or more while making your home less drafty and more comfortable?

On Saturday, Nov. 16, St. Andrew’s Episocpal Church in Newcastle is hosting a home energy workshop for residents of Lincoln County. The goal of the event is to provide homeowners with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with proven home energy saving options and to provide residents with the background to make informed choices about possible upgrades.

If a homeowner wants to reduce energy use, where are the best places to start? How effective are heat pumps or attic insulation or air sealing at making a home more comfortable and easier to heat? How soon will a homeowner get the cost of the energy upgrade back in lower energy bills? How does a homeowner insure quality work? What are the options to finance a project?

This free home energy workshop, which runs from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., will bring together people with decades of energy experience to discuss these questions. The workshop will be facilitated by Larry Pritchett, who chaired Rockland’s Energy Committee for seven years, and Stephen Ward, who served as public advocate for utility customers at the Public Utilities Commission from 1986 until 2007.

Rockland received Maine’s highest energy efficiency award from Efficiency Maine for the community and municipal work the Energy Committee lead between 2010 and 2017. One project was Weatherize Rockland through which over 100 homeowners signed up for home energy evaluations and home energy upgrade projects.

As public advocate, Ward was active in the creation of Efficiency Maine, the state’s resource for energy efficiency and heating upgrades. In the last decade, Efficiency Maine has provided resources and incentives to ten of thousands of homeowners for energy saving upgrades.

Bridget Doxee, residential program manager at Efficiency Maine, will also be present to answer questions about effective options, Efficiency Maine incentives, and project financing. For many years Bridget has focused her work on providing resources that enable low and moderate income homeowners to lower their energy bills and make their homes more comfortable.

And, the Maine legislature recently established a goal of installing a 100,000 heat pumps in homes and businesses by 2025. Scott Libby, founder and owner of Royal River Heat Pumps, will be on hand to explain this highly efficient and low cost heating option. Scott has received awards from Efficiency Maine for his work in the field of heating and ventilation.

Thinking of attending? Please consider filling out the Home Energy Survey at the link below. This will allow planners to focus the discussion on areas of interest to attendees and on the barriers to completing home energy upgrades Lincoln County residents may have encountered. https://forms.gle/xVD1mWuvQcsr4T4f9

This energy efficiency work is part of St Andrew’s broader “Creation Care” initiative. Warming ocean waters and increasing ocean acidification, both largely due to burning fossil fuels like heating oil, threaten the long term health of the Damariscotta region’s signature oyster fishery. Plus, businesses and buildings in the heart of Damariscotta village, and other coastal towns, are particularly vulnerable to flooding, damage, and loss due to even modest levels of sea level rise.

Maine uses more heating oil (60% of homes) and has draftier homes than any other state. Making homes more energy efficient and converting to systems like cold climate heat pumps both lowers costs to homeowners and reduces Maine’s contribution to climate change.

For more info about the workshop check out the survey link above and the event page on Facebook (fb.me/weatherizelincolncounty), or contact Steve Ward (sward@tidewater.net or 563-8191) or Larry Pritchett (larry.r.pritchett@outlook.com or 594-8806).