Conserving Energy, Saving Cash

  • Print
Details
Created on Friday, 30 November 2012 15:39
Written by Joseph Peters

Efficiency VTST. JOHNSBURY - Energy efficiency was on display in St. Johnsbury on Wednesday night, as members of Efficiency Vermont and the Northern Vermont Development Association met with town officials to discuss ways to make town buildings more efficient.

 

"It reduces the tax burdens on the towns," said Paul Markowitz, the program manager for Efficiency Vermont. "The towns aren't spending as much on energy, they don't need as much in taxes to pay for those energy costs."

One of the places that local government has invested in is the Lyndon Town School. The building, which houses five hundred students on a daily basis, used metal halide fixtures and standard light switches for a number of years. The school wanted to install an occupancy sensor to replace the light switches, and replace the inefficient bulbs with friendly fluorescents. While most deemed the project necessary, it was too big to include in the budget and not big enough to apply for a bond. Efficiency Vermont helped the school finish the project in 2011.

"The bottom line is that efficiency improvements in buildings, making municipal buildings more efficient, is a good investment," Markowitz said.

The Lyndon Town School project cost just over seventy thousand dollars. The estimated energy savings per year is about eighteen thousand dollars, which means the project will have paid for itself by 2016. Now, both Efficiency Vermont and the NVDA hope that towns use the Lyndon Town School example as a blueprint for saving money by saving energy.