Warwick town energy committee

The mission of the Warwick Buildings and Energy Committee is as follows:

"The purpose of the Warwick Buildings and Energy Committee is to assess town buildings and needs, and research options for the select board and Warwick citizens to encourage efficient energy consumption and optimal maintenance of town properties."

Click here for the 2009 report from the WBEC.

Click here for a list of materials in the energy kit that the Warwick committee has supplied to the local library.

Fall 2008 Presentation by Steve and Janice Kurkoski on some of the energy projects the town committee has been working on.

Annual Report from the Warwick Buildings & Energy Committee for FY08

These are a few of our accomplishments in the past year:

Town Hall:
- Reduced heating oil use by installing programmable thermostat Ð cost $0 (donated)
- Reduced electric consumption in the Town Hall by 30% in these ways:
  - lighting upgrade - town paid $211, National Grid paid $994
  - installed substitute refrigerator - saves about $30 per month, cost $0 (donated)
  - computer monitor upgrade - flat screen monitors use about half the energy of CRT monitors
- Made temporary repairs to some broken windows
- Rebuilt 1 window in selectboard's office to better estimate cost of doing all the windows.
- Obtained estimate to replace storm windows with new energy efficient heavy-duty storms.
- Searched attic and walls for insulation: none in walls except kitchen & dining room.
- Obtained 2 budget estimates to insulate main hall and office walls, and add to attic.
- Generated Town Hall repair list, roughly in this order, and obtained budget estimates totalling $74,400:
  - Chimneys and foundation - repair, re-point, re-flash, install chimney caps, seal and vent the one unused chimney ($3000)
  - Roof - the tin on the roof is in bad shape, and there is some water leaking into the building, but there is no major structural damage reported at this time (the shingles are 22 years old). Strip roof, apply water and ice shield, install 50 year shingles ($37,000) or install 25 year shingles over existing roofing ($23,000)
  - Insulation in the main hall & office walls and more in the attic ($6,300) (approx 2-3 year payback if oil prices stabilize, sooner if they rise)
  - New heavy duty Storm Windows ($9,340installed (approx 10 yr payback)
  - Exterior painting ($2,600 scrape, $10,660 paint)
  - Re-glaze and paint interior windows ($5,500)
Set date for volunteer work day: July 26
Unsuccessfully attempted to unblock gravity drain of cistern (thx anyway to highway dept).
Highway Dept:
- Reduced electric consumption by 50% with lighting upgrade - Highway dept. paid $634, National Grid paid $2,982
Warwick Community School:
- Reduced electric consumption at the Warwick Community School - computer settings changed to standby - 5th & 6th graders calculate saving about $180 per mo.
- Performed lighting upgrade in gym - also subsidized by National Grid
- Met with Ellen Edson & Tim Fairman to discuss heating system problems and further electrical use reductions.
Fire & Police Depts:
- Walked through to look at elec consumption and insulation - not occupied enough to qualify for Nat Grid upgrade, but many improvements could be made on our own here.
Other projects:
- Installed energy "kit" in library, consisting of several books, dvds, and a "Kill-a-watt" meter.
- Clarified (thanks to George Day) underground culverts & water pipes in town center, and made list of responsible parties for winterizing these pipes.
- Toured fire station, police trailer, old school and town hall with Fire Chief Gunnar Lambert and his trusty infrared imager to better pinpoint problem heat loss areas.
- Obtained and inventoried past oil use data from Rice Oil & Country Oil and electric data from National Grid using the EPAÕs Energy Star Portfolio Manager to track energy use.
- Recommended to selectboard to sign EPA 10% Challenge commitment letter to reduce energy consumption in town buildings by 10%
- Applied to Division of Energy Resources for free energy audit of town buildings.
- Applied to FRCOG to participate in their bid to engage Energy Service Companies.
- Began to use the roadside signs to promote monthly "green" ideas.
- Obtained 100 free cfl bulbs from Nat. Grid and conducted a "Change-a-Light" campaign with the 5th & 6th graders.
- Promoted "Clean Energy Choice" for residents to buy clean electricity. As a result, Warwick has attained 6.48% of households participation, so we have earned the $400 bonus which brings the total in the Renewable Energy Fund to $4350 as of June 30, 2008. We now have the 5th highest participation rate in the entire state, surpassed only by Wendell, Shutesbury, Monterey, and Alford. Warwick rocks!

A report from Warwick committee member Janice Kurkoski, August 2007:

The buildings in the town of Warwick are not getting any younger (this has been going on for some time!), so the select board has asked for volunteers to take a look at the buildings with an eye towards needed repairs. It seemed like a natural step to consider energy consumption at the same time, as any needed repairs or improvements should have energy conservation in mind as well. So in May 2007 the Warwick Building and Energy Committee was born.

At present our group consists of four "common folk" and one selectman, with effort being made to gather more. We have voted to become an official committee, rather than an ad hoc group, thinking this might give more credence to our findings. Other towns might wish to do it more informally.

Our mission statement is as follows:

The purpose of the Warwick Building and Energy Committee is to assess town buildings and needs, and research options for the select board and Warwick citizens to encourage efficient energy consumption and optimal maintenance of town properties.

So what are we actually doing?

We've asked National Grid to send us (and we received!) three years of data for all of the town accounts, including street lights.

Our fuel suppliers have also supplied this information going back one year.

We are using the free Energy Star on-line benchmarking program called Portfolio Manager to plot this data, and to see if we can make improvements in consumption in the future. Already it's very easy to see that in March of each year our town hall used an extraordinary amount of electricity, so we can look carefully at a likely culprit: the sump pump!

Starting with the town hall, and with an eye towards historic preservation, we are assessing windows, lights, office equipment, insulation, heating systems, occupancy patterns, etc., and with the help of the janitor and other knowledgeable town folk, we can put forth a plan of attack. We are calling for a free energy audit through National Grid, who will look at elec. loads and offer rebates (80%!) for qualifying improvements, e.g., changing over to LED exit signs.

Our library needs a new furnace - the librarian is gathering bids with an emphasis on an efficient replacement unit.

We recognize the need for a champion or at least a liaison in each town building: highway dept, fire, police, transfer station, historical society, even the cemetery (that should be easy!), and last but by no means least, the elementary school. No one knows the buildings as well as the people that live or work in them!

And for fun (unofficially), the Metcalf chapel has a "green corner" tip in the town's monthly newsletter, reinforced by a signboard on the street out front. Last month's message was "Use a solar clothes dryer - a clothes line!" This month it's "Get the petroleum out of your food - buy locally grown."

In the future, someone might want to start a ride-share program - a real challenge in this rural area - or community gardens, or look into renewable energy sources, but for the moment our focus is our buildings and their needs.

In the end, we can all take what we learn home with us, or offer it up to other towns as an example. Whether it's to "save" the environment, or just plug the holes when the wind blows, a little effort makes a big difference (as it says on the sign).