While utilities often target energy efficiency programs directly towards
easier-to-reach individual residential customers, multifamily housing
properties have typically been slow adopters. But those programs
are out there. In 2010 DTE Energy outfitted almost 38,000 apartments and
other multi-family housing properties with CFL bulbs, faucet aerators,
and low-flow showerheads.
And through the end of 2011, Consumers Energy is offering a no-charge energy assessment and rebate program for multifamily properties at least five units in size that are serviced by Consumers Energy.
The
Consumers Energy Savings Solutions program is offering free energy assessments of lighting, heating, cooling, and water heating systems in common areas, as well as complimentary installations of CFLs, energy-efficient showerheads, and faucet aerators in individual living quarters. Rebates include, among other things: $1.50 per lightbulb change, $18 for a furnace tune-up, and $75 per water heater replacement.
"Owners and managers will see an overhead savings as well as savings for their tenants' utility bills because tenants typically pay for their electric," says Thomas Glendening, program manager for multifamily at ICF International, the contractor for Consumers Energy efficiency programs.
There's also room for inventiveness in energy savings options. "Folks can come to the table with custom energy-efficiency ideas, and as long as they can show us savings through calculations that we can all agree upon, we rebate for a portion of the energy that's saved," Glendening says. The utility is offering incentives up to $100,000 on the gas side and up to $25,000 on the electric side per facility.
Total funds available under the program are capped, Glendening says, so property owners and managers should apply well before year-end.
Source: Thomas Glendening, program manager for multifamily at ICF International; DTE Energy
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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