{"id":619,"date":"2016-12-09T13:49:35","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T18:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/?p=619"},"modified":"2021-02-02T15:24:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T20:24:54","slug":"acds-brings-comfort-cost-savings-to-annapolis-apartments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/2016\/12\/09\/acds-brings-comfort-cost-savings-to-annapolis-apartments\/","title":{"rendered":"ACDS Brings Comfort, Cost Savings to Annapolis Apartments"},"content":{"rendered":"

2015 Clean Energy Communities Low-to-Moderate Income Grant Program<\/p>\n

\"Housing<\/a>

Housing Authority of City of Annapolis Project Manager Mark Ford, ACDS Construction Specialist Chris Maruyama, MEA Program Manager Dean Fisher and ACDS Construction Specialist Carson Arnold at the Harbour House Community<\/p><\/div>\n

With most of its residents earning no more than 30% of the area\u2019s median income, tenants in Annapolis\u2019s Harbour House Apartments can ill-afford the high utility bills that are a by-product of a leaky, inef\ufb01cient building. Lowering their energy usage through building science not only signi\ufb01cantly reduces residents\u2019 energy cost burden, but also makes their homes more comfortable.<\/p>\n

Arundel Community Development Services, Inc. (ACDS), a nonpro\ufb01t corporation dedicated to providing affordable housing and community development services in Maryland\u2019s Anne Arundel County, received an award through MEA\u2019s 2015 Clean Energy Communities Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) Grant Program to support energy ef\ufb01ciency retro\ufb01ts in 142 units at the Harbour House Apartments.\u00a0 As a result of the installed measures at Harbour House, each residence is estimated to save an average of $600 annually.\u00a0 Over their useful life, the installed energy measures will improve the living environments of an estimated 2,576 Marylanders.<\/p>\n

The goal of MEA\u2019s LMI program is to \ufb01nance energy ef\ufb01ciency projects that bene\ufb01t low-to-moderate income Marylanders, particularly by employing innovative strategies that help buildings, neighborhoods or entire communities save energy, save money, and increase comfort.\u00a0 In the case of the Harbour House, an early energy analysis indicated considerable air movement between all three \ufb02oors of the units. The units on the middle \ufb02oors were leeching energy from the top and bottom \ufb02oors. As a result, these units were not meeting a strict 1:1 Savings to Investment Ratio (SIR) or better for planned weatherization and energy ef\ufb01ciency measures, a shortfall that disquali\ufb01ed the project from funding through other programs. The structure of the LMI Program, however, allows for a whole building approach to modeling estimated energy savings that measures all proposed ef\ufb01ciency upgrades in aggregate. The program allowed for coverage of additional measures that could not be installed through other programs, including weatherization of all \ufb02oors to correct the improper air\ufb02ow of the entire building.<\/p>\n

“On completion of the work, many tenants noted with gratitude their changed living environments.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve seen a noticeable reduction in my energy bill,\u201d says Mable Cromwell. \u201cThe unit is much more comfortable to live in, especially in the winter; it holds the heat much longer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Before<\/a>

Before and After: Adding attic insulation greatly improved both the energy ef\ufb01ciency of the apartments and the comfort level of residents.<\/p><\/div>\n

ACDS stretched its grant dollars by taking advantage of economies of scale.\u00a0 As ACDS Construction Specialist Chris Maruyama notes, the typical $7,000 cost for the installation of a 92% AFUE furnace and 15 SEER air conditioning systems dropped to $4,650 when the units were purchased and installed in bulk.\u00a0 As a result of this savings, ACDS was able to upgrade additional residences.<\/p>\n

Leveraging additional funds and resources also helped ACDS maximize the energy savings it could achieve at Harbour House.\u00a0 Rebates from the BGE Smart Energy Savers Programs helped support the purchase of AC equipment and EER TAR quali\ufb01ed refrigerators. Through the LMI program, contractors are authorized to apply directly for the rebates, thus enabling them to reduce their prices accordingly.\u00a0 As the leveraged funds lowered the overall cost burden for installed items, ACDS was able to weatherize additional units.<\/p>\n

Thanks to these combined strategies, the $600 per residence annual savings from the weatherization and energy ef\ufb01ciency measures installed at Harbour House will help residents stretch their limited budgets to cover more of life\u2019s essentials.<\/p>\n

The MEA LMI Grant Program has been supporting projects that improve the energy performance of Maryland\u2019s low to moderate income housing since 2010.\u00a0 To learn about the next cycle of the grant program, visit energy.maryland.gov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2015 Clean Energy Communities Low-to-Moderate Income Grant Program With most of its residents earning no more than 30% of the area\u2019s median income, tenants in Annapolis\u2019s Harbour House Apartments can ill-afford the high utility bills that are a by-product of a leaky, inef\ufb01cient building. Lowering their energy usage through building  …Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,10,26,3],"tags":[117,145,186],"class_list":["post-619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-newsletters","category-success-stories","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-low-to-moderate-income","tag-low-to-moderate-income-energy-efficiency-grant"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5057,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions\/5057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}