 National Center for Appropriate Technology 3040 Continental Drive Butte, MT 59702 406.494.8662 Fax 406.494.2905 |
Maine's REACH Program Evaluation SummaryAbstract Grant Amount Duration Goals Client Eligibility Client Services Outcomes LIHEAP and energy audit staff received three days of energy education and then shared that information with staff in their offices. The evaluation concluded that more staff education was needed, along with a more formal process for providing energy education to clients. Tier 2 audited the homes of 841 LIHEAP recipients with high electrical use. The audits combined the weatherization measures of traditional audits with techniques designed to calculate electrical consumption. Besides providing weatherization measures and energy efficiency education, the audits identified how much electricity water heaters and large appliances used. The energy audits found that replacement of water heaters would reduce household electrical use more effectively than refrigerator replacement. As a result, the state's REACH coordinators modified the program in Tier Three, which had focused on refrigerator replacement, to include replacing electric water heaters with oil -or propane-fired water heaters. When the project was completed, 237 refrigerators and 116 water heaters had been replaced. This project combined LIHEAP weatherization audits with the REACH audits. This improved audit efficiency, but it complicated the process of identifying eligible clients, because weatherization focuses on heating, while REACH focuses on electrical consumption. Some agencies had difficulty locating clients who met both criteria. Tier Four, the most ambitious aspect of the program, converted heating systems for high-electric-use households from electricity to heating oil or kerosene. The project's original goal was between 172 and 215 conversions. For a number of reasons, that number had to be adjusted to 111 as the project proceeded. A considerable number of the households originally selected were renters, and many of the landlords were not interested in participating. In addition, individual conversions, projected at about $4,400, cost closer to $6,000. Some potential participants were receiving state electric-bill assistance through their utilities and were reluctant to give that up. In the end, 83 households were converted from electric heat to alternative heating systems. The evaluation noted that Maine's program was very ambitious, combining two federal energy-service delivery programs with different objectives and separate funding sources. It found that the program was generally successful, resulting in an average 58 percent reduction in energy burden for Tier 3 and 4 participants. The evaluation recommended that the program make significant refinements to its audit and LIHEAP information management systems to improve the usefulness of data collection, entry, documentation, retrieval capability, reporting and analysis capability, and consistency between LIHEAP and weatherization databases. Contact: Ms. Jo-Ann Choate Page Last Updated: December 7, 2005 |
