Changing Lives
One Family at a Time!
Lewis
County
New York
About the Weatherization program:
The Weatherization Program provides a wide variety of home heating and energy saving services at no cost to income eligible home owners or renters. Automatic income qualifications include Supplemental Security Income, public assistance, food stamps and HEAP. As a footnote, applicants may still qualify even if the applicant is over the income guidelines, but are receiving one of the benefits mentioned above.
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Income Guidelines
Income guidelines are effective October 21, 2020. Please note income guidelines may be subject to change without notice.
How we can help you as a homeowner or tenant?
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High-tech energy audits to see where you’re losing heat in your home
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Testing and cleaning of heating system
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The addition of insulation
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Health and safety check of the home
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Energy efficient lighting
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Air sealing around doors and windows
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Repair and/or replacement of broken windows and/or external doors
The following services are performed as needed, based on analysis by a trained energy auditor:
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Test, clean and repairs to the heating system
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The addition of insulation
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Repair of broken and/or exterior doors
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Air sealing as per a blower door test
Renters can qualify by the 50% rule. If one apartment in a building of two qualifies, then weatherization can be done on the whole apartment building. In buildings of more than two apartments, if 66% or 2/3 of the tenants qualify, weatherization can be done on the whole building. Landlords are asked to pay a percentage toward the cost of the weatherization and this amount goes back into the repairs of the units.
A blower door is a machine used to measure the air tightness of a building. It can also be used to measure airflow between building zones, to test duct work air tightness, and to help physically locate air leakage sites in the building envelope.
When working on a home, the crew sometimes needs to track down “insulation voids,” utilizing a diagnostic tool called an Infrared camera. This camera provides a visual indicator of the amount of insulation that is inside a wall by the heat signature left behind. It’s not a thermometer, but it does show a thermal pattern relative to objects nearby. The picture above was taken with a regular camera.
The image above is of the same wall, however taken with an infrared camera. The wall studs can be seen. This wall appears to have insulation, with some low density pockets near the door and light switches/electrical outlets on the far right. If the image was dark red between the studs, that would indicate little to no insulation in the wall cavity.
