In the winter, many Connecticut residents have to pay high utility bills.
Energy rates in the state are above the national average. Temperatures get cold, and Connecticut has a lot of older homes.
“These older homes are leaky. That’s just the nature of how it is — like, they either lack or have very minimal insulation and air sealing,” says Shubha Jaishankar, an energy efficiency consultant with Eversource, a New England utility.
To help people reduce their energy use, the company partners on an initiative called Energize Connecticut. It provides residents with free or low-cost home energy assessments.
“They look at everything about air leaking, air sealing, HVAC equipment,” she says. “If you have cooling, they’ll look at that. Windows, everything. They look at all the envelope of your house, essentially.”
Homeowners get information on how to improve energy efficiency and how to finance upgrades, like new appliances and windows.
Some measures — like air sealing and wrapping hot water pipes — are even completed on the spot at no cost.
Jaishankar says the program assists more than 15,000 households each year.
But she says there’s still a long way to go to reach all those who could benefit from lower utility bills during New England’s long, cold winters.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media