WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Grant Money Insulates Vermont Schools

Grant Money Insulates Vermont Schools

Middlesex, Vermont - June 27, 2009

Energy conservation can save big money -- especially in schools, which consume thousands of gallons of expensive fuel oil during the winter. That's why a pilot program to insulate schools is attracting attention statewide.

With stacks of cellulose and all the proper gear in place, work got under way on a major energy upgrade at the Rumney elementary school in Middlesex. The insulation was blown into the attic. The school was built only twenty years ago, but not until recently was this much attention paid to insulation. The principal says it promises to save big money -- the school bought 9100 gallons of fuel oil last year.

Rumney School Principal Adam Rosen told Channel 3, "We bid for 6500 this year. So maybe that's optimistic, I'm not sure. But I've seen how much insulation and air sealing they've done, and I think the savings are gong to be quite significant."

Rumney is one of sixteen schools that got grants of $12,000 each for energy upgrades, paid from a legal settlement that Vermont took from a lawsuit against Midwestern utilities that pollute the atmosphere with coal-burning power plants. The work caught the attention of Frank Geier, who's Energy Manager for South Burlington schools.

He said, "But at the same time I'm a legislator (a Democrat from Chittenden district 3-7), and we passed the twenty percent challenge in the legislature this year, and so we're looking to see how we can spread this out through the state, and in that case it should save the state, you know, we're hoping, the twenty percent."

The work here would have cost closer to $60,000, including labor. But two-thirds of the workers are volunteers. Rosen said, "This was advertised and we did a training for them, and they're coming away with know-how and some tools they can use in their own homes."

Organizers of the grant program say an additional sixteen schools will be selected for the same upgrade. That's far short of all Vermont schools. But it's a beginning. And the Rumney School, along with others that do the same, can look forward to thousands of dollars a year in savings.

Andy Potter - WCAX News