Page 30 - WCM 2023 Winter Flip

Weatherize Your Home In a Snap
Real Money Savers In Minutes photos and story by Renee Igo
Hands down, placing foam gaskets behind electric outlet wall plates is the easiest of weatherizations tasks.
“Old houses,
I thought, do not belong to people ever, not really, people belong to them.”
~ Gladys Taber
On a recent crisp morning, a group of volunteers gathered on the porch of a sprawling farmstead in West Paris. With a pickup load of supplies, and their fearless leaders Anna Heath and Seal Rossignol at the ready, these were the Community Weatherization Project participants, and they were primed to get this 1820s home ready for the coming cold.
A brainchild of the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy in Norway, and the We Built This workshops, the Community Weatherization Project teaches simple fixes to keep homes warmer in the winter and cut down on energy costs. After a brief classroom section, participants lend their hands at their neighbors’ homes in exchange for the crew spending time on their own home.
The team started with a tour of the farmhouse, looking up at gaps of insulation in the cellar ceiling, and moving through heated and unheated portions of the house, stopping to check door jambs that needed weather- stripping, and windows that needed re-caulking. Anna Heath, a certified Passive House consultant and local area builder, identified the tasks that could be completed within the scope of the workshop, and set volunteers to work. She sat down with Ellen, the homeowner, to cover the free energy audit provided by the project, and discussed materials that the team would leave behind for the homeowners to finish on their own, as well as the scope of recommendations for larger projects that they might want to consider hiring a contractor for in the future.
Many hands make light work, and in this case, tasks were quickly checked off the list, as one pair added foam gaskets to exterior wall outlets, while another replaced aging weatherstripping on one door and added it to another. The
30
Arts, Entertainment, Adventure and More in Western Maine