A weatherization pilot in South Dallas cut energy use about 10% in seven aging homes, saved residents money and eased the grid. Backers want the city to expand it. <\/p>\n
DALLAS, Texas \u2014 A weatherization pilot in one of Dallas’ poorest areas trimmed energy use in seven aging homes and saved residents a few hundred dollars a year \u2014 and the group behind it now hopes the city will pay to do more.<\/p>\n
The work centered on Queen City, a historic neighborhood in southern Dallas where summer energy bills run hot. Stacy Davis of Southern Dallas Progress, which recruited residents for the program, said the houses were never built to hold their cool air.<\/p>\n
“They’re old, no energy efficiency whatsoever,” Davis said.<\/p>\n
Many date back decades \u2014 some nearly a century old \u2014 and are owned by low-income families and seniors. They’re also the kind of homes that often can’t qualify for the existing federal Weatherization Assistance Program, because problems like mold, foundation sagging and rotting wood disqualify them.<\/p>\n
“They’re one of our most vulnerable communities that we have,” Davis said.<\/p>\n
The fix was straightforward: attic insulation, caulking around doors and windows and new LED lighting, at about $3,750 per home.<\/p>\n
Erick Jones, a UTA assistant professor, gathered the data on the first seven homes.<\/p>\n
“Ran the analysis and found that our program was impactful,” Jones said.<\/p>\n
Households saved a few hundred dollars a year \u2014 immediate relief for people on fixed incomes \u2014 and energy use across the homes dropped about 10%. That matters beyond the monthly bill: as summer electrical demand peaks, using less eases pressure on the grid, too.<\/p>\n
“Efficiency lowers that demand on the grid,” Jones said. “So, programs like these are really cost-effective ways to not only benefit the residents immediately today, but also the grid tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
Davis called the pilot a success.<\/p>\n
“Every little bit helps,” she said.<\/p>\n
Now she hopes the City of Dallas will authorize more funding to weatherize additional homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A weatherization pilot in South Dallas cut energy use about 10% in seven aging homes, saved residents money…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-369134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}