United Way to participate in Energizing Indiana initiative

For the next few months United Way of Putnam County will be participating in the Energizing Indiana initiative.

As part of this program, United Way is soliciting home owners to sign up for a free home energy assessment, which the Energizing Indiana program will award United Way $25 per household.

"The state of Indiana started this Energize Indiana project in an effort to help the utility companies and the consumers reduce their energy consumption," explained United Way of Putnam County Executive Director, Jennifer Edwards. "They felt like our consumption was kind of high, so they started this Energize Indiana."

Companies participating in the program are Duke Energy, Indiana Municipal Power Agency, Indiana Michigan Power, IPL, Nipsco and Veteran.

Eligible homes must meet three requirements, which include having a single-detached dwelling, duplex, triplex, quad, mobile or modular home. Homes can be owner occupied or rented. However, apartments are not eligible for an Energizing Indiana assessment. The owner must not have had a utility sponsored home energy assessment in the last three yeas as well as the home must be 10 years of age or older.

If you meet the criteria you can sign up through United Way of Putnam County to have a home energy assessment, which is free to the customer.

"It's free for you, but you also benefit from it," explained Edwards. "The energy company will come out and do an assessment on your home and tell you what you can do to save energy and therefore save money."

All it takes is just having the assessment itself done for United Way of Putnam County to receive $25 per home, up to 1,000 homes. It is not required for the homeowner to complete any of the recommendations from the assessment.

"After the season we just had this summer where, we all saw a spike in our energy usage, I think people are really wanting to know how to conserve their energy usage," said Edwards. "This is one way that we can raise some money that we can then put back out into the community. It really is a great thing, because who doesn't want to know how to save money."

To date, there has yet to be a non-profit to reach the 1,000 household maximum. It is the goal of the United Way to have 1,000 people participate in the program.

"If you think about it, in Putnam County we have about 37 or 38,000 people, but why couldn't we hit 1,000?" Edwards asked. "If you've never been able to financially give to the United Way, this is a way that you can feel like you're giving back."

If you're an investor and have homes that are rented out, one can sign-up ever home for the program. Each home can have the assessment, where United Way will receive $25 per home.

"Once they sign-up and they complete the home energy assessment, we then get the $25," said Edwards. "The energy company will tell you what you need to do, but that's up to you if you want to do it. It really is just a benefit to all those involved because it's free to the homeowners, but then we get $25. It's a very simple process."

All that is needed to sign up is the name of the person on the utility bill, their address, provider and a phone number.

Interested participants can sing-up or get more information by calling Edwards at 653-5638 or emailing Jennifer@unitedwayofputnamcounty.org.