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OAS isJUNE 2017 3Transportation Corridorsand Public LandsPACE, continued from p. 2In PACE in property owners repaytheir loan over a set time period—typically 10 to 20 years, and costsavings from the improvementsmake it easier to pay back theamount owed.A PACE assessment is tied to theproperty as opposed to the propertyowner, so the repayment obligationtransfers with property ownership.In PACE a municipality partners withprivate companies and contractors tofacilitate the lending and constructingprocess. The program uses thirdparty administrators that have beenapproved by the State of Florida forlocal communities to implement.More than 60 cities and counties inFlorida have enabled PACE financing,including City of Kissimmee and MiamiDade County. City of Winter Parkimplemented PACE in early 2016, andthe City of Orlando began implementing PACE in fall 2016.Cities have agreements with YgreneEnergy Fund, RenewPACE, The AllianceNRG ProgramTM, and RenovateAmerica’s HERO Program to providethese loans.The Solar and Energy Loan Fund(SELF) is a nonprofit clean energyfinancing provider for low- andmoderate-income Florida households. Since its creation in 2010, SELFhas enabled more than 600 Floridahomeowners to upgrade their homesand lower their energy costs. SELFcan guide a resident through the process, which may include PACE. FirstGreen Bank also gives loans for solarand energy efficiency.PACE in Orange County?On May 23rd, Orange County District 5Commissioner Emily Bonilla proposedimplementing PACE in Orange County.Public comments were from local environmental advocates and companiesthat were partners in PACE.To support Commissioner Bonilla’sproposal to implement PACE inOrange County, please contact yourcommissioners in early June. Thefollowing are their emails: MayorTeresa Jacobs Mayor@ocfl.net ,Commissioner Betsy VanderLey District1@ocfl.net , CommissionerBryan Nelson District2@ocfl.Isn’t it sad that planners see a greenspace on a map and immediatelythink that’s a great place for a road?This is the problem for the Split OakForest Wildlife and EnvironmentalArea and the Osceola ExpresswayEastern Extension, as we have beenreporting for several months.net , Commissioner Pete Clarke District3@ocfl.net , CommissionerJennifer Thompson, District 4 Jennifer.Thompson@ocfl.net , Commissioner Emily Bonilla District5@ocfl.net , and Commissioner VictoriaSiplin District6@ocfl.net .It would be useful to copy staff members Alan Marshall, Assistant to theDirector, Community, Environmentaland Development Services Department at Alan.marshall@ocfl.net andDavid Jones, Environmental ProgramsAdministrator at David.Jones2@ocfl.net. Thank you for helping to make thistool available in the tool box towardindependence from fossil fuels.Solar Coops ExpandThe first Solar Co-op in Florida wasorganized by the Central FloridaSolar Advocates group with assistance from the Community PowerNetwork, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit. All members of the Coop usethe same solar installer, selectedthrough a careful process, and thissaves money for participants througheconomies of scale.To spread Solar Coops throughoutthe state, FL SUN formed as a projectof the Community Power Network inpartnership with the Florida Leagueof Women Voters.Solar Coops formed last year inOrange, Broward, Sarasota, St.Petersburg, and the Space Coastarea, while Miami-Dade, Alachua, andSeminole are just forming. An organizational meeting for the SeminoleCounty Coop will be June 5th.Mayor’s CommitmentOrlando Mayor Buddy Dyer joineda growing group of U.S. mayorson May 25th when he signed acommitment to transition the Cityof Orlando to 100 percent clean andrenewable energy by 2050.The next milestone in our efforts toprotect Split Oak is an August 29thOrange County Board of CountyCommissioners information sessionby Environmental Protection Divisionand Transportation staff. There will bean evening hike June 9th, starting at 7p.m. and other hikes at Split Oak thissummer we will let you know about.Please email Deborah if you want tobe on the Split Oak advocacy emaillist, at sabalpress@mac.com.SR 408 ExtensionA proposed SR 408 extension isalso a problem for some of OrangeCounty’s Green PLACE properties.OAS has followed Audubon Florida’slead and written to the Central FloridaExpressway (CFX) asking that the routeof SR 408 continue to follow SR 50,rather than deviate into public lands.On June 8th, from 5-7 PM, there isa Planning, Design and Engineeringmeeting with CFX’s consultant at CornerLake Middle School, 1700 ChulotaRd., a meeting to attend to hear theplans and talk to engineers. For moreinformation, contact OAS ConservationCommittee member Mike Jones atmjonesenvironment@att.net.Fertilizer OrdinanceThe Orange County Board of CountyCommissioners hearing on proposedordinance revisions is June 6th. Yourpresence would be appreciatedand calls to your commissioner oradditional letters would be useful.For bullet points contact Mike Jonesat mjonesenvironment@att.net.Senate Bill 10In early May Governor Rick Scottsigned Senate Bill 10 into law. ThisEverglades restoration legislationwas Audubon Florida’s top legislativepriority this year. For a University ofFlorida analysis see this link, and fora Miami Herald article see this link.OAS Conservation Committee

OAS isEnergy EfficiencyRetrofits Work!Results are finally in from OrangeAudubon Society’s (OAS) program tohelp low-income residents of the Cityof Winter Park lower their energybills! This effort was supported by a 64,000 Toyota TogetherGreen byAudubon grant to OAS.The grant-funded project was modeled on the Orange County Homeowners Energy Efficiency Program(OCHEEP) of 2010–2012 that hadused American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Stimulus)funds. The OCHEEP program provided energy audits, energy efficiency retrofits and education tonearly 2,500 Orange County residents. OAS’ Project director andformer OCHEEP participant DeborahGreen had noted the lack of publicityon the cost-effectiveness of energysavings from Orange County’s exemplary program. So she sought to do asimilar project with access to beforeand after energy use data. City ofWinter Park obtains its energy fromDuke Energy but has its own utilityfor billing purposes. The City has anactive sustainability program, headedby architect Kris Stenger, who hadworked with the OCHEEP Program asprincipal workshop instructor.JUNE 2017 4high energy use. Weatherization,insulation and duct repair had beendetermined to be most cost-effectivein Orange County’s program, so thiswas the focus of the OAS/Winter Parkprogram.Participants then booked a freeenergy evaluation (audit). Basedon audit recommendations, theysecured insulation and/or duct repairby a trained licensed contractor, paiddirectly by the City through the grant.ImplementationAmong the 28 homes doing retrofits,average conditioned space was 1208square feet, and most were between44 and 67 years old. Ventilationalso was improved in 5 ten-year oldaffordable homes. Several homes andchurches had window film installed toreduce solar heat gain in summer andheat loss in winter. One older churchwas provided with a lighting retrofitfrom incandescent bulbs to LEDs.Participation invitations were sent to368 low-income homes. Twenty-eightlow-income City of Winter Parkelectricity customers went throughthe program and secured energyefficiency improvements. Retrofitswere also performed on 7 commercialproperties - Flowers Temple, FlowersTemple Annex, New FellowshipChurch of God, Ward Chapel, BethelBaptist Church, Mt. Moriah BaptistChurch and Wellbourne AvenueNursery and Kindergarden.The City’s data indicated that theselow-income homes were high energyusers, since most of the homes werebuilt in the 1950s or 1960s with norecent upgrades. Air leaks throughsmall cracks in building walls, roofs,doors and windows contributed toThe target was the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) estimate of10% reduction through energy efficiency retrofits.In order to have roughly comparableenvironmental conditions and be ableto determine energy use reductions,usage must be compared with usagein the same month in successiveyears (called Baseline Year and Comparison Year). Since the last retrofitswere completed in December 2015,OAS eagerly awaited the City’s analysis of the billing data starting afterDecember 2016.City staff entered the billing data intothe EPA’s tool Energy Portfolio Manager, which created annual weathernormalized site energy use intensity(EUI) based on 30-year averageweather conditions. EUI is expressedin kilowatt hours (kWh) per squarefoot of the property’s gross floor area.While the City of Winter Park is hometo many wealthy residents, some of itsresidents live below the poverty line,mostly concentrated in historicallyAfro-American West Winter Park.The City has an energy audit andenergy efficiency rebate program inwhich residents are helped with costsof approved retrofits through a billcredit. However, low-income residentscannot pay up-front costs for the retrofits (but see the new PACE programp.2 and 3).Survey MethodsEnergy Efficiency workshop at Flowers Temple, taughtby Kris Stenger. Below, Duct Test prior to retrofit atFlowers Temple Annex. Photos: Deborah GreenDuring the 2015 project year, sixtyparticipants attended one of eightenergy efficiency workshops taughtby Kris Stenger. Workshop participants learned simple energy efficiency measures and signed a pledgeagreeing to implement some of thesepractices. They were given weather-stripping and caulking materials,purchased by the City at a discountfrom Miller Hardware, and had achance to practice their use.City staff also administered a participant survey in March 2017 to helpeliminate factors such as changesin number of people in the home,additional retrofits, and to accountfor behavioral changes.ResultsThe project showed EUI improvement in 79% of the homes (22 outof 28 homes). For those homes thatreduced their energy consumption,average annual EUI improvementwithin the group was 12.4%.A Representative Group of 9 homeswas selected among the surveyedparticipants. These reported minimalchanges in the energy use patternContinued on p. 4

OAS isEnergy EfficiencyContinued from p. 4during the Baseline Year versus theCompared Year; had the same property use – single family residential;were built between: 1950 and 1975;had the same AC system installed central; had at least one of the sameretrofit types implemented - insulation.Average annual weather normalized EUIimprovement within the RepresentativeParticipants was 13%.The 6 homes that failed to show adecrease in energy consumption appearto have been a result of change in property use and/or aging or failing of ACunits or other electrical equipment. Forthe churches, difficulties in achieving significant energy efficiency may have beendue to cooling, heating, and lightingbeing used only limited hours per week.ConclusionsWhat we learned was that yes, energyefficiency for older homes can meet orexcede the EPA’s estimates - as mentioned, in the 9 representative homes,there was a 13% reduction in energy use.An average 1100 was spent per homeon the

Cities have agreements with Ygrene . Energy Fund, RenewPACE, The Alli - anceNRG ProgramTM, and Renovate America’s HERO Program to provide these loans. The Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF) is a nonprofit clean energy financing provider for low- and moderate-incom