Supporting Healthy Communities in Woodlawn
Monica Chadha, LEED certified architect and founder of Civic Projects LLC, worked with Elevate Energy to reduce the cost of maintaining her three-story building in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, as well as improve the building’s safety.
In 2013, Chadha contacted Elevate Energy to perform an energy assessment on her building to identify measures to decrease her building’s energy use. Expert energy analysts from Elevate Energy inspected the building and provided recommendations for cost-effective improvements to reduce utility bills and property maintenance costs, and connected Chadha with qualified contractors to complete the improvements. Chadha reviewed bids from these contractors and decided to move forward with the recommended measures. Elevate Energy helped Chadha apply for a low-cost loan from Community Investment Corporation which allowed her to complete the improvements.
In early 2016, Chadha’s gas bills for heating the building were escalating each month, culminating at $10,000 for the month of January, roughly ten times the typical bill for a building this size. She was told by her gas provider that no trucks were available to inspect her meter, and to call back in a month. Chadha reached out to Elevate Energy again who acted as an advocate for her as she worked to decrease her energy use and costs, beginning with convincing the gas company to fix the meter.
Elevate Energy again inspected the building and found numerous concerns, including an extraordinarily high and dangerous reading of 2000 parts per million of carbon monoxide in the exhaust gases of the boiler, which had previously been worked on by a contractor Chadha had contacted. Through the persistent work of Elevate Energy’s analysts, they identified Chadha’s actual consumption and demonstrated to the gas company that her usage was not in line with the bills. Between 2013 and 2016, Elevate Energy’s energy analysts returned to the building site numerous times to ensure that the improvements were completed correctly and that Chadha was informed at each step of the retrofit process.
The improvements to the building are expected to save Chadha 40% annually on natural gas costs, equivalent to roughly $3,333.
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Elevate Energy is committed to helping building owners and managers like Chadha access the benefits of energy efficiency to improve the comfort and safety of their multifamily building and reduce energy costs. Our multifamily building program connects building owners and managers with the technical advice, information, and resources they need to improve their property. We guide them through the entire upgrade process and help identify and apply for incentives to reduce the upfront cost of improvements
To apply for the Elevate Energy multifamily program, visit elevatenp.org/multifamily.
