The Department of Building Construction Management will be one of three partners in a Department of Energy grant that will ensure proper utilization of weatherization stimulus funding in Indiana.

Kirk Alter, associate professor of building construction management, will be the principal investigator for the $1.6 million IHCDA Home Energy Conservation Program: Technical Monitoring Services grant. IHCDA stands for Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.  Purdue’s portion of the grant is $634,287.

Under this grant, 10 percent of at least 10,000 Indiana residences receiving weatherization services across the state will be randomly selected to receive scrutiny. Data collection and analysis will be performed under Alter’s scope of work, as well as forensic analysis intended to ferret out fraudulent contracting and reporting.

The grant will also allow undergraduate students to assist Alter with the field inspections. Graduate students will help assemble and analyze the data.

The other two team members are Mezzetta Construction Services and Scott, Hilliard, Kosene (SHK), both of Indianapolis. The team will serve in an inspector general role for IHCDA in ensuring that energy audits are performed correctly, that the weatherization construction measures are implemented correctly, and that the program is executed with efficiency and effectiveness. Purdue will be performing all of the technical and analytical components of the grant, Mezzetta will be acting as construction manager, and SHK will be performing file management and homeowner and sub-grantee interface services.

The program to be inspected is the IHCDA Low Income Weatherization Assistance Program providing weatherization services to Indiana families whose incomes are less than 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines. The funds are available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Energy savings per household are expected to be 15-30 percent.

Jun 20-23: Electric Go-Kart summer camp, College of Technology, South Bend