Department leads local deep energy retrofit project

Retrofit House

Mark Shaurette, with the assistance of graduate students Adam Ryzak and Eric Holt, is working with the City of Lafayette on a deep energy retrofit of a foreclosed home located in the Vinton neighborhood. The Glen Acres and Vinton neighborhoods in Lafayette have been undergoing revitalization through neighborhood stabilization funding provided by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.

The deep energy retrofit home will become a community outreach center for additional funds from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These funds are being used as grants and loans for residents interested in energy-related improvements to their homes. By showcasing the range of possibilities for transforming an existing structure into a more energy-efficient one, the retrofit house will serve as a center for community education about energy efficiency.

This three-year, $271,159 BCM project includes research, planning, demonstration, and educational programs to support and guide the DOE-funded Lafayette Energy Improvement Program (LEIP). The total LEIP funding of just over $1 million is expected to facilitate energy improvements for approximately 90 homeowners in addition to the retrofit home’s visible community display of energy efficiency options.

Most of the homeowners to be assisted by the program are low-income, and many are elderly owners of early prefabricated housing produced by National Homes, an innovator in housing production that operated in Lafayette beginning in the 1940s. The deep energy retrofit home is currently undergoing a major transformation with completion expected in the spring of 2012.

Funding for the Glen Acres and Vinton community energy retrofits will continue until May 2013.