New Website Offers Resources to Help Residents in Appalachia Lower Their Electric Bills

Residents in North Carolina and seven other southeastern states have a new  resource to help them save money and energy. The non-profit organization called Appalachian Voices recently unveiled a new website called “The Energy Savings Action Center”.

The website was created as part of the organization's Energy Savings for Appalachia campaign launched in April. The goal of the program is to work with rural electric cooperatives in the region. One of the online features lets users create special documents to help them correspond with their utility provider.

“We have a form letter that they can personalize if they like and once they fill out that letter and click submit then that letter will be sent to their utility. There is a great tool that was created by the EPA and the Department of Energy that we were able to embed into our website. It is a home energy guide that lets them go into different rooms in their home and learn how to improve the efficiency of different items,” says Rory McIlmoil, the energy policy director for Appalachian Voices in Boone.

Appalachian Voices is also working with electric cooperatives in the southeast to help expand financing options for low cost home improvements. McIlmoil says out of the 26 coops in North Carolina, six of them provide some sort of loan-based program for customers.  

“They provide a loan to the customer and that loan covers the cost of making improvements to the home and then the loan would be repaid through an extra charge on their electricity bill. We are trying to get more electric coops, particularly in Appalachia to provide the loans because there is such a poor housing stock and inefficient appliances. For instance, they may be using electric baseboard heaters, so these loans would allow them upgrade to more efficient heating systems,” says McIlmoil.

The website launch comes on the heels of a U.S. Department of Agriculture announcement last month that $250 million will be available to electric cooperatives across the U.S. each year for energy efficiency programs.