Glenwood Springs was founded in 1885, and many of its structures date to the late 1800s and early 1900s. The residences built during that period are now treasured for their classic Craftsman style and native materials, reminiscent of simpler times.
But some of them harbor a dark secret: a shocking lack of insulation. The secret may remain hidden behind the walls, but its consequences – chilly drafts and sky-high heating bills – are all too apparent.
Joani Northrup has modernized two historic houses that she owns in recent years, and she’s glad she did. She’s especially pleased with the second project, completed this winter, because nearly all of the cost was covered by rebates, thanks to help from Garfield Clean Energy.
It started in 2018, when a remodel of the house Joani lives in on Blake Avenue revealed that there was zero insulation in the exterior walls and an inadequate amount in the attic. She’d long been concerned about heating bills as high as $275, and that was the impetus to do something about it. It cost her over $7,000 to remedy the issue, but she says it’s an investment that will pay for itself over time.
Fast forward to this winter. Joani has now completed a similar project at her other house on Cooper Avenue, which she's rented to her son for the past three years. This time, rebates brought the cost to her down to just $812.
That amounted to a 90% cost reduction, says Joani. “I’m just so grateful that we have CLEER [the nonprofit that runs Garfield Clean Energy’s programs] in the valley.”
As with the first house, a home energy assessment found that there was no insulation in the exterior walls of the Cooper Avenue house, and too little in the attic.
Devin Podbevsek, Joani’s son, wasn’t surprised. He was the one who’d ordered the inspection because his gas bills last winter sometimes exceeded $400.
“I was like, this is insane,” he recalls, “I can’t afford to pay upwards of $300 to $400 a month just to heat the house.”
Devin applied for financial assistance through GCE’s ReEnergize Garfield County program last year. At the time there was a waiting list, but this past January he got a call to say that he was approved.
Importantly, Devin qualified for the program based on his income – not Joani’s. ReEnergize and other programs accept applications from renters as well as homeowners, so long as they get written permission from their landlord.
Even if your landlord isn’t your mother, permission is usually granted because insulating a leaky home is a win-win for both renter and landlord.
Through ReEnergize, Devin and Joani were able to tap into a $4,000 rebate from Glenwood Springs Electric, $5,000 from CORE and $2,000 from Energy Smart Colorado – a total of $11,000 in discounts, bringing the cost to them down to a mere $800.
As Devin notes, that’s the equivalent of two months of gas bills.
The project was complicated by the historic nature of the home. Insulation couldn’t easily be blown in through the interior plaster-and-lath walls, so it had to be injected through holes drilled in the exterior clapboard walls and through a gable vent in the attic. It took two Northwest Colorado Council of Governments staff four days to do it.
Based on before-and-after blower tests, the project reduced air leakage by an incredible 47% (it generally only takes a 10% reduction to qualify for rebates).
“The first day [after the project was complete], I noticed there was so much improvement,” Devin says. “I didn’t think there was going to be such a difference, but it’s huge.”
The difference would be even greater if not for the windows, which consist of numerous single panes. Unfortunately, replacing the windows would be prohibitively expensive and would spoil the home’s historic aesthetic. The home energy assessment recommended installing removable storm windows. For now, Devin is making do with putting up temporary shrink-wrap plastic as an extra thermal barrier on the inside.
For her part, Joani is now considering what to do about one other rental house she owns. It could also benefit from weatherization, but unlike the others it’s made of brick, so that would pose different challenges. But where there’s a will there’s a way – and given the thousands of dollars available for making old homes more energy efficient, the cost will likely pay for itself.