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Energy audit eyes savings
When he was elected, Mayor Brian LaRose said one of the things he wanted to do was find ways to reduce the cost of local government to the people.
The village of Granville hopes to do just that by scheduling an energy audit for later this summer.
“We haven’t committed to anything yet, but I think it’s something we’re going to do,” LaRose said.
LaRose said he got the idea when his workplace in Manchester, Vt., Orvis, did the same thing and saved the company money.
“It was something that I started, we did an energy audit. We took out all of the old light fixtures and replaced them with new ones, it made a tremendous difference in the cost of the electricity used in the building,” LaRose said.
LaRose said he started off thinking of the village hall when he realized all village properties from the Slate Valley Museum or the Pember Library and Museum or even the waste water treatment plant could benefit from the survey.
In New York State, New York Electric and Gas of Ithaca offers this service.
“They’ll look at all of the village buildings and tell us what we can do; it will give us a good snapshot and show us what we can do to lower energy costs,” LaRose said.
“I think it’s a great program, something to take advantage of,” he said.
“They’ll probably be coming some time in August,” he said.
LaRose said the best part is the power company will cover the cost of 70 percent of the job meaning the village would have to cover just 30 percent of the work to make facilities more energy efficient.
Of the 30 percent, LaRose said he’s aware of grants available to help cover the cost of the work which is likely to include changing light fixtures, numbers and types as well as bulbs.
Looking to the savings a resident might see just from moving to new technology light bulbs, the audit could be just the beginnings of the savings to the village for a long time to come.
“If you stop and think, if you can save $10 per month in a home, how much you can save in the long term over all of the village rooms – that’s really something,” LaRose said.
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