For Release:
May 30, 2008

Tom Lacock
Senior Marketing and Public Relations Specialist
Wyoming Business Council
Office: 307.777.2834

Home Performance with Energy Star offers sessions in Gillette

CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Business Council’s State Energy Office and the Wyoming Energy Council (WEC) are working together to bring Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® (HPwES) services to Northeast Wyoming. A Wyoming Home Performance (WHP) information meeting will be held for interested contractors at the Gillette Library on July 7. Two free sessions from 9:30-11:30 a.m. and 12:30-2:30 p.m. are offered to area contractors.

Speakers on July 7 will include Patricia Plympton, David Bunn and Tom Fuller. Plympton is a Washington D.C. consultant supporting the HPwES program. She will share successes and lessons learned from other markets around the country. Bunn is a profitable home performance contractor from Southeast Wyoming and Fuller is the Manager of the State Energy Program at the Wyoming Business Council.

ENERGY STAR® is a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR®, prevented 40 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2007 - equivalent to the annual emissions from 27 million vehicles - and saved more than $16 billion on their utility bills. The HPwES approach to making a new home energy efficient can reduce energy costs and carbon emissions, improve indoor air quality, enhance durability and comfort in existing homes.

Contractors participating in HPwES will receive Building Performance Institute-approved training and certification allowing them to perform residential energy audits in existing homes and verify the results when the work is complete. An audit determines ways a home can be made more comfortable and energy efficient helping the homeowner save money on heating/cooling. The audit checks for energy inefficiencies by examining everything from furnaces to insulation to duct leakage.

"If you don't see the red door (to perform a blower door test), it isn't really an energy audit," said Tiger Adolf, Executive Director of Wyoming Energy Council. “The average contractor sees an increase in the size of jobs, improved customer satisfaction, and reduced call-backs."

Adolf pointed out that organizations in 22 states are sponsoring local and regional HPwES programs, and that number is growing. Qualified contractors entering the HPwES participation agreement receive on-going marketing and business training as well as technical training support. They are eligible to use the nationally recognized Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® logo.

"The bottom-line is: efficient housing is more affordable housing. This is a win-win-win program,” Adolf said.

Tom Fuller, State Energy Program manager, said an energy audit and subsequent improvements can save 30 percent on a monthly heating bill. “In this market, that can be a couple of hundred dollars a month,” Fuller said.

For more information or to RSVP, see www.wyominghomeperformance.com.
Wyoming Energy Council’s mission is to promote and further the conservation of non-renewable energy resources and the development of renewable energy resources. Wyoming Business Council mission is to facilitate the economic growth of Wyoming. For more information, visit www.wyomingbusiness.org.

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