A much overdue update from your friends at the Alaska Carbon Reduction Fund (ACRF). In short, we’ve been busy! With ACRF’s help, lower income families are moving away from heating oil, heat pumps are being installed, utility bills are being slashed, and the list of pending projects is long!
If you didn’t know, Renewable Juneau’s Alaska Carbon Reduction Fund (ACRF) is now fully managed by Alaska Heat Smart (AHS). Alignment with the energy efficiency and fuel-switching incentive programs under the AHS umbrella just makes good sense. AHS has the staff power to move ACRF projects forward smoothy, effectively, and often in combination with other related assistance programs. In short, the efficiencies gained will allow ACRF funds to reach more families in need.
Program Stacking
ACRF funds now support some of the region’s most in need families due to our ability to ‘stack funds’. The bulk of ACRF fuel-switching projects now benefit from combining, or “stacking” with generous heat pump rebates of the ‘ACES’ Program. ACES, or Accelerating Clean Energy Savings, offers generous heat pump rebates for fossil fuel burning homes in 43 communities between Metlakatla and Kodiak. For qualified applicants with a household income of 80% area median income or lower, an $8,500 rebate is available. Sadly, even $8,500 is sometimes not enough to bring the savings of a heat pump into a home. The heat pump’s cost may exceed the rebate or require additional electrical work. Rather than a family turning down the gift of an ACES rebate, ACRF funds now add on to lower income ACES rebates. Together, ACES and ACRF make the heating system switch to savings a reality, while stretching ACRF funds further and providing them to a greater number of households.
‘Stacked’ heat pump projects are receiving an average of $2,500 of ACRF assistance. Over the past few months, 15 families in Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, and Metlakatla have benefited from this unique program partnership. 20 more families are queued up to receive similar benefits. Once installed, these ACES/ACRF heat pumps will save each family roughly $1,500 annually on heating costs. For a household of four getting by on $50,000 a year, $1,500 represents a significant savings and may mean food on the table, new clothes for the kids, or long overdue repairs to the car. And, let’s not forget the standard heat pump benefits – even heat, drier air, reduced mold and mildew, and light air filtration.
ACRF Supporters
As always, we are indebted to the generous supporters of our work. This includes local and regional businesses who look to ACRF for assistance with carbon offsetting or who more simply support the work we do and the neighbors we serve. ACRF supporters also include monthly subscribers, families and individuals who rely on ACRF to balance out their carbon production by paying the Fund to remove a representative amount of carbon from other sources. Whatever the reason, ACRF supporters fuel the essential work of carbon elimination, work that seems more pressing with every new broken temperature record, forest fire, or rain-induced flooding event.
