New York State Energy Research and Development Authority can help you lower your utility bill and make your home more energy efficient. Terry Ettinger has the details.

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If you want to make your home more energy efficient and lower your utility bill, then contact New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

President and CEO Francis J. Murray Junior says, “Our flagship program for folks like you and I, residential homeowners, is something called the Home Performance with Energy Star Program. It’s actually a fairly simple program. What you do is you find a contractor in your area who is BPI certified, which means you can be assured as a consumer you’re going to have a contractor coming into your home who has the necessary skills and training to identify the opportunities in your home to reduce energy consumption.”

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority promotes energy efficiency and renewable technology.

Murray says, “Generally speaking, depending on your income level, we will pick up the entire cost of that energy audit. That energy audit will then identify for you the opportunities in your home.”

The audit shows where more insulation might be needed or new windows or perhaps a new furnace is needed.

Murray says, “We have a number of programs under which we’ll provide a grant of up to 10 percent in many cases to cover the cost of some of this equipment and then we will help you finance the rest of that.”

One way to finance your home energy improvements and equipment upgrades is through your utility bill, it’s called on-bill recovery financing.

Murray says, “This allows one to finance the cost of these efficiency improvements through your utility bill and then you pay that back through the savings that accrue to you as a result of the investments that you’ve made.”

Funded largely through assessments on gas and electric ratepayers, NYSERDA also offers programs to help businesses become more energy efficient and install renewable energy technology.

Details are available at www.nyserda.ny.gov