La Crosse launches program to help low-income families heat and cool their homes better

Springtime and warmer weather may be on the way, but there’s no off-season for being concerned about how hot or cool your home is. And, about the cost to be energy-efficient.

The city of La Crosse has a new program to help homeowners save money on energy needs. A group called Green Homeowners United will help people find the problem areas for energy use, and get funding to fix things. Kevin Kane of Green Homeowners says the leaks may not be where you assume they are, but experts can assess eligible homes and recommend efficiency changes.

“It doesn’t matter how new your furnace is,” said Kane. “If it is leaking air, your house is not nearly as comfortable and as energy-efficient. And so we’re gonna go in, and we’ll seal the ductwork so your furnace works better. We’ll aim to seal the house, so that the house doesn’t leak energy as much, and we’ll write this report to figure out how do we get this house thousands of dollars in further improvements to go even beyond that.”

The group has done upgrades at a house on Weston Street in La Crosse, where city council member Rebecca Schwarz lives. Schwarz says it has been hard to keep the entire house comfortable at once. “So our furnace is in the front of the house,” she says. “Our kitchen is in the back of the house, and for the first 18 months, I didn’t realize we weren’t getting heat in the kitchen, or cooling air in the kitchen.”

After the improvements, Schwarz says the house is not as cold any more, and the air flows better.

About 300 houses in La Crosse may qualify for energy improvements through the program sponsored by the city. The state of Wisconsin has close to $150 million dollars available for home improvements through federal inflation-cutting programs.