Energy Coaches in York Help Homeowners Become More Efficient: Rozanna Patane

With rising energy costs, new technology, emissions concerns, and accessible home energy rebates for Mainers, homeowners have a lot to sift through when considering a switch to electrified home heating, hot water, or air conditioning. Rozanna Patane says a sizable gap often exists between a homeowner’s initial interest and taking those first steps. “I think it’s information overload. They don’t know who to turn to, and they don’t know who to trust,” she said.

“It’s a very complex process, and most homeowners we know are just saying, ‘How do I start?’ So, we say, ‘Here’s how you start,’ and then walk them through it. We bridge that gap. We bring that information to the homeowner so they can actually use it.”

In 2022, Patane formed the York Energy Coach Program, a group of volunteers that are part of York Ready for Climate Action (YRCA), a nonprofit group founded in 2018 of passionate volunteers working to increase awareness about climate change.

The Energy Coach program connects interested homeowners with knowledgeable volunteers to understand their homes, priorities, and goals, and provide one-on-one support throughout the process of making their homes more energy efficient and heating with electricity.

“It’s essentially neighbors helping neighbors,” Patane said. “YRCA held breakout sessions at one meeting, just to focus on things that we felt would make a difference in our ability to meet York’s climate action goals,” she said.

Patane and the coaches collaborated with the York town government to seek a grant from the Community Resilience Partnership, which funded the launch of the energy coach pilot, with hopes to demonstrate how it might work and also potentially apply to other communities in Maine. The program provides training to volunteer coaches at bimonthly meetings that often include guest speakers in the clean energy field. Coaches enjoy the chance to question experts directly, often on behalf of a client with a particular home energy efficiency issue.

Patane says it’s been challenging to reach low-income homeowners, but the group has partnered with other organizations that already have established relationships. For example, they plan to let the 22 manufactured homeowners in York know about Efficiency Maine’s rebates that can significantly reduce the cost of a heat pump installation. The group also hopes to establish a fund to cover any cost gaps for those who need it, so more homes can contribute to York’s emissions reduction goals.

One resident qualified for Home Energy Assistance Program benefits with a coach’s help. That opened the door to larger financial incentives, and she was able to have an energy audit of her home, add insulation, and swap out a fossil fuel heating system for heat pumps. After navigating the rebate process and the choice of vendors with the help of an energy coach, her home is now more energy efficient and will remain so for the life of the new heating system.

“The more the information is out there, the more people are ready to actually do something.”