SMUD Offering Rebates for Home-Efficiency Upgrades

Rosemont residents looking to make their homes more energy efficient will soon be able to save money in the process.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) plans to offer rebates over the next two years to homeowners willing to pay to have insulation, ducts, air conditioning, windows or other parts of their homes upgraded.

"Both SMUD and Sacramento County felt you were a good fit for this program," SMUD Project Manager Christie Rodriquez told attendees at .

The program, which is funded by a $2.8 million federal stimulus grant, is only available to residents in downtown and east Sacramento in that city, as well as Rosemont in the unincorporated area, SMUD officials said. The areas were chosen as a pilot program because of the average home size and age, Rodriquez said.

For SMUD, it’s a way to encourage homeowners to use less energy. If enough residents agree to upgrade their homes, SMUD will pay out a $50,000 “community reward” to a nonprofit or group of Rosemont’s choosing.

“[We’ll] group homeowners together and let contractors bid on that group of homeowners,” said Brian Kennedy, a project manager with Stockton-based energy efficiency consulting group ConSol.

Participating residents will be eligible for rebates up to $9,000, depending on how many upgrades they perform. SMUD is currently developing different levels of upgrades with a few test homes.

More information is available at http://hpp.smud.org/neighborhood-approach/rosemont-neighborhood.