In recent years, many small churches and other faith based groups have approached MACED looking for relief from high utility bills.
Among those is Campton Baptist Church in Wolfe County.
In 2017, MACED worked with the church to help facilitate their solar installation after they received a donation of panels from SonLight Power. Since adding solar, they have added three geothermal units and completed efficiency upgrades that MACED recommended, including air sealing and insulation under the church and in the attics.
As a result, they are now saving $4,435 per year.
Campton Baptist’s pastor, Gary Conner, and his family live in the church’s parsonage house. After an audit, the How$mart team recommended a number of improvements for the parsonage that are now saving the Conners $825 a year.
One of those was to encapsulate their crawl space. This process usually includes sealing crawl space vents, insulating foundation walls and band joists, and conditioning the space. Studies have shown that 50 percent of air breathed in a home first travels through the crawl space. It is no wonder that the Conners report their allergies have greatly improved. As Eastern Kentucky gets wetter and hotter because of climate change, indoor air quality will worsen, affecting overall health, but particularly, respiratory diseases and disorders. Steps like this help organizations and businesses get ahead of the effects of climate change.
The church is paying for these upgrades through our How$martKY™ program, which adds a monthly charge to their energy bills averaging less than the monthly savings created by the retrofit.
At MACED, we are also seeing faith communities start movements on how they can be better steward earth’s resources. For example, First Christian Church in Morehead is working to become a Certified Green Chalice congregation, a national program which provides sustainability guidance for faith-based groups. MACED recently conducted an energy audit of their church to provide recommendations on this journey. Another group, Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light, offers a solar program for churches, and we recently partnered with them to hold workshops in Floyd and Harlan Counties for faith based groups to learn about these opportunities to save and steward.
To learn about other faith groups MACED has worked with, please visit here.
