Salt Lake County helping families with home-energy loans

Posted on by Listify Me

Solar panels? Maybe later. How about a working furnace?

Salt Lake County’s home-energy loan program may pay for environmental eye-catchers such as wind turbines and solar arrays, but most applicants are using the money for something simpler — a furnace, a water heater, windows.

Less than two months after the county announced it would offer $800,000 in low-interest loans to people wanting to make their homes more energy efficient, officials have logged dozens of applications.

The current count: 64.

Applications have come from across the county: Salt Lake City, Copperton, Cottonwood Heights and more. They have included all kinds of projects: swamp coolers, dishwashers, attic insulation. They have listed all kinds of houses: Most from the 1970s, some as old as the 1930s, others erected in the past 10 years.

But the loan program seems to be less about going green than about meeting people’s needs.

Bartly Mathews, the county’s energy-efficiency coordinator, says one in six applications has been for a low-income household. And some households have been so cash-strapped that they haven’t had money to replace an already-broken furnace.

“There is nothing worse than seeing someone in a home with no heat who is trying to stay warm with space heaters,” he said. “We can do something to help them.”

The loan program is the brainchild of Mayor Peter Corroon, who argues low-interest government help is needed so residents can overcome the financial obstacles that often stand in the way of energy retrofits.

But the program hasn’t always been palatable.

A year ago, the county lobbied for state legislation that would have allowed residents to take out government loans, then pay back the money on their property taxes. But bankers resisted, fearing that government loans could get primacy over private ones. The measure failed.

So the county scrapped that approach, partnered with banks and started accepting applications in early November.

Among the applicants was Christella Lake.

Lake hasn’t lost her furnace — yet. But the Sandy mother of two fears the end is approaching for a heater installed with the house in 1978. It’s making noise. And Lake wonders whether she will wake up one morning in the cold.

“It definitely is a ‘when,’ not an ‘if,’ ” said Lake, adding with a pinch of humor, “not today, but maybe tomorrow.”

So that’s the item on Lake’s wish list as she appeals to the county for a loan. She likes the interest rate (currently at 5 percent) and the added perk of getting a free energy audit of her home.

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