Fifty-five percent of Ann Arbor’s housing is made up of rental apartments. And now the City and DTE Energy have teamed up to create a program to allow A2 renters to save money, help get to the goal of a carbon free energy system, and improve their comfort levels at once with its new Insulate Ann Arbor program.
“We believe that everyone should be able to live in healthy, safe and energy-efficient housing, and we are delighted to collaborate with DTE to bring this exciting new program to Ann Arbor,” Missy Stults, the Sustainability and Innovations Director at the City of Ann Arbor, said in a press release. “I’m incredibly grateful for the staff at DTE and the city, and for all the renters, landlords and property managers that helped to shape our rental work over the last few years, including the vision for Insulate Ann Arbor.”
What this means in practice is that you can install or upgrade insulation for your walls, roof, attic or crawl space and more. The more insulated your home is, the less energy is needed to power forced heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. This is the environmentally sensitive thing to do as it means that you require less power, and it also means that your bills will shrink noticeably along with your carbon footprint.
This is currently in its pilot phase but promises to bring up to $1 million worth of rebates to participating apartment buildings. Half of the budget comes from Ann Arbor’s public finances and half from DTE Energy.
“The Insulate Ann Arbor pilot offers rebates for insulation and air sealing to multifamily rental property managers and owners in the City of Ann Arbor. This joint pilot was collaboratively developed by DTE Energy and the City of Ann Arbor’s Office of Sustainability and Innovations. It builds on an established partnership and a shared focus on improving energy efficiency, affordability and comfort for Ann Arbor residents, ”DTE Energy spokeswoman Hannah Buscemi said. “Improvements are made at the whole-building level, which helps ensure energy savings, improved comfort and consistent benefits for residents throughout the property. The pilot is live and accepting applications now for eligible properties. Funding is limited, and rebate availability depends on remaining funds, so interested property owners and managers are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. We encourage interested parties to visit Insulate Ann Arbor website.”
“Insulate Ann Arbor offers rebates for insulation and air sealing at multifamily rental properties in Ann Arbor—two of the most cost-effective ways multifamily properties can reduce energy costs and comply with the City’s Green Rental Housing Ordinance,” the programs home page explains. “Up to $75,000 or 50% of total project costs is available per property, with up to $250,000 or 90% of total project costs available per income-qualified property. Funds are limited and rebate payments are dependent on fund availability.”
Signing up requires formal written permission from your landlord, and you can’t just do this for your own apartment specifically. You will need to get tenants from every single unit on board before the process can begin.
The total time frame from application to completion for participating buildings “will depend, primarily on how long it takes to find a contractor and for them contractor to be able to do the work. In general, it could take around two weeks to get everything verified, and we then give 90 days for the applicant to complete their project once approved. It could certainly take less time than that, and in some cases it might take more,” Joe Lange, the Senior Energy Analyst at the OS&I said. He explained that Treetown’s rental units are “broken up across single family rental units and multifamily rental units. And due to the split incentive of who pays for energy efficiency upgrades and who sees the cost savings on the energy bill, rental properties tend to lag owner occupied housing when it comes to energy efficiency.
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Insulate Ann Arbor works in conjunction with the Green Rental Housing Ordinance that applies to all rentals and its counterpart the Home Energy Rebates for smaller rental properties (and owner-occupied housing) to help reduce the amount of energy we use in our rental housing sector. When looking at opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of rental housing, air sealing and insulation were identified as the most cost-effective strategies for improving energy efficiency, and this program helps catalyze that work.”
Interested Ann Arbor residents can sign up right now. There is a six step process online that will determine eligibility. Anyone with questions on the process can contact the team at [email protected] or by calling 734.726.4747. Anyone who wants more information on the program in general can contact the OS&I at [email protected].
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
