A happy ending: Nexus Comfort Project comes full circle

From the Nexus Director of Development, Keith Lowhorne:

(Huntsville, AL.) – Everyone loves a great ending to a story. Fortunately for me, after a long career in broadcasting where – let’s face it – the news isn’t always that great, I now work in the non-profit world where happy endings are much more frequent.

At the Nexus Energy Center, we work with the underserved communities in Alabama, where residents live on limited incomes and cannot afford to get their homes updated as needed. We administer this work through a program called the Comfort Project.

A few weeks ago, I got the privilege of meeting 94 year old Mr. Joe King, a retired farmer who was still cutting grass just this past summer. Mr. King has been living in his home for almost 50 years and wants to remain there, where he is able to live independently. His family was concerned about his high utility bills and health issues that seemed to be related to the faulty HVAC unit in the home. Cut to: Nexus Energy and TARCOG stepping in to save the day.

Nexus visited Mr. King’s home and completed a comprehensive energy audit of the house. In a nutshell, working with our partners at Synergy of Decatur it was discovered that there was significant air leakage – significant enough, in fact, that the total amount of heating and cooling being lost was equivalent to having a four foot hole in the wall! So essentially, throughout the entire year Mr. King’s heat and air conditioning was being lost through this hypothetical four-foot hole.

Mr. King’s HVAC was constantly running, but simply could not compete with the significant amount of air loss. For Mr. King, this meant shivering in the winter, and sweating during the summer – not to mention that this is all in addition to the health issues being exacerbated by the poor quality of air.

Today, after sealing the air leaks and installing other energy efficiency measures (such as weather stripping), Mr. King is living in a much more comfortable home that is significantly less expensive to operate. More importantly however, Mr. King is breathing easier and has seen improvement in his overall health.

The most amazing part for Mr. King? These improvements were made at no cost to him. Through a grant, Nexus Energy is able to manage this project, along with 10 other homes under the same circumstances, to provide better living conditions for our community’s elderly population.

In our final energy audit of the home, Nexus Energy Center determined that Mr. King’s electric and gas bill dropped 25%, but the quality of the air he is breathing in his home improved 50%.

That’s the great ending to this story.

Please share this incredible story with friends. Mr. King, and the countless others in need just like him, cannot be helped without the support of generous donations from readers like you.

Nexus Energy Center is the only non-profit in the state of Alabama whose sole purpose is to help the underserved through efficient energy improvements. In addition to our Comfort Project, we also have programs for homeowners and businesses who want assessments for their properties through our AlabamaWISE and BusinessWISE programs.

For more information on this amazing organization or to make a donation, please visit us at www.nexusenergycenter.org.