Bethany Library Volunteer Day – SEEDS and Jaycees partner to provide energy savings!

SEEDS of Northeastern PA forms another partnership generating energy savings for our area.

Earlier this year, SEEDS was asked by Bethany Town Council member John Harvey to assess the Bethany Public Library for energy efficiency, to help save energy costs. SEEDS volunteers Pete Snyder, Jim Martin and Executive Director Jocelyn Cramer walked the building and prepared a customized report for the library to help them upgrade the beautiful and historic space. Recently, SEEDS Board member Luke Turano, also a member of the Honesdale Area Jaycess suggested that SEEDS and the Jaycees partner to perform the work that needed to be done on the library. Most of the issues were air breeches, and could be resolved with caulk, foam and insulation.

On a recent chilly Saturday afternoon, about a dozen volunteers spent 3 hours sealing the library up tight. The supplies needed were minimal; literally a few tubes of caulk, expanding spray foam, insulation and weather-stripping materials. But these volunteers and a few tools made significant improvements to the building without replacing any of the beautiful exterior doors. Think about the amount of energy lost if someone put a softball through your window. You would not wait long before fixing it. If you added up the small air breaches that many buildings have, they can add up to a pretty large hole. So that was the goal that day, to seal all the air breeches possible, and cut down on the heat transfer in cold weather.

Insulation was secured to an attic hatch door, and some additional insulation was added. Foam paneling was cut and placed in the chimney flue, weather-stripping on the exterior doors was replaced. Exterior doors were insulated on their interior, holes and cracks were filled, such as around windows and doors, and where utility wires and pipes entered the structure, and believe it or not, fun was had by all! The library shared its pre-upgrade energy costs with us, and will share them again with us after the cold months to estimate savings. “It is hard to say exactly how much energy SEEDS helps people save through our forums and free home energy assessments, because we often don’t know which steps we recommend are actually taken. But when SEEDS helps do the actual work, we get very excited about being able to measure the energy savings and share the results with the community” said SEEDS executive Director Jocelyn Cramer.

SEEDS was grateful to all the volunteers that helped that day. Zack Jennings, Liz Johnson, Steve Daniels, Jeremy Coar, and Dan Fisch joined Luke Turano from the Jaycees. They helped Jim Sanders, Pete Snyder, Katharine Dodge and Michael Rollison of SEEDS complete the work. Bethany council member John Harvey and Ruth Bairstow from The Bethany Library were on hand to help direct the work. SEEDS is planning to collaborate with the Jaycees in future workdays helping other non-profits that serve our community upgrade their buildings, and lower their energy costs.

For more information about SEEDS, please contact Executive Director Jocelyn Cramer at Jocelyn@seedsgroup.net or by calling (570) 245 – 1256.