Success Story: Urban Options

Partner Information

Located in East Lansing, MI
4,000 sq. ft. house/office space
Annual Savings: $2,000
Annual Energy Savings: 29,000 kWh
Prevented 56,000 lbs. of pollution

Non-profit Agency Opts for Energy Efficiency

Urban Options, a non-profit community agency founded in 1978, seeks to improve the environmental quality of urban housing by providing energy and environmental information and services. The agency, based in East Lansing, MI, shows that urban spaces can be made more environmentally friendly and energy efficient through a demonstration house located in the same city. The house, which also functions as the agency’s office, was made a model of energy efficiency by the efforts of volunteers and the donation of parts and equipment by community businesses.

For its achievement in creating a demonstration house that showcases modern energy efficiency equipment and techniques, the Environmental Protection Agency has presented the organization a year 2000 ENERGY STAR for small business Award.

Energy Efficiency = Environmental Friendliness

As part of the effort to make Urban Options’ office/house an energy efficient showcase, a crew of volunteers retrofitted highly efficient T-8 fluorescent lamps and compact fluorescent lamps in place of standard fluorescent and incandescent bulbs. In addition, they installed light emitting diode (LED) exit signs, which consume much less energy than standard exit signs and require far less maintenance.

The advantages of these high efficiency lamps are three-fold: they provide light equal to or better than standard incandescent or fluorescent lamps, they require far less maintenance, and they consume far less energy.

Opting for an Energy Efficient Building

Urban Options installed a new high-efficiency heating system, which has saved hundreds of dollars a year in energy costs, but it also realized that energy also could be saved by reducing the load on the heating system. To that end, the organization took a number of steps to ensure the office building didn’t lose any valuable heat during Michigan’s cold winters and cool springs and autumns.

The agency installed new insulation in the walls and on hot water pipes, reduced hot water settings on its water heater, installed new high efficiency windows to minimize heat loss, and uses passive solar heating as much as possible.

In addition, the agency has installed photovoltaic cells that function as shingles on its roof. That technology is still relatively expensive and has a longer payback than most energy efficiency measures, but part of the purpose of the demonstration house is to highlight new technologies that will eventually become cost effective for even small businesses.

Energy Efficiency Enhances Urban Spaces

LeRoy Harvey, the former executive director of Urban Options who oversaw most of the energy efficiency improvements, says that energy and water consumption at the house has been reduced by 75 percent. The improvements were funded through donations and grants and were installed by volunteer labor. For that reason, the payback time on the demonstration house is virtually zero, but the agency wishes to emphasize that most of the energy efficiency improvements made are very cost effective. Only the photovoltaic cells on the roof, which were installed to demonstrate technology that will be cost effective in the future, are beyond the reach of most small businesses.

Urban Options’ efforts have paid off. “We save hundreds of dollars per year and continue to provide hundreds of tours annually,” Harvey says. The non-profit agency’s strategy promises to improve the quality of life of home and business owners... “by using upgrades as an opportunity to involve and educate the public”.

For more information on ENERGY STAR for small business Award-winning Urban Options and its office that functions as a demonstration of the value of energy efficiency improvements, visit the agency’s Web site at http://www.urbanoptions.org.