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Colorado School of Mines project hopes to warm houses, lower bills in mobile home communities

A worker installs energy padding inside a mobile home.
Kathryn Scott
/
Colorado School of Mines
A worker fits a seal on a door as part of work to assess energy efficiency in a mobile home in Lake County as part of a pilot project by the Colorado School of Mines.

It gets cold in Lake County’s high country, and getting warm when you live in a mobile home is expensive. Just ask Armando, whose monthly utility bill for his two-bedroom manufactured house heads toward $300.

“It’s the biggest bill,” said Armando, who like other residents of the predominantly Latino home park asked to be identified by only his first name out of concerns about the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

That bill, however, is dropping thanks to a pilot project spearheaded by the Colorado School of Mines aimed at bolstering energy efficiency across the community through a combination of improvements to the units and a switch to electric appliances.

The upgraded homes are going through their first winter in the three-year project, with more retrofits to follow in the spring. Armando says he is already seeing an impact. “It looks like I am saving about $35 next month,” he said.

“It is a big difference,” Armando said. “It stays warm all day. … Hopefully it will get even better.”

To read the entire story, visit The Colorado Sun.