Energy audits, outreach program tie Colgate to community

Owners of a Stockbridge home got a cold splash of reality – thanks to some Colgate students by learning exactly what it costs each time their teenager takes a hot shower for 30 minutes every morning.

A Morrisville homeowner learned that a one-time payment of $300 to seal air leaks around windows and pocket doors would then save $150 a year in heating costs.

Information like this and other practical tips on improving energy efficiency were the results of energy audits conducted by physics professor Beth Parks and the 25 students in her Energy and Sustainability course.

Parks, who also works during the summer with 24 area high school girls in a science outreach program, is one of about 40 faculty members involved in Colgate’s Upstate Institute.

The newly launched institute serves as a resource for organizations and individuals in upstate New York and as an outlet for faculty with a regional expertise.

The energy audits are a way for Parks’s students to take what they study in the classroom and apply it in the field, a learning experience that also benefits area homeowners.

This past fall, the students spent a day at the houses in Stockbridge and Morrisville and worked with contractor Ron Jablonski and Page on the energy audits. The homeowners had bought their houses through the Community Action Program for Madison County.

The students measured the houses, measured the windows noting whether they were single or double paned, checked the insulation, checked the heating system and appliances, and monitored pretty much anything that consumes energy.

They determined the thermal conductivity of the windows, for instance, to see how much heat was being lost and to calculate the potential savings and the cost of replacing them with more energy efficient models.

It was an eye-opening experience for some of the students.

“The main thing I got out of it was how much money you could save by doing simple things. You don’t really think of small cracks as being major sources of heat loss until you add up a houseful of them, “said Hunter King ‘05.

Page gathered the data and provided the homeowners with an easy-to-read breakdown of the improvements’ cost and the subsequent total savings, which ranged from $600 to $1,000 per year. She also let the homeowners know about state programs that help pay for such home improvements and that provide low-interest loans.

The students met the homeowners while conducting the audits, giving them a practical lesson in home economics – paying bills and covering home costs.

In fact, King said he had a pipe burst in his home, and he had to cut through drywall to get at the problem. He noticed the wall was not insulated, figured out the heat loss, and immediately “realized how much money I would save by adding some insulation, which I’m currently doing.”

Parks said the energy audits, which have been done about four times in the past seven years, and the course also are designed to provide students with a reference point for classroom discussions on the bigger picture of U.S. energy use.

“It helps students see how energy is being used in the United States now, and what the possibilities are for sustainable energy sources,” she said.

The other program Parks is involved in is all about exploring possibilities.

Last summer, she helped launch a weeklong program called Discovery under the Hood, which provides teenage girls hands-on experience with cars as a gateway to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

“We want to show the girls that science and math play a part in exploring the world,” Parks said. “It might point them toward a job they want in the future.”

The program, a collaborative effort with Morrisville State College, is funded through a National Science Foundation grant. The program started last year, and will continue for at least the next two summers.

The girls ages 14 to 17   spend a week living on the Colgate campus. They use the facilities at the Automotive Technology Building on the Morrisville campus each morning, where they get up close and personal with a car engine, using strobe lights and stethoscopes to monitor it as it runs. They examine a car’s brakes, pads and all, and learn about fuels and what makes the car run.

In the afternoons, the girls venture into the Colgate laboratories for a series of experiments on topics such as how a gas expands as it gets hotter, a critical component of an internal combustion engine. They also worked with a State Police trooper in measuring a car’s skid marks to determine the vehicle’s speed at the time the driver hit the brakes.

Parks says even more hands-on projects are planned for this summer.

“We hope the program provides motivation to the girls, and they will build on what they learn here,” she said.

Lorna Wilson, a Hamilton resident who operates Hamilton Village Realty, manages the program, while Tom Skuce of Morrisville State College helps coordinate the work there.