Eligibility & Application
If you are a Duke Energy customer and your household income is at or below 200% of Federal Poverty Guidelines—Check out our Apply page for qualifying income per household size—then you’ll qualify!
You can apply online via our application form or call 828.585.4492, ext 1
We accept both renters and homeowners! If you are a renter, we’ll need your landlord’s name and contact information to send them an authorization form to review and sign. This form will outline the services we’ll provide and what they as the landlord can expect.
No we do not.
We require a recent copy of one of the following for EACH ADULT in the household: latest tax forms (1040 / W-2 / 1099), Supplemental Security Income Award Letter (SSI), Disability Award Letter (SSDI), one month’s worth of pay stubs, or Veteran’s Benefits.
If you do not have any documented income, you will be asked to sign a Statement of No Documented Income.
The application process can take 5-15 minutes depending on several factors. If you apply online answering all the questions AND upload all your required documentation on the second page, we can process your application a lot faster! Once submitted, our Energy Efficiency Navigator will call you to complete your application when we are ready to accept more clients. Please bear in mind that we are often scheduled a month in advance with only a short waitlist of clients at any given time. If you are willing to be a “backup” we can get you scheduled when a client cancels.
Yes, we service all residence types — as long as you have a Duke Energy bill that is individually metered and not included in your rent.
Services & Process
Our project managers are trained and qualified to assess each home to determine what available resources or services will have the most impact on improving the energy efficiency of your home.
We provide simple energy saving measures that seal your home from air leakage or heat loss and save you money! We normally start off with installing LED light bulbs, CO/smoke detectors, and low-flow water fixtures while implementing a blower door test to assess where air leaks are coming from. Then we weatherstrip exterior doors & windows, insulate water heater pipes, air seal around windows and ductwork, and assess or educate you on other ways you can reduce or save energy. And lastly, we recommend next steps if you qualify for other services we can offer you. Every home is different so we do as much as we can with the resources we have. Check out our Simple Home Energy Saving Tips!
For qualified clients, we can offer insulation, HVAC heat pump upgrade, water heater heat pump upgrade, and certain appliance replacements like an Energy Star Refrigerator, Washer, and/or Dryer.
Your application can only be completed after 3-4 billing cycles with Duke Energy. We’ll need to collect your energy usage data to determine whether you’d be categorized as Tier I or Tier II. This is necessary to know which of our services you’ll qualify for.
Depending on whether your home has any major air leaks, we may request that you send us photos or schedule a pre-workday assessment to determine whether repairs would be necessary before the weatherization workday.
We schedule every workday from roughly 10am-4pm. Depending on how much work we can provide and how many volunteers we have signed up for that day, it could take anywhere from 3-7 hours.
This can vary a lot! If we just provide basic weatherization, it will all be done in 1 workday. If you qualify for additional services, then we’ll move you forward with our external contractors who specialize in that service. They have their own clients on top of our list of clients, so the timeline can take several weeks to months until they are ready to contact you. But it’s all for free!!
We strongly prefer that someone is home throughout the workday. We understand that it can be challenging for some to block off the whole day, so at a minimum we’ll need someone there when we arrive to show us around and answer questions as well as at the end to go over the work that’s been done and next steps/suggestions to further improve your energy efficiency.
Potentially! We could bypass the weatherization process and look at qualifying you for HVAC replacement as long as you have an electric system. Otherwise, call our Energy Efficiency Navigator (828.585.4492, ext 1) to discuss other options.
Costs & Obligations
It’s true! All of our services, including time and material, will be free of charge. ZERO hidden costs!
We’d still be happy to weatherize the home you’re currently in AND you can apply again for our services once you’ve lived in the next home for a minimum of 3 months. We may delay major installations until AFTER you move (such as HVAC/water heater replacement) as these are pricey upgrades that we are only providing the home because YOU qualify for them.
Our work has NO affect on your relationship with Duke Energy. Our mission is to help you reduce your electric bill. Keep in mind that your consumption habits will highly impact your bill and that you can play a major role in this mission as well—learn more here.
It is required by Duke Energy to provide a combustion test prior to your scheduled weatherization workday. This is for your health & safety to ensure that the emission level present in the home is safe to breathe before sealing up air leaks that could lead to an unsafe living environment.
Practical Concerns
We currently serve Buncombe, Haywood, Madison, and Henderson counties.
Yes. We are typically booked out a month in advance with a short waitlist of no more than a dozen applicants at a time. But if we have a cancellation, you may get an opportunity to get weatherized sooner — as a “backup” client!
No, we have selectively vetted out the contractors we work with, who will guarantee their work if anything should go wrong.
Definitely still apply and mention that on your application. We’ll review your information to see what other services you could qualify for.
Feel free to give us a call with your concerns. We may direct you to the contractor directly, but we’d still like to be informed of any concerns. We also try to do follow-up phone calls to ask how your experience was, list out any concerns/feedback that you may have, as well as make sure you are aware of any maintenance needed.