REBUILD GREEN / NEW ORLEANS
Re: Introduction of the Adopt-a-Well / Adopt-a-Block Program
Dear Supporters of Rebuild Green / New Orleans,
We're introducing a new program that we think can offer a great deal of help to residents of the Upper and Lower 9th Wards who are still trying to recover their homes, twenty months after levees broke and flooding smashed neighborhoods in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The new program, Adopt-a-Well or Adopt-a-Block, asks individuals, groups, and communities to invest in the installation of geo-thermal systems for heating and air-conditioning of homes in the Upper and Lower 9th Ward. Relatively small amounts of investment can produce enormous benefits here. The first Rebuild Green Geo-Thermal Project in the Upper 9th Ward will serve eight houses on the 2500 blocks of Desire and Piety Streets. Total cost for the eight houses' geo-thermal systems (wells + heat-pumps) is estimated to be $42,624, or $5,328 per house. Based on projections of utility-bill costs and savings (see 'Comparisons' below), the initial investment for geo-thermal power in the Upper 9th Ward will be repaid by savings ($2616 per year) in little more than two years.
These savings will go a long way toward reviving the Upper and Lower 9th Wards. The proliferation of geo-thermal systems in these Wards will set an exponential precedent. The wave they begin will rapidly spread. And the next step will be installation of solar panels to make thousands of houses in southern Louisiana Zero Net-Energy homes. Please check out the numbers below.
COST COMPARISONS |
|||
CONVENTIONAL HOME |
SYSTEM #1 HOME | SYSTEM #2 HOME | |
| (Geo-thermal = Near-Zero Net Energy Use) | (Geo-thermal + Solar Panels = Zero Net Energy Use) | ||
| Square Footage | 1440 |
1440 |
1440 |
| Installation Costs A/C and heating source | HVAC/$4000 |
Wells + Heat Pump/$5328 |
Wells + Heat Pump/$5328 |
| Solar Panels for Electric | $10,000 |
||
| Total Installation Costs | $4,000 |
$5,328 |
$15,328 |
| Monthly Costs
(30-year Mortgage at 8% Fixed Rate with 100% financing for each home.
|
|||
| Estimated Insurance | $400 |
$300 |
$300 |
| Estimated Utilities (Gas, Electricity, A/C, Heating) | $205 |
$82 |
$0 |
| Annual Costs | $7,260 |
$4,582
($2616 saving over conventional |
$3,600
($3590 saving) |
| 30-Year Costs | $217,800 |
$137,520
($80,280 saving over conventional |
$108,000
($109,800 saving) |
So, you can see the huge benefits in dollars-and-cents (more than $80K per home from geo-thermal over 30 years, more than $109K per home from geo-thermal + solar over 30 years) that can come to the Upper and Lower 9th Wards through the Adopt-a-Well or Adopt-a-Block program.
Most important, of course, is the whole benefits that flow back and forth between investors and residents. To revive hard-hit neighborhoods of New Orleans is to revive the United States. To set a Zero Net-Energy use precedent here is to make Zero Net-Energy use compelling everywhere.
The Adopt-a-Well or Adopt-a-Block program is also meant to address a continuing lack of Government funds for residents' recovery in New Orleans. Less than 5% of Louisiana's applicants for Road Home moneys (issued by the U. S. Government and administered for the State of Louisiana's Louisiana Recovery Authority by the Virginia-based ICF Corporation) have received any of those moneys, twenty months after Hurricane Katrina. Last week the Louisiana Recovery Authority eliminated $579 million from the Road Home funding that was to help residents storm-proof their homes.
You, if you choose to participate in the Adopt-a-Well or Adopt-a-Block program, will be helping to fill the void left by Government lacks. You'll also be acting to create an exchange of person-to-person solutions that must reasonably be deemed vital in the year 2007.
Jeremiah Johnson, Christoph Huguenin, Margaret Doyle Johnston & Robert Legier
Upper Ninth Ward Crew
Cheers, and thanks for all that you've previously done,
Don Paul for Rebuild Green in New Orleans
www.rebuildgreen.org POB 74-1365 NEW ORLEANS, LA 70053
Phone 504-401-2101 Fax 504-861-5017 rebuildgreen@bellsouth.com
