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Tuesday, 06 December 2011 11:15

Written by Diana Nelson Jones

Here’s an innovative idea: Buy an old house and use it to train people how to make old houses energy efficient by making it energy efficient.

ACTION-Housing, already a regional provider of weatherization assistance to 33,000 low-income households through a U.S. Department of Energy program, has branched out by purchasing a three-story house in East Liberty and turning it into a workshop for anyone to learn the skills of home ownership that can shave lots of money from your energy bill.

They will also offer classes for contractors.

Interior preparations for an unveiling are finishing up this month, and you can read more about this house and the plans for it in an upcoming edition of the Post-Gazette.

From the looks of the effects tht were left, this house was last "renovated" in the late '70s or early '80s into four apartments.

In buying it, ACTION-Housing saw the need for a real place on which people could practice and learn new skills to make their homes more affordable.

“We want to add education and deeper, hands-on training in a real home,” said Lindsay Ruprecht, ACTION-HOUSING’s sustainable community development coordinator. (That's Lindsay, above, in the pink vest and shoes, and that's the house. The photo was taken late this summer during a tour of participants in the Great Lakes Urban Exchange conference in the 'burgh.)

Once it is open to the public, the house will also serve as a kind of museum, to learn about how energy efficient applicances and programmable thermostats work, to see local and new products, try their hand at blowing in insulation and learn how a ceiling fan set on low in the winter can help circulate warm air.

Stay posted.

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