WED Assists Luther College Home Energy Class
During the month of January Winneshiek Energy District Energy Planner Paul Cutting assisted environmental studies professor Laura Peterson in her J-term course Bringing Sustainable Energy Home. Luther’s January term, or J-Term as it’s commonly known, provides students the chance to spend the month learning about a topic in-depth. Made possible for the past two years by a generous donation from Luther alumni Linda and Leon Gregg, 16 students learned the math and science of home energy efficiency and were tasked with proposing energy efficiency and renewable energy projects on the Luther campus. This year, the students had a budget of $20,000 to propose improvements for the college to act on.
During the course, the students gained an understanding of the fundamentals of energy and energy efficiency through field trips to Decorah-area houses, conducted energy audits and solar assessments, learned about electrification and decarbonization with heat pumps, and calculated environmental and CO2 impacts for proposed improvements.
Last year students analyzed energy consumption at three Luther-owned off campus houses, and ultimately proposed investments in two roof-mounted solar arrays and replacement of an existing gas powered water heater with an electric heat pump version.
This term, the students looked at two Luther-owned properties, the first a four unit apartment complex, and the second a duplex. The students weighed several options: solar arrays, increasing attic insulation, replacement of gas water heaters and gas clothes dryers with heat pump versions and lighting upgrades. Through deliberation weighing the cost benefit of each, the students settled on installing a 6.6 kW solar array and adding additional attic insulation at the four unit apartment complex, and upgrading lighting, installing a heat pump water heater and two heat pump clothes dryers at the duplex. These improvements will save the college $3,000 annually in energy costs.