Alejandro Porath, 76, lives in Albuquerque, NM with his son, Abraham, 15, and wife, Teresa. Their daughter, Clara, 21, also lives in the area. Alejandro is a retired plumber. His son is currently enrolled as a ninth-grader at Manzano Middle School, and his wife provides the family’s sole income through a job at Mission Laundry.
The Porath’s four-bedroom, two bath, one story home, located in the Northeast Heights was built over 60 years ago. During the recent cold winter, they have had to rely mostly on the living room fireplace and an outdated, overtaxed heating system for warmth. The old windows throughout the house and the sparse insulation do little to keep the cold air out, and the family’s heating bills continue to rise. The heating and water bills ranging from $200-300 a month forced Alejandro to cut off any luxuries, such as Internet access for his son. Even with the cutbacks, they struggle to make monthly payments under the local energy company’s payment plan.
Alejandro is constantly working on the house to improve heating efficiency; doing everything from rebuilding interior rooms, to patching the fireplace with stones from his side yard. Most of the building materials he uses come through donations and scraps from area builders. But with so much money going towards their energy bills, he is prevented from making the types of improvements that would really make a difference.
Thanks to support from the state Weatherization Assistance Program and the “Power Is In Your Hands” campaign and its 32 partners, the Porath family will receive new windows, new insulation, a programmable thermostat and various other energy-efficiency upgrades in their home ensuring that future energy costs are much lower. For more information, visit the campaign Web site at www.sixdegreechallenge.com.
For more information on the improvements made to the Porath home, plan to attend the press event held at the home on Thursday, February 22 at 11:00am. For more information, please contact Ben Finzel at 202-828-8809 or ben.finzel@fleishman.com.
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The Alliance to Save Energy is a coalition of prominent business, government, environmental, and consumer leaders who promote the efficient and clean use of energy worldwide to benefit consumers, the environment, economy, and national security.
The Power is in Your Hands campaign is designed to arm consumers with information and tools to manage their home energy bills; inform them about the connection between household energy use and energy prices; and inspire them to use energy efficiency to reduce their energy and thereby enhance the nation's energy security. Phase 1 was launched in winter 2005 with 23 business, government, and nonprofit partners. The Phase 2 2006-7 winter campaign has grown to 30 partners taking a creative new approach with the 6° of Energy Efficiency Challenge.