Left to right: State Senator Bob Dieg, Lt. Governor Becky Skillman, and Denise Seibert, Director of Development

Evansville ARC is receiving a $97,058 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) to make improvements to its facility at 615 West Virginia Street. The EECBG program is funded through the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) and administered in Indiana through the Indiana Office of Energy Development (OED). As part of the matching grant, we are required to fund 50% of the total project cost, estimated to be $194,116.

The grant will help cover expenses related to an HVAC upgrade and lighting removal project at the facility. The current lighting is 10 years old. While the lighting is energy efficient, the amount of lighting far exceeds the required need by 100 percent. The current HVAC system was installed approximately 40 years ago when the facility was constructed. The existing dual duct mixing boxes are the original mixing boxes, leak air and do not work efficiently or properly. As part of the project, we will convert our dual duct constant-volume HVAC system to Variable Air Volume (VAV) by removing the existing dual duct mixing boxes and installing new Direct Digital Control controlled, VAV mixing boxes.

According to a recently conducted energy audit, annual savings of over 449,000 kWh of electricity and over 6,360 therms of natural gas would be achieved through implementation of the proposed project, which in turn will reduce Evansville ARC’s annual utility expenses.

Deidra R. Conner, President of Evansville ARC, said, “We are very excited about this opportunity to update our facility and significantly reduce our annual utility costs.  By upgrading our HVAC system and reducing the amount of lights in our facility, we expect to reduce Evansville ARC’s greenhouse gas emissions by 575,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year – equivalent to removing 50 cars from the road or reforesting 71 acres of trees!    We are grateful to the USDOE and Indiana OED for this grant opportunity.  This will help us continue to provide our services to those we serve for many years while at the same time helping improve the quality of our local environment.”