Energy-efficient homes are the homes of the future, and Energy Star, Narragansett Electric and others are bringing them into the mainstream with the help of Rhode Island’s next generation of carpenters, contractors and home builders.
More than 100 students from 10 Rhode Island vocational and technical schools and the Urban League presented models to be retrofitted with energy-efficient technology, as well as photos from Energy Star homes that a few of the schools have built over the past year or two at the second annual Rhode Island Technical School Outreach Learning Exchange on Jan. 28.
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The event, held at the Community College of Rhode Island’s Quonset Training and Technical Center, included daylong workshops, professional development for technical schoolteachers, prizes and awards for Energy Star Homes Builder of the Year and for tech schools.
“The Energy Star Homes program has exploded in the last couple of years,” said Paul Wolff, outreach program founder and assistant project manager for Conservation Services Group, which administers the Energy Star Homes program in the Northeast for Energy Star. “It’s been recommended as a mandated component of the curriculum at technical schools. We want kids to be exposed to what’s current to give them a leg up when they go out and look for a job.”
Warwick Area Career and Technical Center has built 13 Energy Star homes in the past couple of years, and received an Energy Star achievement award for its work, as did Coventry Career and Technical School, which worked on a multi-family home. Woonsocket and Mount Hope high schools in Bristol have also built homes, according to Wolff.
“We train these kids before they have any bad habits,” he said. To help establish the program in the classroom, Wolff constructed a dollhouse-sized model of an Energy Star home, the I-SMART home, which comes apart and includes pullout drawers with insulation and other materials, to demonstrate different building materials and construction to students. “Kids are so visual. I built the project around this model.”
Two years ago, Narragansett Electric offered Wolff and Energy Star funding to start a program to teach young people about building Energy Star homes, and the learning exchange was the result. Students build models, about the size of tool sheds, as part of their classroom activities which are used to demonstrate energy-saving methods in the workshops. Students at the event install energy-efficient doors and windows in ways that promote drainage and resist wind and driving rain; learn about efficient foundation and wall systems; conduct air-sealing tests; and learn about different types of insulation, and HVAC basics.
The outreach program and event have attracted attention and participation from Rhode Island builders and contractors, who assist students in the workshops along with teachers. Graduating seniors can post their resumes with their projects, and according to Wolff, the event produces real results. Seventy percent of students last year, he said, got jobs and another 20 percent went on to higher education.
Students from some of the schools have built 2,000 to 3,000-square-foot single-family homes and a few have also worked on multi-family homes.
Two seniors from Warwick, who attended the outreach event last year, said the workshop gives them exposure to different building techniques and is real-world experience in an out-of-the-classroom setting.
Nate Pimental, 17, said his exposure to the building industry came from his father, who is a contractor. That’s what he’ll most likely end up doing, he said, and the workshops give him and edge on the latest technology.
“This is a lot better than staying in the shop making a treehouse,” said Justin Miller, 17. “It exposes us to different things. (Here), you can find one thing you like and pursue it.”
