Editor’s note: The following Q&A is part of Xpress’ annual Sustainability series.
Steffi Rausch is director of operations for Energy Savers Network.
Xpress: Tell us about the recent changes at Energy Savers Network and who could benefit from these?
Rausch: Since 2017, Energy Savers Network (ESN) has been hard at work weatherizing over 1,400 low-income homes in Buncombe County. The purpose of this free program has been twofold — to help qualified households save money on their energy bills by making them more energy efficient while also reducing overall energy usage to address climate concerns.
In January 2025, our primary funder, Duke Energy, made significant increases to their funding that will allow us to provide a much deeper level of savings for our clients. Those additional services include replacing electric furnaces with heat pumps, electric water heaters with heat pump water heaters, inefficient appliances with Energy Star appliances and additional insulation — all helping to reduce our client’s energy bills by hundreds of dollars. We also provide home and safety repairs like window/door replacement, roof/floor repair, debris removal, water damage remediation, etc., thereby helping with storm recovery efforts.
What has been the greatest challenge in getting people to sign up?
In order to keep this service free, we rely upon volunteers and donations, both of which are difficult to find, mostly because they don’t know we exist. We are a small nonprofit just starting to gain traction since we separated from Green Built Alliance last fall and now operate with a very small staff. While we do receive a lot of our client leads from larger nonprofits, we don’t seem to have nearly the number of volunteers or donations we need to grow and accommodate all of our clients in the way we would like to. If we can get more volunteers and donations, we can double or triple our impact in our community, especially for those impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Can you speak to the importance of this initiative as it relates to the environment.
Energy efficiency is key to reducing fossil fuels, which is a primary cause of climate change and pollution. I can’t think of a better way to help the environment than to reduce the energy usage of everyday citizens while also reducing their energy bill; something that is supported not only by the households that receive it but also local governments and Duke Energy. Please volunteer, donate or apply for service at energysaversnetwork.org.
