by Donna Turner
Cincinnati, Ohio — I enjoyed our energy assessor training and the energy assessment. Fifth Christian had our energy assessment Thursday, February 15, 2024. As people streamed in that evening, I encouraged them to have snacks as we set up. We ran into a rash of technical issues; Ken was supposed to come but couldn’t attend in person and would present his part on Zoom. Then Justin had to come in from Columbus and was a tad late. We had 18 people. A few church members joined out of curiosity, so almost everyone was new but our technical issues brought us together. Everyone was focused and sharing ideas and when we prevailed and the training was completed, we then broke into groups to do the energy assessment. It was interesting to see my church through the eyes of the guests and to answer questions about the mundane energy users, overhead lights, stove in the kitchen, thermostat.
I recommend that all churches participate in the energy assessment program. The 13 consecutive months of energy bills are easily downloaded from the energy company website. They are needed to determine the projected potential savings. We benefitted from the fellowship and we will never look at our overhead lights the same way. There were lots of benefits to making the changes and cost was central but not even the most important. For instance, we have bulbs that are burned out, with the current system we are told that we are paying for the bulb as if it is being used. They are now a part of our plan for better stewardship over the blessing of having a house of worship.