Anchorage Daily News

With a fresh infusion of $60 million into the state's Home Energy Rebate Program, thousands of Alaska homeowners are clamoring to receive home-improvement rebate checks worth as much as $10,000, creating an unprecedented backlog and leaving many people frustrated and stressed with the process to get a piece of the big state giveaway.

In response, the state's Alaska Housing Finance Corp. has hired more staff and plans to step in to help with the scramble, while local contractors continue to work overtime.

The problem? To get a rebate, consumers must first have their houses inspected by a professional home energy rater.

The inspections take time, and the state has only so many of them. For many homeowners, this has created an insurmountable wall just to apply.

"I couldn't even leave a message on the answering machine to get someone to call me back to get an appointment," said Anchorage homeowner Tanya Iden. "You can't even get in the queue because you just have to spend your days calling the answering machine, hoping you can leave a message, then hoping that someone would call you back so they could write your name down."

Iden, who says her home with heavy drafts is far too chilly in the winter, might have more luck for the program once more energy raters are certified, but for now she, and many others, are feeling like they are being left out in the cold.

Energy raters are reporting that their waiting lists for inspections are so long it could take months to get to all the houses. Each rater typically can inspect just two or three homes a day.

Alaska Housing Finance Corp. later next week plans to untangle some of the mess by setting up a central database of people like Iden who want a rater. The state housing agency will run the first-come, first-served list of pending inspections, instead of the raters having their own long waiting lists; the raters then will go to AHFC to get the name of the next customer.

Spokeswoman Sherrie Simmonds said the housing agency crafted the new plan after it became obvious the current system isn't working. "We were hearing back from people who were pretty stressed out."

But while the consolidation will likely free up Iden's problem of not even being able to make an appointment, the queue still promises to be long.

HOW IT WORKS

The program requires homeowners to get an official energy rating of their home. The inspection identifies a variety of changes the owners could make to cut their heating costs -- such as replacing windows, buying a new furnace or installing insulation.

After making improvements, the homeowner gets a second inspection that quantifies how much more energy efficient the house is.

The homeowner then may apply to the state program for reimbursement of up to $10,000, depending on how much more energy efficient the house became.

The backlog of pending inspections is particularly acute in Anchorage, which has just seven energy raters.

In the first two weeks of September, 84 Anchorage residents applied. In Fairbanks, which has a third of the population of Anchorage but 12 energy raters, 111 residents applied.

Mat-Su has just eight raters. Homer has seven. Juneau has two. Other Alaska towns don't have any and rely on raters to fly to them.

One Wasilla-based rater, Carol Perkins, said she's booked a month out with 700 people on her waiting list -- that could keep her busy well into next year, especially considering she also serves rural towns. Last week, she was in Dutch Harbor and plans to go to Valdez after that. The state pays for her transportation, room and board.

"These people need a rating too. They deserve to save some money," she said before she left.

An Anchorage-based rater, Chuck Renfro, isn't taking any appointments and has 1,200 people on his list.

Another Anchorage rater, Stuart Brooks, says on his voicemail that he's not taking any more appointments, that he gets 30 to 50 calls a day, and that the volume just isn't manageable.

"It's chaos out there," Renfro said. "We try to take phone calls but if I leave for more than an hour, the message box is full."

MILLIONS MORE

Under the state program, any homeowner is eligible for a rebate, from the lowest income to the highest. In a time of skyrocketing home heating and energy costs -- including Enstar Natural Gas Co. plans to raise its rates by at least 22 percent beginning in January -- this no holds barred has created a rush to get a piece of the money available for rebates.

State legislators re-created the program this year after record-oil prices and a new oil tax brought in extra billions in revenue to state coffers. The program used to exist in a vastly smaller form before budgets squeezed and it was cut in the mid-1990s.

Earlier this year lawmakers allocated $100 million to it, setting aside a certain amount per community. Anchorage was given $26 million. Fairbanks $16 million. Mat-Su $7 million. Other communities got lower amounts.

During the legislative special session last month, lawmakers poured another $60 million into the program because of its booming popularity. That money will be given to the communities that run out of their allocated funds.

Renfro said he's seen customers across the socio-economic spectrum applying for it. "I've gone from mobile homes to $2 million to $3 million homes."

Simmonds said the state is working on the shortage of raters. Dozens more are in training, and the number could quadruple by the end of the year, she said.

Even with the backlog, the state is processing about 150 rebate applications a day. As of Friday, 1,884 applications had been turned in since the program was re-created, with only $18.2 million of the total $160 million being set aside for those homeowners, meaning most of the money has still been untouched.

To help raters with the backlog and calm the public about the process, Alaska Housing has paid an outside company $109,000 to merge the existing waiting lists and allow others to sign up on a master one online. Simmonds said the state plans to collate the list by sign-up date.

While the private raters charge differently for their services and the state reimburses the first $325, which is usually most if not all of the cost, Simmonds said if a homeowner is not happy with a quote from the rater that is assigned to him, he can get back on the list or wait for the rater he wanted.

Homeowners will be able to log onto the state agency's Web site to see where they are in the queue. The state plans for the new system to start at the end of next week, or the following week.

Homeowners like Iden, though, might still have to wait to fix those drafts in their homes -- or spend their own money without the possibility of a rebate if they want to have it done by the onset of winter and winter's high energy costs.

Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.

REBATE: More information about the Home Energy Rebate Program.

www.ahfc.state.ak.us/energy/weatherization_rebates.cfm

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