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Arts & Entertainment

Sustainable Winchester Screens Energy Hunter

The screening of the local TV program shows members in the community how much energy they use and how to cut their cost.

As energy prices continue to rise, and the effects of carbon emissions sharpen into focus, homeowners are increasingly looking for ways to reduce both home heating costs and their home's carbon footprint.

To that end, Sustainable Winchester, a local energy reduction group, has begun a campaign to reduce the carbon footprint of 80 percent of Winchester's homes by 25 percent each. As part of that initiative, dubbed "Cool Winchester," the group premiered the first episode of their new TV show "Energy Hunter" Tuesday night at the Winchester Unitarian Church.

"It's an ambitious goal, and we know that," said Sara Ferguson,  a Sustainable Winchester member and director of "Energy Hunter." "We believe the show could be a huge help in getting people to make these reductions."

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The show, which debuted for about 100 people on a large projection screen Tuesday, follows host George "Woody" Wood as he tours local homes, finding and fixing energy drains as he goes. In the first episode, Wood worked on the 80-year-old cape-style home of Betsy Cregger. Modeled after do-it-yourself home shows like "extreme Makove: Home Edition" and "Trading Spaces," Wood used an open window to demonstrate how much heat was being lost through small air leaks in windows, doors, closets and the chimney.

Brookline-based energy auditing company, Green Guild, performed a series of tests, including a pressurized "blower door" and an infrared camera. Armed with these tests, Wood determined that the sum total of leaks in Cregger's home amounted to having a 20-foot x 30-foot hole in the house. As he and Cregger went through the house making repairs to windows, vents, and electric and plumbing connections, Wood gradually closed the window, demonstrating the efficiency gains.

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The end result showed the window open less than two inches, far surpassing the 25 percent goal set at the outset. The savings for Cregger will be an annual oil use reduction of about 200 gallons, as well as several hundred thousand pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

The show is expected to air on local television station WinCam in September. Further information is available at suswin.org.

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