SAFE ARRIVAL: Max Planck staff members with successfully delivered trim coil created by engineers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboration. Pictured (front row from left) Thomas Rummel, head of magnet and cryostat subdivision; Stefan Freundt, engineer; Hans-Stephan Bosch, associate director for coordination; Victor Bykov, engineer; (back row, from left): Konrad Risse, trim coil project leader; Frank Füllenbach, engineer; Mathias Gottschewsky, project control engineer; Matthias Köppen, engineer. (Photo by Anja Richter Ullmann, IPP)

When it comes to making a house more energy efficient, it is the simple things that often matter most. Little gaps between windows and small holes in basement walls are the surprisingly frequent culprits behind energy loss. These problems are easily remedied, according to the non-profit Sustainable Princeton, which launched its Housewarming Project last year.

The organization has already made a significant difference in three Princeton homes by detecting trouble spots where air was escaping while showing homeowners how to inexpensively correct the problems. Now, they are looking for seven additional households to join the program this fall.

“Our goal is to do 10 homes by the end of the year,” says Diane Landis, Sustainable Princeton’s executive director. “We are working through Affordable Housing with low to moderate-income single family homes, and we would like to continue on that path. But we are going to be expanding the program next year, and our goals are big.”

Ms. Landis said the organization would like to have helped 150 homeowners lower their energy costs by the end of next year. “If we can go in and make these simple energy fixes, we can be well on our way to reducing energy by 20 percent in Princeton by the year 2020,” she says.

The Housewarming Project is a collaboration of Sustainable Princeton and the Energy Service Corps of New Jersey. Funded by a $10,000 grant from the J. Seward Johnson Sr. Charitable Trust, the program asks participants to share energy bills from one year before and one year after the housewarming. That way, savings from the project can be measured. Each household gets a two-hour assessment of its energy issues. The team then returns to the home a second time to make simple energy fixes such as weather-stripping, caulking, or installing outlet gaskets.

“We follow up with some general check-ins throughout the year after the work is done,” says Ms. Landis. “And if the homeowner is interested, we make recommendations for more work with a contractor who has gone through energy training and is BPI (Building Performance Institute) certified.”

Sustainable Princeton board member Heidi Fichtenbaum, a LEED-certified architect, has been instrumental in the program. “Heidi is a real go-getter who has a vision about teams working in houses to reduce their use of energy. She trained the New Jersey Energy Corps members, who are student volunteers,” says Ms. Landis. “She has developed a training model for anyone who will be part of the team.”

Participating homeowners are often surprised to find how much energy is escaping from their homes, and how easily it can be fixed. “What we’re finding is that a lot of houses have leakage,” says Ms. Landis. “And it’s simple things. Air might be escaping through an electrical outlet, or a little hole in a wall. In testing one home, Heidi found a big hole in someone’s basement that they didn’t know about. That kind of thing undoes all the circulation in a home.”

The Housewarming Project has a larger goal, which is to make living sustainably a habit in Princeton. “We have a new Princeton, and we really want to bring the community together on this,” Ms. Landis says. “We look forward to galvanizing the community around sustainable behavior. That’s our vision.”