A loan for energy projects paid through your energy bill

This is way more exciting than it sounds

If you’re going to save money when you make home energy upgrades, wouldn’t it be nice to apply those savings directly to your financing payments? Well, it turns out someone out there is really trying to make saving energy as easy as possible.

This is exactly what you can do with Craft 3‘s On-Bill Repayment program. You can pay for an energy-saving project through monthly payments on your utility bill. Currently, you can take advantage of this program if you are a customer of Pacific Power and are making qualified energy upgrades that will reduce your electricity costs.

We caught up with Sara Holman, owner of Baby Cakes Diaper Service, to hear about her experience with the on-bill repayment program. She is currently making loan payments through her Pacific Power bill for two energy-saving projects.

What improvements did you finance through on-bill repayment?

Heat Pump water heater and floor insulation.

Have you noticed a difference in your average utility bill cost?

We did a few projects throughout the year so it is hard to say with 100% confidence. We put in a ductless heat pump a couple months before the heat pump water heater and insulation that we financed with on-bill repayment. Overall our electricity bill was less than half of what it was historically during the winter months. Since the heat pump water heater and insulation work was done in the summer, we could tell from the energy bill that our bill had NOT gone up (and the additional energy cost from the new AC was negligible), so the energy savings did appear to replace the loan payment. In other words, it seems to be a wash since we now pay the loan amount every month.

What was the process like to apply for the loan?

It was a fairly straightforward process–everything was done online from applying for to signing the approved loan. Working with our contractor, GreenSavers, definitely made it a lot easier- they knew exactly how the process should go since they work with Craft 3 often. They also had the necessary connections with Pacific Power and Energy Trust to make the process seamless from start to finish. Although all of the steps can be done as an individual, there are several of them and GreenSavers did nearly all of the work for us to maximize our savings and get our loan approved.

After the work was done, the loan amount showed up on the electric bill.

What is the best thing about using on-bill repayment?  

I like that we don’t have yet another account with bills to pay– it’s right on the electric bill and as I said before it seems to be a wash between the lowered energy use and the cost and the loan payment.

Would you have made these improvements without on-bill repayment?

We most likely would have gone with a conventional water heater instead of a heat pump water heater, and probably would not have done the insulation project. So in short, no.

Learn more about On-Bill Repayment here.