University of Maine Professor, Dr. Sharon Klein will be working in collaboration with local community groups (e.g., WindowDressers - http://windowdressers.org/; the Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor (UUSB) - http://uubangor.org/; Rotary Club of Old Town -http://www.oldtownrotary.org/, and others) and University of Maine students in Fall 2017, to build window inserts for local people who want to reduce energy use and save money on their heating bills. Window inserts are pine frames either in natural wood or white that are wrapped with 2 layers of transparent plastic and lined with weatherization stripping around the perimeter (see pictures at www.windowdressers.org). They are custom built and placed in the interior of existing windows to add an extra layer of protection against heat loss in the winter. They are an affordable alternative to window replacement and have been shown to reduce heating bills by nearly 20%. Because this is a volunteer effort and not a business, we are able to offer inserts at about a tenth of the price of typical commercial inserts. (see pricing at www.windowdressers.org)
We offer special pricing for people who cannot afford to pay the full price, because the goal is to help all Mainers save money regardless of their economic situation. In addition, because this is a community effort, not a commercial enterprise, it is generally expected that customers will volunteer for at least one 4-hr shift during the community build for every 7 inserts they order. We understand this may not be physically possible for all customers and offer alternatives for those who cannot physically volunteer (e.g., donating food to the build, asking a friend or relative to volunteer in your place, etc).
We need people who want inserts for their homes or businesses to sign up as soon as possible. Once they sign up, our measurement team will arrange a time to go out to the home or business and measure the windows for the inserts. We will collect payment at the time of measuring. We will build the inserts on October 21-29 at the UUSB, located at 120 Park St in Bangor. We ask all volunteers who will help with the insert build in October to sign up for their 4-hour shifts by the end of September.
Customers can sign up directly at http://windowdressers.org/. We encourage people to sign up as soon as possible because our capacity fills up quickly.