Tompkins County Mobile Home Energy Upgrades

The Mobile Home Project will provide funding for 50 mobile home energy upgrades in Tompkins County for the health, safety, comfort, long term affordability, and resiliency of the mobile home occupants.  As New York State moves towards electrification, it is important to ensure that low-to-moderate income residents of Tompkins County have access to highly-efficient systems for heating/cooling and energy efficiency for their homes.  This project highlights mobile homes as an affordable housing option and seeks to gather useful information that supports increased energy efficiency and stability of these homes.  

The Tompkins County Legislature approved grant funds to community organizations as part of its Tompkins Community Recovery Fund to meet ongoing needs for recovery from the COVID pandemic and resiliency for the future. Sustainable Finger Lakes received a Tompkins Community Recovery Fund grant award in December 2022 for the Mobile Home Project. 

The Mobile Home Pilot Project is funded in part by the Tompkins Community Recovery Fund (TCRF). The TCRF was established by the Tompkins County Legislature and will distribute $6.53m of American Rescue Plan Act (APRA) funding to communities and organizations for the benefit of Tompkins County residents.

Sustainable Finger Lakes (SFLX) is the administrator of the Mobile Home Project.  SFLX is a nonprofit that has been working for sustainability and equity for 19 years. Through our Finger Lakes Climate Fund, we have provided gap-funding to 86 families in the Finger Lakes Region for home energy upgrades. We are a non-profit, 501c3 organization, dedicated to helping community members successfully transition to efficient, clean energy homes. 

Our Project Coordinator is Holly Hutchinson. You can schedule a 15-minute call with her that suits your schedule here https://calendly.com/sflx.

You can also reach her by email or phone:

Ho***@Su********************.org | 607-272-1720

Recipients of this grant will be low-to-moderate income mobile home owners who live in Tompkins County and whose homes need upgrades to clean energy sources for energy efficiency and resident well being. 

For this pilot project, only mobile home owners will be eligible to participate.  We hope that this project will generate the interest and funding necessary for a future project that includes mobile home renters.

Both low-to-moderate income mobile home residents in parks and low-to-moderate Income  mobile home residents on separate properties are eligible for this grant.

• Awardee must be a mobile home owner and reside in that home 
• Condition of mobile home may be a consideration
• Number of grants limited to 50 for this pilot project
• Income eligibility: 

The Mobile Home Project grants will vary depending on the type of work that needs to be done. A typical amount available for eligible households would be $5500 for a 3-ton heat pump system and $2000 for an electrical panel upgrade.  

This grant amount most likely will not cover the full cost of your home upgrade.  Our contractor partners are NYSERDA certified and will help each awardee access the other incentives available to them. The contractors put together a project proposal and financial package for customers that stacks the available incentives to make it as affordable as possible for the customer.

NYSERDA 

• Assisted Home Performance: up to $5,000 (for households at or below 80% median county income)
• Empower: up to $10,000 (for households at or below 60% median state income)

NYSEG 

• $1,000-$1,400 per 10,000 BTU’s heat pump

Inflation Reduction Act 

• $2,000 tax credit for air source heat pump 
• Rebates expected to be available in 2024 (potentially retroactive to purchase in 2022)

A NYSERDA-approved contractor will do the work on your home. Sustainable Finger Lakes will provide interested mobile home owners with names of the  approved contractors and each homeowner will choose which contractor they want to work with.

Make an appointment with the Mobile Home Project Coordinator, Holly Hutchinson, by using the calendly.com appt app, or if you are not able to do that call 607-272-1720 and leave a message.  

Holly will give you more information about the program and provide you with a list of certified installers enrolled in the program. You may wish to get bids from two installers to compare.  

You choose the installer you would like to use and call them to schedule a home energy audit.  

Your installer will do a full home energy audit and write up a proposal for the work that needs to be done.  This proposal will include the incentives you qualify for and a project cost estimate. The installer will need to bring your home up to a minimum standard for insulation and air sealing before right-sizing your heat pump system. There are state incentives to help cover this work.

The installer will then submit an application to Sustainable Finger Lakes for approval of paying out the subsidy for the heat pump.

When Sustainable Finger Lakes (and any other funders to which the installer has applied on behalf of the homeowner) has approved the installer’s proposal, the homeowner can review the proposal and move forward with a contract with the installer for the work.