Donna’s Weatherization Story
Donna, a long-time resident of rural southeast Nebraska, struggled to keep up with rising heating and cooling costs. Living on a limited income, she often had to choose between paying high utility bills or making needed home repairs. After learning about Southeast Nebraska Community Action Partnership’s (SENCA’s) Weatherization Assistance Program, she decided to apply.
Following an energy audit, SENCA staff discovered that Donna’s home had little insulation, drafty doors, and unsafe, inefficient heating equipment. With special funding, SENCA helped clear out her attic and basement so the project could move forward.
Donna’s home received major upgrades, including new attic, wall, and foundation insulation; a new furnace and water heater; and improvements such as an exterior door, window, refrigerator, pipe insulation, and energy-efficient light bulbs.
These improvements made her home safer and more comfortable and are expected to save her about $1,935 annually—roughly $161 each month—in reduced energy costs.
The goals of the Weatherization Program are to save energy, reduce heating and cooling costs, and to ensure the health and safety of economically challenged households, like Donna’s, who utilize the program. A typical home receiving weatherization services, which may include insulation, caulking, repair or replacement of a furnace and/or water heater, experiences an average 18.7% reduction in heating costs with additional savings achieved in cooling costs. This conservation of energy reduces Nebraska’s dependence on imported energy, a major contribution to the self-sufficiency of low-income households, thereby allowing them to stretch available income.
Donna’s family was one of 71 households that received Weatherization services and energy conservation education during SENCA’s 2025 fiscal year. The investment of funds into those 71 homes has the potential of creating long-term direct energy savings of about $20,219 and approximately $25,134 in an annual reduction of utility costs. An additional $2,320,290 in non-energy-related savings may also be realized over the long term.
Donna expressed her gratefulness to SENCA’s Weatherization Director Gin Christiansen in writing “Thank You for the help to winterize my house, it really needed it.” Donna also complemented the program on the “very good workers who did an excellent job on everything that they completed.”