Empire District Electric and Crowder College want more home builders to go green so they're teaming up with a new program.
Students will learn how to determine if a home meets Energy Star efficiency standards checking for air leaks and heat loss.
A grant from Empire helped Crowder buy a second of set of testing equipment.
Empire will offer incentives to construction companies and other builders and auditors are necessary to test their work from construction plans to building.
"First they approve the plans or they go out and approve early construction techniques," says Empire Energy Efficiency Coordinator Sherry McCormack. "Are they overlapping insulation right? Are they cornering the building properly? Are they installing the ducts appropriately for the central air system? So they look at all that and then after construction they test the home."
McCormack says the program should save customers money on energy bills and Empire too.
She says it costs more to build power plants than to invest in energy efficiency.
By LISA OLLIGES
