Historic Cedar Rapids mansion gets energy audit

CEDAR RAPIDS - In an ornate room on the second floor of the Brucemore mansion, a team of Green Iowa AmeriCorps volunteers sealed off a balcony door Monday with a bright red tarp and a giant fan.

They were preparing to conduct a blower door test, a process that sucks the air from a building and then measures how much air is flowing in and out, while team members feel around windows and elsewhere for the drafts that come with old houses. Their goal: find the places the home is losing heating and cooling energy.

The Cedar Rapids Green Iowa team aims to do more than 100 such energy audits a year for homes around the area. But this house is not their typical assignment.

Built in the 1880s, the approximately 15,000-square-foot house on 26 acres off First Avenue SE was owned by three Cedar Rapids families before Margaret Douglas Hall donated the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1981. It is now a museum and cultural center, hosting public tours and activities, including live theater and music on the grounds.

'Brucemore is probably the largest house we'll ever audit,” Cedar Rapids audit coordinator Charlie Anderson said.

Along with the property's sheer size, it's historic nature also made this energy audit unique. Typical Green Iowa energy audits include blower door tests and checks that appliances like boilers and heaters are working properly. The team did those Monday, calling in help from Green Iowa teams in Cedar Falls and Iowa City to expedite the bigger-than-normal job.

In a more conventional residential home, team members will then follow up with basic work to make the building more energy efficient - everything from upgrading light bulbs to caulking basement cracks.

Both the energy audits and the Green Iowa labor on energy efficiency upgrades are free, with residents only paying material costs, typically between $40 to $60. The materials are also free for seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, active service members and low income households. Green Iowa does not do major upgrades like window restoration or replacement or installing insulation.

At Brucemore, they won't do any weatherization work at all. Instead, Brucemore staff will take the report - which they'll receive in the near future - and decide the best energy efficiency updates to do that won't compromise the home's historic integrity.

'We have to treat everything as if it is an irreplaceable object, which it is,” said Brett Lobello, deputy director at Brucemore. 'Our goal is to take the checklist and see what we can fix that wouldn't damage the historic nature of the building.”

Over the last few years, the staff have been slowly restoring the building's 65 windows, which costs about $500 a window. With a limited budget that has remained flat for the last several years, they are looking for ways to best prioritize energy updates. There are also five other historic structures on the grounds that need preservation work. In the end, that work will hopefully pay off; about $30,000 currently is spent each year on heating and cooling costs.

'Preservation is one of the places we're trying to put more into,” Lobello said. 'It's really one of the reasons we're here, to preserve this house for future generations.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8434; alison.gowans@thegazette.com

Energy audits

Learn more about Green Iowa AmeriCorps' free energy audits and sign up for one at greeniowaamericorps.org or by calling (319) 362-2214.

Brucemore Tours

Brucemore tours have restarted for the season. Mansion tours are offered March through December, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday. Tours begin on the hour with the last tour beginning at 3 p.m. and last 45 minutes. Admission is free to Brucemore members, $9 for adults and $3 for children ages 6 to 18. Tickets are available 15 minutes before the top of the hour in the Brucemore Visitor Center. Groups of 15 or more are encouraged to schedule a private tour a minimum of three weeks in advance. Visit brucemore.org or call (319) 362-7375 for more information or to schedule a group tour.