Gail Petersen, now retired, was an operating room technician. She said she loved it — the pace and the action.
“I love the unknown,” she said.
But that love doesn’t extend to surprises on her energy bill, especially since her financial situation changed.
First, her son died in 2020. Then, she got sick. When her husband died in 2022, Petersen suddenly found herself with less income, relying only on her own retirement savings.
“I'm terrified that I'm going to get a bill that I can't pay,” Petersen said.
Petersen doesn’t remember how she learned about Dominion Energy’s EnergyShare program. But she’s glad she did.
“I've never ever asked for help before, so it was a little hard for me,” she said. “But, you know what? When you need it, you need it.”
The EnergyShare Program helps people pay bills due to financial hardships, like a spouse dying, unexpected car repairs or a medical bill. It provides up to $600 of bill payment assistance during the winter months and up to $300 of assistance during the summer. Customers who receive bill payment assistance then become eligible for the weatherization part of the EnergyShare program.
Dominion Energy spends $6 million a year on the bill assistance portion and another $6 million annually on home efficiency upgrades for customers.
The EnergyShare program has been around for more than 40 years and is scheduled to sunset in 2028. A new bill waiting for Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s signature would extend the program to 2038 and increase its budget.
The program isn’t income based, so anyone can apply, Dominion Energy spokesperson Cherise Newsome said.
“Some customers truly just have a financial hardship where they had to get their car fixed for that month,” Newsome said. “They're $200 short or $300 short, so they need temporary help. In other instances, customers are using more and more energy over time, and there is another root cause beyond just that immediate financial hardship.”
Such was Petersen’s case.
Dominion partnered with Atlantic Spray Systems to replace Petersen’s bathroom fans, attic insulation, decades-old HVAC system and rat-ravaged duct work. The upgrades also included sealing cracks where air could escape, adding floor insulation and installing a new vapor barrier in the crawl space.
Art Mowry, owner of Atlantic Spray Systems, said all these pieces work together. A new HVAC system would have been useless if the duct work remained damaged, for example.
“If we would have just put in a brand new (HVAC) system for her, it wouldn't have done her any good, because she would have had a lot more airflow, but it would have been leaking under the house,” Mowry said. “She would have the same high bills.”
On average, weatherizing a home can save homeowners roughly $372 a year, according to a study of a federal weatherization program.
How much it costs to weatherize a home depends on its specific needs, Newsome said. A new HVAC system can cost several thousand dollars, which can be out of reach for people dealing with other expenses.
Mowry said the most effective ways to weatherize a home are often the most simple. These include insulating the attic and crawl space, weather stripping around doors and windows and making sure all the windows are shut.
Petersen said it’s too soon to tell how much the upgrades, which were completed in February, will reduce her bill. But she said she’s noticed her home feels more comfortable — even when she turns her HVAC system off.
