Menu

"Energy savings" is music to the Church of Saint Cecilia’s ears (and finances)

May 2026

Metro, MN

Here at CERTs, we’re huge fans of folks getting energy assessments and then following through with completing as many of the suggested projects as possible. Our friends at EnerChange sent us this recent story that shows a church doing just that… Enjoy! 

-Joel Haskard, CERTs Co-Director

Starting the Journey

The story begins with the Church of Saint Cecilia in Saint Paul contacting EnerChange to identify energy cost savings and evaluate their HVAC system for improvements.

A thorough energy audit revealed that programmable thermostats were commonly put on hold, and inefficient lighting was still present. A recommendation was made to install a web-based control system that uses CO2 demand-controlled ventilation and free cooling to reduce HVAC operating costs. Proposals were also made to establish the cost of a lighting retrofit.

Getting Results

“While the controls proposal was coming together, a free lighting install program became available,” notes Patrick Deal, EnerChange’s energy efficiency manager. “Saint Cecilia was quickly approved for the program, and this greatly reduced the total cost to replace their remaining fluorescent lights.”

EnerChange found a custom rebate for the HVAC controls, further reducing the cost of the project. With two major items off the checklist, the Church of Saint Cecilia is looking forward to a cool summer with more reliable HVAC operation and lower bills.

  • Total Incentives Earned: $7,727
  • Estimated Annual Energy Savings: $3,714
  • Project Simple Payback: 2 years

After their first round of projects, Patrick checked in with Colleen Smith, parish operations and safe environment for Church of Saint Cecilia:

What was your main motivation for seeking an energy audit for Church of Saint Cecilia?

“It is important to this community that we model good stewardship of our resources. We are always looking for ways to be "greener" and to spend our money wisely. Meeting with Patrick and his team was a great opportunity for us to look at our entire operation and be strategic about what changes would be most effective for our consumption as well as what was going to yield the best results economically.”

How will this impact your congregation moving forward?

“As a result of our audit, we were already able to complete two projects that will lead to immediate cost savings and energy efficiency. Because of EnerChange's help with connecting us to contractors and taking care of rebate applications, these projects were easy to coordinate and have been completed.”

magnifying glass

Do you have an energy efficiency or renewable energy project identified and need help with the next steps? 

Look into CERTs’ Pay For Your Project tool to get started. 

Pay for Your Projects

More Stories

Minneapolis Friends Meeting (brown single house)
January 2026

Minneapolis Friends Meeting: Living their values through clean energy

MNIPL’s Julia Nerbonne speaks with the cohort, providing coaching and support.
October 2025

Resilience hubs look to the future of Minnesota

Stay in the loop!

Get updates on clean energy ideas happening in communities near you, along with ways to pay for those ideas, events that will keep you connected, and more.

MN Energy Stories

We encourage reuse and republishing of this story. All Clean Energy Resource Teams stories are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning you can share and adapt the work as long as you give us credit. We'd also love it if you link back to the original piece. Have questions or want to chat? Drop us a line.