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This Georgia program helps residents in need to stop wasting precious A/C. Here’s how
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On an unseasonably warm November day in Columbus, a company called Aeroseal was deployed to Jessica Smith’s home at the Bull Creek Mobile Home Community to make her home more comfortable and affordable by retrofitting ductwork.
Aeroseal, a home energy efficiency company, was finalizing an improvement that would make Smith’s home have fewer air leaks — which are notorious in mobile homes because ductwork is below the home — and help lower energy bills.
Smith didn’t have to pay a penny for the improvements.
The 35-year-old is raising three kids and works at Taco Bell. Smith pays around $324 per month to Georgia Power for her electric bill, she told the Ledger-Enquirer.
“I know people who live in houses that pay less than $200 a month for power,” Smith said. “I have to blast the AC all day long, I have fans in each room.”
Smith said temperature never gets below the 70s in her home. On Nov. 25, temperatures reached 82 degrees in Columbus, much warmer than the average temperature of 71.
Aeroseal’s initial assessment found she was losing 215 cubic feet per minute of air through their monometer reading system. Aeroseal’s site contractor, David Sanders, said that one CFM is equivalent to one basketball, so she was losing 215 basketballs’ worth of air per minute from her duct system, which is “quite a lot.”
The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab put out a study that estimates about 25-40% leakage rate for ducts in American homes.
“You’re paying for all of this air that is leaking,” said Tracy Martin, marketing director for Aeroseal. “The low to moderate income households’ income burden is so high–when you think about it, they are paying for 25% of the air that is escaping.”
After Sanders did his pressurized sealant work at Smith’s home, he shared her new leakage rate with the Ledger-Enquirer that went from 215 to 70.7 CFMs, and noted its very difficult to get to zero.
“People think it’s a scam,” Martin said. “The general public has skepticism when it comes to these programs.”
What is Georgia HER, who pays for it?
Aeroseal is one of a handful of contractors who partnered with the Georgia Home Energy Rebate Program, also known as the “HER program”. Aeroseal says it differentiates itself from other contractors by being part of the customer’s journey the entire way.
Smith didn’t have to contact the state program, Aeroseal handled everything, she said. Smith also said the entire process took about six weeks from the time she submitted paperwork to the final sealant.
“Pricing (for this type of work) can range from around $2,000 to around $4,000 for a typical single-family home, including manufacturing housing,” Martin said.
In order to get a 100% rebate, a homeowner or renter must make 80% or less of the area median income. If they are between 80 and 150% of the area media income, the household qualifies for 50% of each rebate.
This program came to be through former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act program, most of which was cut during the budget reconciliation bill earlier this year. However, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act only cut federal programs, not state programs. It was launched in an attempt to help lower family utility bills.
Georgia was just one of 13 states that applied for this funding, Martin said. And, it has the fifth-highest “manufactured housing” locations in the country, which is what Aeroseal is targeting.
In Columbus, there are around 1,200 mobile homes, according to the Census Reporter.
Georgia Environmental Finance Authority was granted $220 million for this program from the IRA funds. There is also a Georgia Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate program, but Aeroseal does not work with that program. The HER and HEAR programs have helped 709 homes and made 157 air sealing retrofits such as Smith’s, according to the state dashboard.
Martin said Aeroseal has worked on 300 homes so far in 2025 and plans to scale it to 10,000 homes in Georgia in 2026.
When the funds run out, the program will end. According to the dashboard, HER has $86 million remaining and HEAR has $81.8 million remaining.
The Columbus climate realities
Smith told the Ledger-Enquirer just 18 hours after the installation that her home feels “much cooler.”
In the last five years that Smith has lived in this home, there has been an increase in extreme heat days. In 2024 alone, there were 12 days that the National Weather Service issued heat advisories.
A heat advisory is issued when the heat index or “feels like” temperature may reach 105 degrees. They’re also issued when the temperature may reach 110, according to Laura Belanger, a senior service hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.
In June, there were three heat advisories and all three of them were made two times more likely because of human-caused climate change.
All three of the advisories had climate fingerprints, according to Climate Central. The scientists confirmed the heat streaks were 150% to 200% more likely due to climate change in Columbus. Climate Central scientists compare observed forecasts to simulated climate models — one with human-caused climate change and one without — to determine its climate connection.
Plus, heat advisories are occurring more frequently. There were eight in 2022, 13 in 2023 and 12 in 2024, and 4 this year, more than all advisories combined between 2007 and 2014.
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
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