We so often hear how the Town takes our money - taxes, fees, water and electric rates. Here is a case of the Town trying to save us money.

Belmont, through its Energy Committee and the Belmont Municipal Light Department (BMLD), is offering Belmont residents free, comprehensive home energy assessments. Audits are now available whether you use natural gas or oil. Earlier audit programs I had heard about included only gas customers.

• If you heat with natural gas, no-cost energy audits are available through the Better Homes Belmont program offered through the Belmont Energy Committee.
• If you heat with oil, a similar no-cost energy audits are available through a program supported by BMLD that mirrors Better Homes Belmont. I think this is open to the first 250 residents to sign up.

It starts with a thermal scan to locate locations of loss in your home, and moves to a no-cost comprehensive energy assessment to gauge the most cost-effective energy improvements you can make to address those losses. (Just the scan itself sounds pretty cool.)

I talked with Roger Colton, co-chair of that committee, about this. He had an audit done on his home, where added insulation was recommended. He estimates the investment will be recovered in just two and a half years. After that, it's all savings.

What do we (taxpayers and ratepayers) get out of it? We save money, year after year. Utilities benefit by having a slightly lower burden on their production facilities and infrastructure. And we all get the benefit of less pollution, no matter what the energy source.

To sign up, go to www.sagewell.com and enter your name contact info in the form. Their flyer has some more info about it.