The process — a work order in four lines
Bills in. Plan out. Then we stay on it.
The whole point of Lightkeeper is that your time investment is one short form, one short call, and one email with your bills. Here is what happens on both sides of that.
01
Two minutes + fifteen
A short call, then your bills
It starts with a two-minute inquiry — no documents. We call back within a business day for fifteen minutes with whoever pays the bills: treasurer, administrator, or property chair. If we can help, you then send three months of electric and heating bills — photos, PDFs, or paper copies, whatever is easiest. No site visit, no committee meeting, no prep.
02
Days 1–4, our side
We do the hunting
We build your usage baseline, check whether you're on the right rate plan, and then go program by program: your utility's free audit and survey offerings, NYSERDA technical assistance, NYS Clean Heat and other rebates, interfaith energy initiatives, and any grants your organization type qualifies for. Everything gets payback math — dollars saved per year, upfront cost, months to break even — with assumptions written down.
03
Within 5 days of your bills
Your board gets the Payback Plan
A short document in plain dollars: the cost of doing nothing on the cover, the top five actions ranked by payback speed, the programs you qualify for with application links, and a CO₂ line for the annual report. Written to be read aloud at a board meeting by someone who isn't an engineer — because it wasn't written by one either. It was written by someone who reads budgets.
04
The weeks after
We chase the follow-through
The plan is the start, not the deliverable dump. We book the free audit, fill in what we can of the rebate paperwork, and nudge — the utility, the program office, and yes, gently, you. Most energy plans die between the decision and the phone call. Ours don't, because the phone call is our job.
Scope note
A Payback Plan is recommendations, not engineering; estimates, not guarantees. We tell you which numbers are solid (your own bills), which are program facts (rebate amounts, eligibility rules), and which are informed estimates (savings projections) — and we never blur the three. Where a decision needs a licensed professional, the plan says so and points to the free programs that provide one.
The volunteer with a spreadsheet
Who meant to compare rate plans in 2023 and still means to.
The consultant you can't afford
Commercial energy consultants start at ten times our business tier — and don't return calls about a 9,000-square-foot parish hall.
Doing nothing
The most popular option, and the only one with a guaranteed cost.