COEUR d'ALENE - Going green costs the green, as in greenbacks.

No matter.

The city of Coeur d'Alene is dipping into its $2.4 million rainy day fund to make sure city facilities are updated and energy efficient.

The improvements were approved by the City Council last week, but weren't put on the fiscal year 2010-2011 budget.

That's because the contract with the company to do the work, Johnson Controls, Inc., wasn't finalized, said City Finance Director Troy Tymesen. Rebates tied to the project weren't secured back in the summer when the budget was being worked on, ether.

And there wasn't any money for capital improvements anyway, officials said, which is why the city is taking from its savings.

But the deal, 38 percent of which is covered by federal grant money and rebates, was too good to pass up, Tymesen said. The money saved in energy consumption will pay for the roughly $800,000 in upgrades in 14 years or so.

After that, it's even more in the black, or in this case, green.

Meantime, after the grant and rebates, the city is fronting $489,000 to redo heating systems and improve lighting at the public library, Jewett House, fire administration building as well as stations 1, 2 and 3, the street department building and police station, among other improvements.

It's also switching 371 bulbs to more energy efficient LED bulbs for the city's traffic signals.

The upgrades should be done in a year or so.

"We are very motivated to take advantage of those," Tymesen said of the federal money helping get the projects going. "We could have gone out and borrowed, but we figured we would just pay ourselves with the costs we save with energy savings."

The savings are guaranteed. The contract states that if the savings aren't met, the company would pay the difference to the city.

A bulk of the costs, roughly $400,000, is for a new heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system at City Hall.

It's more than 30 years old and "basically shot," Deputy City Administrator Jon Ingalls said.

The street shop will also get a new HVAC system.