HEET's News

Putnam Foundation Grant

The Putnam Foundation and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation has given a large grant to HEET to help us organize energy-upgrade parties in buildings within an hour of Boston. We are thrilled and thankful.

Note: New Hampshire Charitable Foundation serves communities throughout New Hampshire, southeastern Maine and eastern Vermont. The Foundation manages a growing collection of charitable funds created by individuals, families and corporations, and awards more than $30 million annually in grants and scholarships. The Charitable Foundation is nonpartisan, frequently playing the role of convener and catalyst on a broad spectrum of issues. Based in Concord, the Charitable Foundation roots itself in the communities through regional advisory boards.

Reducing Energy Bills

We analysed the energy and water bills from two of the sites we worked on this past year to ensure our work was helping.

At the Tot Lot, a preschool in Cambridgeport, our three hours of a work party dropped the electricity use 3%, water use by 7%, and heating use by 12% (controlling for how relatively cold the winters were). Over the lifetime of the work we did, the preschool will save 9 tons of co2, 8,792 gallons of water, $2,637 in heat and electricity and water bills.

At the First Church in Cambridge, the electricity use dropped 13%, water use by 15%, and heat use by 4% (heating degree day adjusted). The lifetime savings are 91 tons of CO2, 115,273 gallons of water, $29,815 in heat and electricity and water bills. (We can't claim all these savings from the barnraising alone, since they've installed LEDs since then).

Congratulations and thank you to all our volunteers for these results.

Democracy Center getting ready for insulation

In order to put insulation in the attic of the Democracy Center, a nonprofit that provides space for progressive organizations in the heart of Harvard Sq., we had to stop the chimney from leaking water into the attic.

Here's Mike from Masonry Restoration (aka Mike the Mason) fixing the chimney.

Insulation will go in soon, saving the Center $2,000 per year in heating, keeping everyone in the building more comfortable and saving 7 tons of CO2 of pollution each year.

The funding for this was raised through HEET, New Generation Energy, the community of the Democracy Center, and Cambridge Agassiz Harvard Fund.

Yehaw!

Cambridge Zen Center

On Sept. 10th, at the Cambridge Zen Center, we installed 133 CFLs, six programmable thermostats, 10 low-flow showerheads and did a lot of other important work. The Zen Center should save $3,217 per year for the next seven years on heating, electricity and water bills.

In not-necessarily financial terms, that means they will emit 12,261 lbs fewer of CO2 per year (slightly mroe than taking one passenger car off the road for the next seven years) as well as save 104,000 gallons of water each year for seven years.

That's not a type. It really is 104,000 gallons

St. Bartholomew's church

More than 90 new LED bulbs are installed at St. Bartholomew's Church in Cambridge.

HEET helped St. Batholomew's get a free utility company audit and utilize the instant rebates of 70%. These LEDs cost $7 each, will last 30 times longer than an incandescent bulb and , together with the upgrade to other lighting, save 141 metric tons of CO2 (about the same as taking 26 passenger cars off the road for one year) over their lifetime as well as save $42,000 in energy bills.

HEET Helping Cambridge Landlords & Tenants

HEET is now partnered wtih NSTAR and Next Step Living to bring no-cost home assessments to Cambridge residents. We will help any Cambridge resident but would most like to work with landlords and tenants because apartment buildings can be some of the most inefficient buildings around and tenants are more likely to need to save money on energy bills than homeowners.

We will oversee the process to make sure you get the best quality possible.

Learn more.