Our Record
We have organized or helped our sister groups organize energy-upgrade work-parties from Providence, RI to Worcester, MA. In all, we’ve worked on:
- Buildings weatherized: 160
“Buildings” includes everything from single family homes and apartments to churches over 20,000 square feet, homeless shelters, preschools, synagogues and domestic violence shelters
- Lightbulbs switched to more efficient CFLs: 4,970
Each Compact Florescent Bulb (CFL) uses only 25% of the energy of an incandescent to create the same amount of light. A huge savings of money, energy and carbon.
- Volunteers trained: over 2.844
During the work-party, volunteers are trained in hands-on energy efficiency skills by team leaders. Over 70% of our surveyed volunteers report they go home to use their skills at home to save energy there. We can’t quantify how much these volunteers might end up reducing their energy use through efficiency.
- CO2 emissions reduced over the next decade: 1,785 metric tons
That’s equivalent to taking 344 passenger cars off the road for a year.
- Gallons of water saved over next decade: 4 million
Water takes energy to clean and transport and heat. It is also a life-giving resource.
- Dollars saved in energy and water bills over the next decade: over $548,461
Energy saving estimates:
We keep track of the work we do in each building and follow industry-standard methods of estimating energy savings from that work.
We’ve done a follow-up survey with the buildings we’ve worked on in Cambridge to learn that over 90% of the devices we installed 2 years ago were still installed and saving energy.
Average estimates of energy savings:
| Device | Annual Energy & Water Savings | Annual CO2 Savings | Annual $ Saved | Savings Last on Average |
| CFL (Replacing an incandescent bulb.) | 50 kWh | 64 lbs | $9.50 | 10 years |
| Programmable Thermostat | 40 therms | 480 lbs | $56.40 | 10 years |
| Switch computer system preferences* | 100 kWh | 128 lbs | $19 | 3 years |
| Reduction in the draftiness of a home by 100 CFM** | 7 therms | 84 lbs | $9.87 | 10 years |
| install low-flow shower head | 14 therms & 5110 gallons of water | 108 lbs | $97 | 7 years |
| Instal low-flow faucet aerator | 4 therms & 1314 gallons of water | 48 lbs | $25 | 7 years |
| Install toilet tank bank | 876 gallons of water | - | $13 | 7 years |
* So computer hibernates when keyboard and mouse are left untouched
** CFM means cubic feet of air lost per minute as measured by blower door pre- and post-work (AKA, this test measures how much less drafty the building is because of our work)
