Your To Dos
Greening Your Home
Switching to electric home appliances also creates health benefits by replacing machines that contaminate our indoor air.
Get to know your home’s systems
Electrifying everything means we each need to electrify what we ride, how we heat our homes and water, how we cook our food and take care of our lawns.
Walk through your home and make a list of all of your appliances that use fossil fuels. How do you heat your home? How do you heat your water? How do you cook and dry your clothes? Do you have a gas fireplace? Do you have a gas lawnmower or leaf blower? Do you have an outdoor grill that uses propane?
Then for each item note its size and age. How old is your current heating system? How old is your current water heater? The best time to change to an electric system is when you need to replace an appliance! Learn about your systems now, so when your furnace or water heater needs to be replaced you know what to purchase.
How many amps is your electric panel? Electric panel upgrades and new circuits may be needed to accommodate new appliances.
Weatherization can:
reduce heating and cooling costs
reduce outside noise
reduce drafts
improve humidity control
reduce allergens
Get a Home Energy Assessment
Have you had a Mass Save energy assessment in the last 2 years? These are free energy assessments that have improved over time.
Have you air sealed your windows and doors?
Have you insulated your attic, basement, and exterior walls?
Upgrading your insulation and air sealing can have a big impact on your home's efficiency and comfort and can help cut your heating and cooling costs by up to 20%. Weatherization can also reduce the outside noise, reduce drafts, improve humidity control and reduce allergens.
Whether you rent or own you can apply for weatherization services through MassSave.org
Induction cooktops are:
energy efficient
faster to boil
precise
safe
free from indoor emissions
easy to clean
Try Induction
How old is your cooktop and oven? When you’re ready for a new cooktop consider induction.
Induction cooktops are extremely energy efficient, fast and precise as induction technology transfers energy directly into magnetic cookware. The glass surface stays relatively cool so spills, splatters and occasional boil-overs don't burn onto the cooktop, making clean-up quick and easy and safer.
You can borrow a portable indication cooktop from Memorial Hall Library and see how it works. If you like it, you can buy your own single cooktop.
RENTER: Buy a $50+ portable induction cooktop.
Look into purchasing solar panels if your roof top is sunny and strong.
Look into joining Community Solar if you are a renter or your rooftop is not a good location for solar.
Research solar
Do you own your roof? Check out Google sunroof to start researching your roof’s potential. Then check out EnergySage.com to compare potential options.
When will your roof next need to be replaced? That’s a great time to add panels.
RENTER: Send quotes to your landlord, along with financing options.
If you are considering rooftop solar, check with your installer about whether they also offer a storage option. RENTER: See if a standalone backup battery is a good option for you
Rooftop solar is not an option for all homes. Even if rooftop solar is not for you can still use a clean energy supply through community solar. Community solar can bring the benefits of solar to anyone with a utility bill. A large scale solar array, like the ones you may see on the highway, generate clean energy for you. Check out Community Solar.
RENTER: if you are paying your electric bill directly, you can subscribe to community solar by visiting MassCEC.
For owners:
heat pumps are a great choice for any climate
heat pumps also provide air conditioning
For renters:
Portable heat pumps can heat or cool your apartment
You can take it with you to your next apartment.
Attend a Heat Pump Webinar
When you’ve completed the basics above consider next steps like purchasing heat pumps.
There are heat pump options for both heating and water heating.
Do you use oil, propane or electric resistance to heat? Heat pumps are less expensive to operate than any of those alternatives and have a far smaller carbon footprint.
Are you planning any renovations? Consider upgrading your heating system when the walls are open.
Installing or replacing central air conditioning? A heat pump is also an air conditioner and it’s straightforward to switch from central AC to a heat pump.
Attend a webinar on cold-climate heat pumps now, so that you are ready when you need to replace your fossil-fuel heating system.
RENTER: Attend a webinar on a window unit or portable heat pump.
Greening Your Transportation
Reduce your vehicle use
Are there errands you can do without getting in your car? Can you walk your child to her playdate? Can you let your child take the bus home from school? Can you carpool to work or walk to get your lunch?
Reduce your vehicle use by walking, biking, using public transit or sharing a ride. Support complete streets in Andover. Learn more at Walk Bike Andover.
Try an e-bike
When it comes to transportation, there are sustainable options in addition to buying an electric car.
An ebike may be an option for you. While they are more expensive than manual bikes, they are far less expensive than buying a car. And they take up far less space. If you have frequent local errands or a bike-able commute, an ebike may work very well for you.
Visit Soto Cycles in Andover to see if an e-bike is a good option for you.
Attend a webinar on electric vehicles
When you are ready to buy a car, consider an electric vehicle (EV). EVs have long ranges, are affordable and require less maintenance than fossil fuel vehicles.
There are many webinars on electric vehicles. You can learn what to consider and what questions to ask a dealer. Green Energy Consumers Alliance offers oodles of information on EVs. They also share an EV 101 webinar .
Test drive an electric vehicle
Thinking of buying a car? Electric vehicles have long ranges, are affordable and require less maintenance than fossil fuelers.
After you’ve attended a webinar and are equipped with the questions you want to ask, find a friend whose EV you can test drive or a dealer where you can test drive. Try plugging an EV into a charger so you can see how much easier it is than pumping gas!
Download a summary of these actions that you can share with a friend.
Talk about what you have done with someone!
Do More
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Stay current on sustainable actions you can take, programs you can attend, energy rebates you can claim, and what’s sustainable in Andover. If you’ve signed up, email your friends and neighbors and ask them to sign up.
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