Energy Efficiency

Increase Your Comfort and Reduce Energy Bills

HEET’s blower door helps locate the source of drafts.

HEET can help your nonprofit reduce drafts and save on energy bills, while reducing emissions. Energy that you don’t use through efficiency is the easiest on the planet and the least expensive.

Nonprofits function as the backbone of the local economy and community, but their leadership frequently lack the time, expertise and resources to operate their buildings efficiently.  As a result, their buildings can be drafty, badly lit and expensive to run.

HEET can help by supplying that expertise and time.

Our work is paid for by grants, so all we want from you is a readiness to reduce energy bills.

Our Assessments Include

  • A thermal camera
  • A blower door (locates the source of drafts)
  • Devices to find electricity and water waste

You Receive

HEET’s thermal camera finds where more insulation is needed.

  • A 5-year plan (so you can select what work to do when)
  • Estimates of costs and savings
  • Information about rebates and financing
  • Recommendations of contractors if needed

We Organize an Energy-Upgrade Work-Party

  • We organize the event, specify the materials and supply the team leaders and the tools
  • You purchase the materials, supply the volunteers and some food for lunch. The volunteers learn the hands-on skills they need to do the work in their own homes.
  • The cost for the materials averages $300 to $1,000 and the work tends to save that much in energy within one year

Post Work Energy Savings

Shambhala Meditation Center, Brookline: HEET’s work resulted in a 15% drop in heat use by closing off a large unneeded vent (from when the building was used as a factory).  We also programmed the thermostats to turn down the heat when no one is in the building. Lifetime Savings: 13 tons of CO2, over $3,000 in energy bills

Tot Lot Preschool, Cambridgeport: HEET’s volunteers reduced electricity use 3%, water use 7%, and heating use 12%.
Lifetime Savings: 9 tons of CO2, over $2,600 in energy and water bills

First Church, Cambridge, electricity use dropped 13%, water 15%, and heat 4%
Lifetime Savings: 91 tons of CO2, over $29,815 in energy & water bills

Democracy Center, Cambridge: HEET helped raise funding to install insulation in the attic and repair a leaking chimney.
Lifetime Savings: 140 tons of CO2, $40,000 in heating bills

Cambridge Zen Center: we installed 133 CFLs, six programmable thermostats, and 10 low-flow showerheads.
Lifetime Savings: 36 tons of  CO2, over $21,000 in energy & water bills.

 St. Bartholomew’s Church, Cambridge: HEET helped get more than 90 new LED bulbs installed, rebated 70% by Mass Save.
Lifetime Savings: 141 metric tons of  CO2, over $42,000 in electricity bills

The Honest Book

Most do-it-yourself books about saving energy are written for the entire country.  They pretend that installing an efficient heating system is just as important in Florida as it is in Massachusetts.

HEET’s Honest Book is more accurate because it’s specific to New England. It tells you the most effective energy-saving tasks for our weather, energy use, and buildings.

It is a book of tasks you can do yourself and is available as an e-book on the iPad, Kindle, and as a PDF.