In this edition…

• Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grant Programs
• Community Report
• Upcoming Events
• Spring Efficiency Tips
• Summer Business Canvass

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Programs

Starting this Spring, the Cambridge Energy Alliance will be ramping up its Cambridge Community Energy Efficiency Campaign. The City of Cambridge has allocated funding comes from the federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to support the campaign.

The two-year Community Energy Efficiency Campaign will reach substantial portions of the Cambridge community including the residential building sector, low-income residents, and the small commercial building sector. The campaign will educate the community about energy efficiency opportunities in homes and businesses, connect them to existing energy efficiency services, and provide additional direct services for Cambridge residents and business. The campaign will include unique offerings and support for each building sector by partnering with the City, NSTAR, ESCOs, financial institutions, and local citizen and business groups.

For residential buildings, CEA will implement an efficiency program built upon an extensive awareness and outreach campaign connecting Cambridge residents to the existing Mass Save efficiency program and enhance those services with the CEA Energy Advisor, Smarter Cambridge website, and incentives for Cambridge residents including a new matching grants. Particular attention will be directed toward low-income residents to inform them of special programs and conservation techniques they can implement in their own home by providing do-it-yourself energy efficiency tool-kits and guides. Another program we are excited about is the distribution of several dozen plug-in appliance energy monitors to public library branches around the city, where they will be available for check out.

Similar to last year’s residential outreach effort, a business specific canvass will be conducted this summer to familiarize Cambridge businesses with existing utility efficiency programs and incentives along with additional direct services provided by CEA staff. Read on for more information about the canvass.

Community Report

CEA’s community outreach program has reached over 700 residents this winter through events and workshops. CEA collaborated with the Massachusetts Municipal Association, to connect residents to a free energy seminar which stressed the importance of reducing heat usage by providing do-it-yourself sealing techniques, tips on hiring a contractor for in-depth alterations, and resources for home audits and financing. Over fifty residents attended the event and learned about typical home inefficiencies, air sealing and insulation, efficient HVAC and appliances, plus rebates and grants to reduce the cost of home alterations and appliance purchases.

On the business front, CEA supported Cambridge Local First by awarding the Sustainable Business Leadership certification to the first class of the Sustainable Business Leader Program. Eleven businesses were awarded this prestigious award for their efforts to reduce energy, water, and waste. The certification ceremony, which was held at the Cambridge City Hall Annex, was co-sponsored by the City of Cambridge, Cambridge Local First and the Cambridge Energy Alliance in partnership with the Sustainable Business Network.

The first Cambridge graduating class included: 1369 Coffee House, Cambridge Brewing Company, Cambridge Naturals, Economy Hardware, The Fishmonger, Greenward, Harvard Bookstore, Harvest Co-Op Markets, Irving House, Stone Hearth Pizza and Veggie Planet.

Upcoming Events

Financing Your Solar Project

May 27, 2010 at 6–8:00 PM
4^th floor meeting room at City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway
Sponsored by City of Cambridge and the Cambridge Energy Alliance
RSVP here

This is an excellent opportunity for Cambridge citizens to learn about renewable energy programs and resources available to develop local projects. Larry Chretien, Executive Director of the Mass Energy Consumers Alliance will  provide an update on net metering and investment opportunities in Massachusetts. In addition, a panel of local contractors and program providers will share their expertise to help residents and businesses take advantage of robust incentives and resources to develop renewable energy projects.

Green Your Marketing Workshop!

June 17th, 2010 at 8:30–9:30AM
Cambridge City Hall Annex
Sponsored by Sustainable Business Leadership Program and CEA
RSVP here

In this workshop, you will learn how to identify earth-friendly business practices you already use, and how to get the word out about them in a way that is both creative and consistent with your existing brand and communications plan.  We’ll discuss how to avoid “greenwashing,” what elements of traditional marketing translate especially well to the green economy, and why it’s important to green your marketing along with the rest of your business. You’ll have a chance to see real-life examples of successful green marketing tactics, and there will be plenty of time for questions.

Spring Efficiency Tips

Springtime is a great time to save energy through a few small changes and also to prepare your home for the summer cooling season. You can also use your spring cleaning time to increase the efficiency of your house by sealing cracks in the building around windows and doors with new weather-stripping. Weatherizing your house helps to keep your house comfortable in all seasons while reducing your cooling costs in the summer and heating costs in the winter.

Spring in New England has a lot of changes in temperature from day to day that can sometimes make it tough to know when can stop using your heating system. However, you can also take advantage of warm spring days to carry you through chillier evenings without turning on your heat. Try opening your window shades during the day to bring in heat and then closing up the house tightly at night so you can keep the house warm through the chillier evenings. On warmer days do the opposite; keep the sun out during the day and open up the house at night to keep it cool and comfortable.

If you have to heat your house and use a hot water heating system,  look into turning down the aquastat in your boiler. Often, these are set to 180 degrees for keeping your home warm in the middle of winter which is overkill for the milder spring and fall months. Better yet, consider replacing your manual aquastat with one that modulates based upon the outside temperature, this change alone can save you up to 10% on your heating bill.

Because spring months are generally milder, when you need to cool down the house try using fans as much as possible, they use only a fraction of the electricity as an air conditioning unit and can keep a home comfortable when combined with good management of the windows and shades to keep the sun out and the cool air in. Be sure to flip the direction switch from the winter “pull cool up for mixing” (usually marked as “Reverse”) to the summer “push a draft over me” position.

For more suggestions see our summer energy tips.

Summer Business Canvass

As part of the Energy Efficiency Community Block Grant program, CEA will be expanding its outreach efforts to the small commercial building sector including a canvass program this summer to connect small business owners with efficiency services and incentives. The small commercial sector faces a number of barriers to broad-scale energy efficiency adoption including lack of awareness, split incentives, cost of implementation, need for financing, and complexity of programs.

CEA will be working with  program volunteers over the summer to canvass business districts in Cambridge, distributing information about commercial programs and discussing utility based incentive programs with small business owners.

The summer canvass is part of a two year program through which CEA plans to reach an estimated 500 Cambridge businesses and expects that at least 50 businesses will participate in efficiency programs and services, which is estimated to save approximately 437,500 kWh of electricity and 2,500 therms of heating fuel.

The map below outlines where most commercial activity in Cambridge takes place and where our volunteers will be canvassing. The pie chart gives a rough break-down of the number and type of businesses around the city, where “Mall” includes the any single address with multiple storefronts such as the CambridgeSide Galleria or shopping centers

Click map for larger view.

In this edition…

• Introduction
• Community Report
• Upcoming Events
• Efficiency in the Year Ahead
• Patterns of Energy Use

New Year’s Greetings from the Cambridge Energy Alliance

2009 was an exciting year for the Cambridge Energy Alliance, with the development of new program offerings, and the launch of numerous social media offerings including our community blog Energy 2.0 and a new social network to help residents save energy, money, and the planet: Smarter Cambridge

The Alliance’s enhanced capacity will soon include new efficiency products and services available through the city’s utility provider. NSTAR is part of an energy efficiency provider’s coalition that is unveiling a three-year plan to deliver services to residents and businesses that will ultimately net more than $4 billion in energy savings. If the plan is approved, the coalition will begin offering an increased level of services to their customers in 2010.

In addition, CEA has been collaborating with the commercial building sector to reduce carbon emissions that comprise over eighty percent of the city’s total emissions. CEA is currently working with CDM to evaluate energy and water efficiency at One Cambridge Place, CDM’s world headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This large-scale energy and resource conservation project for CDM represents an innovative, community-based approach to making energy efficiency a reality for residents and businesses.

CDM is the first major business in Cambridge to collaborate with CEA and ConEdison Solutions on this pioneering partnership in energy and water efficiency. The proposed savings are expected to cover the cost of doing the study and the implementation of recommended measures, as well as significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pay back the investment within 6 to 8 years.

The City co-sponsored the creation of CEA to spur energy efficiency and clean energy improvements in the commercial building sector because that is where most of the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions are occurring. CEA and the City of Cambridge congratulate CDM for stepping up to the plate and leading the way for our businesses. We hope many others will follow their example.

Community Report

This fall, the Cambridge Energy Alliance organized its second community canvass to connect residents to home energy audits and energy saving resources. Community canvassers knocked on 1,751 doors and spoke to over five hundred households. The three day canvass garnered 162 audit requests and distributed 579 compact fluorescent light bulbs in exchange for inefficient incandescent bulbs, which will reduce 341,378 pounds of carbon emissions over the life of the bulbs. The Cambridge Energy Alliance is planning another community canvass in 2010 to share the exciting new programs available through NSTAR.

CEA’s community outreach program has reached over 580 residents this fall through events and workshops. In partnership with the city’s Fuel Assistance program, CEA gave a series of presentations at the Cambridge Learning Center—connecting English as a second language students to efficiency programs and low cost solutions to save their families money and learn about climate change. Hyosill Yang, a workshop attendee, shared that, “as soon as I arrived home, I turn off the unnecessary lights and removed plugs from outlets. I also checked the leakage of heat that may escape out of windows.  It was a wonderful time for me.”

The Cambridge Energy Alliance is looking for additional groups who are interested in learning about efficiency solutions. To request a workshop for your organization, please contact Lilah Glick, Director of Community Outreach at lgick@cambridgeenergyallinace.org.

On the business front, the Cambridge Energy Alliance and the Sustainable Business Leadership Program hosted a Green Your Business Affair on November 9th to help local commercial entities learn about energy efficiency and sustainability programs. Representatives of over forty businesses came out and mingled with other interested green leaders. The event brought together representatives from the efficiency, renewable energy, nonprofit, design, and retail sectors. The Cambridge Energy Alliance and the Sustainable Business Leadership Program are planning a second Green Your Business Affair event in early 2010.

Upcoming Events

On Tuesday, January 12 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, CEA is hosting an Energy Savings workshop at the Cambridge Public Library at 449 Broadway. This free energy seminar, presented by the Massachusetts Municipal Association, stresses the importance of reducing heat usage by providing do-it-yourself sealing techniques, tips on hiring a contractor for in-depth alterations, and resources for home audits and financing alterations. Please RSVP to reserve a space at the event.

On January 23rd the Mayor’s office is hosting the city of Cambridge’s second climate congress, bringing together delegates from across the community to learn and share climate solution ideas with the city. Phil Mckenna, correspondent for New Scientist magazine, summarized the December 12th Congress on our blog Energy 2.0.

2010 Will be a Big Year for Energy Efficiency

A lot happened in the energy efficiency world in 2009: from the federal stimulus tax credits, to the insulation rebates from NSTAR, to the solar incentives from the state. The Cambridge Energy Alliance has promoted each of these programs and we hope that many of you had the opportunity to take advantage of these savings. However, if you didn’t, or would like to do more to stop wasting money and start saving energy and the environment, the good news is 2010 will have even more savings available for homeowners and renters.

At the Federal Level, there has been a lot of discussion of a “cash for caulkers” program which would give rebates to homeowners of up to $12,000 to make home efficiency improvements. This program will probably supplement the existing home efficiency tax credits passed through the economic stimulus bill which are in place until December 31, 2010.

Here in Massachusetts the state will be enacting a major new efficient appliance rebate program to encourage residents to replace their aging and energy inefficient home appliances. Details on that program should be forthcoming in February. NSTAR and the other utility companies will also be expanding their energy efficiency rebates and programs in 2010 as part of their new three year program.

Locally, the Cambridge Energy Alliance will build off its 2009 program and continue to offer comprehensive services to homeowners and businesses. CEA is also premiering a social network called Smarter Cambridge to help people calculate their carbon footprint and work together to reduce their energy use. Many grants and other funding opportunities are also under consideration, and may soon be available to Cambridge residents.

We will keep you apprised of all these opportunities and other developments as they happen. To stay informed subscribe to email updates like this newsletter, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and our blog. Please stay in touch and we look forward to working with you in 2010!

Patterns of Energy Use

Thanks to the dedication of several volunteers working through the summer, CEA has been able to establish a framework for evaluating energy use in neighborhoods across the city. This system has been designed with privacy in mind, and contains no information about individual users. Instead it reports electricity and natural gas consumption for all of the homes and businesses in each one of eighty regions of the city corresponding to divisions created by the U.S. Census Bureau. The hope is that with this data CEA might be able to better target areas that can most benefit from our assistance, or to gauge our impact e.g; compare the reported savings for Smarter Cambridge neighborhoods vs. actual changes in energy use.

We have not yet begun to process this mountain of data, but to give you an idea of the sort of interesting things that can be done, we’ve produced the animated map below which shows total electricity use across the city each September for the last four years. September was chosen because it’s a “shoulder month,” with mild and relatively consistent weather, calling for little to no heating or cooling, as indicated by the temperatures included in the legends. In this sample map—where white is missing data i.e; Fresh Pond, the Charles, and Harvard Square plaza in 2009—a number of patterns can be seen: the redevelopment of Inman square and the Alewife region, and increasing bio-pharmaceuticals in Central and Technology Squares. The orange circles are scaled to show the population of each “block group,” although clearly this did not remain constant year after year.

Click map for larger view.

In this edition…

• Fall Greetings
• Community Report
• Winter Weatherization Tips
• Inroads

Fall Greetings from the Cambridge Energy Alliance

The Cambridge Energy Alliance is happy to announce that we have expanded our programs and services for Cambridge residents and businesses. In July, Cambridge Energy Alliance had recently added new staff and capacity to help Cambridge residents and businesses connect to energy efficiency programs, renewable energy services, and financing to help get their homes and workplaces ready for winter. By partnering with several energy service companies and local banks, the Cambridge Energy Alliance can now offer a unique package of resources to meet the efficiency goals of almost any homeowner or business in Cambridge. In addition to these offerings, CEA updated our website and we are also spreading the message of energy efficiency and climate action through our blog at www.energytwodotzero.org.

Fall is an excellent time of year to weatherize your home or business to save energy and money during the winter heating season. In this season’s newsletter you will find upcoming events, fall efficiency tips, and helpful resources to start saving energy today!

Cambridge Community Report

This summer, the Cambridge Energy Alliance worked with volunteers from Massachusetts Climate Summer to provide free energy efficiency resources and compact fluorescent light bulbs to Cambridge residents. Volunteers talked to over 500 Cambridge residents and received 175 requests for home energy audits. In addition, 217 free CFLs were traded for used incandescent bulbs, which reduced emissions of CO₂ by more than 128,000 lbs. An additional 132,000 pounds were saved by a separate volunteer canvass of the Riverside Neighborhood in conjunction with the Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET).

There are several upcoming CEA events you may want to attend. The Cambridge Energy Alliance is promoting efficiency services for businesses at the Assistance for Retailers: Best Retail Practices Workshop on October 7^th from 8:30 to 11AM at the Cambridge City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, 2nd floor conference room. In addition, CEA is providing an energy efficiency workshop at the Cambridge Senior Center, 806 Massachusetts Ave, on Thursday, October 8th from 1–2PM. Learn more about the Cambridge Energy Alliance and hear about new programs for Cambridge Residents at www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org

Winter Weatherization Tips from the Energy Advisor

As summer turns to autumn, and the leaves begin to change and fall to the ground you may find yourself consumed with the household tasks of preparing for the coming winter season. Buttoning up your house for the winter may include calling the oil company for a delivery or making sure your furnace has new filters, but no matter where you live and how you heat your home, there are a number of things you can do to save energy and money this winter as well as make your living space more comfortable.

First, make sure your heating system is operating at peak efficiency. Check your radiators or forced air registers for dust buildup and clean them off to avoid spreading this around your home, as well as allow your equipment to most efficiently transfer heat into your living space. If you use baseboard heat, check to see that the flaps are all the way open. Verify that air flow around baseboards and radiators is unobstructed in order to allow efficient convection.

Second, use your heater as little as possible, and take advantage of free heat. Open up your shades during the day to let solar energy into your house to help with the heating and lighting. Close heavy drapes at night to act as insulation over your windows. If you have rooms that you use infrequently, turn down/off available thermostats or close registers and doors in those rooms. Set your thermostat for a lower temperature when you are away, and consider adding another comforter to your bed so you can turn down the heat more at night.

Finally, make sure you’re only paying to heat your house instead of the great outdoors. Close and lock all the windows in your home in order to seal the weather–stripping between the panels. Speaking of weather-stripping, make sure you have some, and that is in good condition. Look at the frames of all your exterior doors and check for gaps in the weather-stripping. Think about other places outside air may be entering the house, and apply caulk or expanding foam to seal any gaps. One trick for finding air infiltration is to hunt for cobwebs. Spiders usually seek out locations where there is a lot of air movement. Air can even leak into your house through electrical outlets. Foam gaskets that form a seal behind cover plates are inexpensive and available at most hardware stores. For more tips about home weatherization you can always contact the CEA Energy Advisor. HEET also has some handy weatherization guides and checklists.

Inroads

Historically there have been about 30 audit requests per month originating in Cambridge, although the exact number depends upon a number of factors such as the weather, season, and cost of energy. Since August 2008 the Cambridge Energy Alliance has received approximately 500 audit requests. As shown on the map below, these requests have come from all across the city; some have been omitted due to oddly formatted addresses. The higher concentration of requests from “north” and “mid” Cambridge is due in part to this summer’s canvass. On the other hand, many requests have been received from residents in the vicinities of Cambridgeport and Strawberry Hill which have not been canvassed.

Click map for larger view.

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