Residential Heating Replacement/Initial Concept
From Green Needham
Michael Greis's overview note summarizing the concept as discussed at the January, 2009 Green Needham meeting:
We have talked about bringing together heating/ventilation contractors to develop a program that would make it easier for residents to upgrade or replace older, inefficient heating systems.
- Rick Nortz of Needham Oil and Air has expressed interest in participating in this project and engaging other suppliers
- I have also talked with Gerry LaVoie, of Dedham Savings, about this as one of the challenges is financing. Dedham Savings has done quite a lot of greening of their own facilities and has an interested in advancing an initiative like this as well.
There are many challenges to getting something like this going, but it makes so much sense, and is in fact being done on a city-wide scale in Cambridge through the Cambridge Energy Alliance. If we could put something together here in Needham, we'd be doing a great service for our residents, advancing Green Needham's objectives for community sustainability and also publicizing and promoting Green Needham.
The immediate first challenge has been finding someone to take charge of getting us started and of taking the first steps. At January's Green Needham meeting, we had a breakout session about working with area businesses to advance mutual interests in sustainability and we again discussed this idea. This time, I got several volunteers to try to jump start this idea. Bill Okerman and Les Lefaver agreed to coordinate.
The initial objective is straightforward - have a meeting/workshop of interested parties, present and discuss the concept, then determine whether there is enough interest to move forward with something. We will at the very least raise awareness and visibility, and perhaps generate interest in exploring other approaches.
