How Do We Reduce Fossil Fuel Use?
As Massachusetts and New England implement an electrical grid with more and more renewable energy, then electrifying our homes and transportation is a key goal. However, few households have the time or funds to do this in one fell swoop. By deciding to Create a Zero Emissions Plan, you have a tool to help you decarbonize over time.
What is a Zero Emissions Plan?
As a homeowner, the plan is a commitment to significantly reduce, or eliminate, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with your home’s energy use. A Zero Emissions Plan is basically a roadmap to the future, first understanding your home’s energy needs, then looking at how to meet those needs in a less carbon-dependent way. This graph, adapted from Lex Clean Energy, shows areas to tackle over time.
Phase 1– Understand Your Situation and Look at Affordable Changes
The first phase of a Zero Emissions Plan is to understand how you use energy for heating, cooling, and transportation. Then look at the “low-hanging fruit,” such as insulation, air-sealing, and electricity aggregation accounts like Acton Power Choice Green. To get an orientation to clean energy, a great resource is the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center or MassCEC and their Clean Energy Lives Here homeowners program. Please remember that the free Acton Clean Energy Coach Program, run by the Acton Sustainability Office, is always available to help you.
- Calculate your household’s carbon footprint.
- Get a Mass Save Home Energy Assessment. (Ask for a more in-depth audit with infrared readings and a blower door test to pinpoint your home energy leakage.) A Home Energy Assessment is needed to qualify for most Mass Save incentives and rebates.
- Make your building envelope more energy efficient through affordable insulation and air sealing from Mass Save.
- Switch to Acton Power Choice Green, a town-vetted and contracted electricity supplier that increases renewable energy in the New England electric grid.
- Do not forget to check incentives!
Phase 2 – Planning for and Implementing the “Bigger Ticket” Changes
Next, your Zero Emissions Plan should consider the age of your current equipment, your finances, and overall household needs, in order to decide which fossil fuel equipment can transition to clean energy first and when.
- Consult with an Acton Clean Energy Coach to understand the process of replacing your fossil fuel heating/cooling equipment.
- Electrify your home heating and cooling with the right clean energy heat pump system for your home. The coaches will help! There are current incentives through Mass Save, but you must have a recent Mass Save home energy audit in order to qualify for rebates.
- Install all-electric appliances, like heat pump water heaters or induction stoves, as your fossil fuel appliances age out. There are rebates!
- Look into the payback period of solar panels (currently estimated at 8-10 years) or solar shingles. Again, the Acton Clean Energy Coaches can help. Plug-in solar panels (sometimes called “Balcony Solar Panels”) may be available in Massachusetts in 2027. Also, Energy Sage provides good background info and vetted initial quotes.
- Check into new electric vehicles, used EVs, or plug-in hybrid vehicles. There are significant incentives through MOR-EV.
- Battery storage is still expensive but getting cheaper. The advantages are that a) when you store power during the day, you can reduce evening electricity usage; b) you have back-up when the power goes out; and c) you can contract with Eversource to sell stored power back to the grid.
- Also, remember that your electrical panel may need upgrades, depending on its current capacity.
- Do not forget to check incentives!
Create a timeline for gradually implementing all of these changes.
How Can You Create a Zero Emissions Plan Timeline?
- The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) has a helpful format called the Clean Energy Home Plan.
- Lex Clean Energy (from Lexington, MA) has good information and a great planning checklist called LexELECTRIFY.
- Electrify Arlington (from Arlington, MA) does not have a planning checklist per se; however, their Make a Plan to Electrify Your Home has thoughtful suggestions.
By doing your research ahead of time, creating a plan, and installing clean energy equipment on a sensible timeline, you avoid a crisis situation where equipment fails and you feel rushed to install the same old fossil fuel type of unit. A successfully implemented plan will result in a home that is comfortable, healthy, sustainable, and produces close to zero on-site greenhouse gas emissions from energy use.
Please see STEPS TO TAKE for more details about the above actions.