Clean Energy Solutions for Your Home
It’s an exciting time to “Go Clean!” Massachusetts homeowners have access to great programs and advice that can help lower energy costs and reduce environmental impact.
Why Go Clean?
Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Increase Efficiency and Lower Utility Bills
Increase Home Comfort
In Massachusetts, residential buildings use nearly half of the energy consumed by buildings in the state—so the choices you make at home can have a meaningful impact. By reducing your energy use, you can save money on your utility bills, improve comfort year‑round, and help cut climate‑affecting pollution. We’re here to guide you through the rebates, financing options, tax credits, and programs that pay you to save energy, produce clean power, or share it with the grid. With the right upgrades, you can create a healthy, efficient, clean‑energy home you’ll love coming back to every day.
What is a Clean Energy Home?
A Clean Energy Home is fully electrified, efficient, and weatherized. By going this route, you’re cutting down on polluting gases, saying goodbye to fossil fuels, likely saving on energy costs, and enjoying extra comfort. It’s a win-win for you and the planet!
Weatherization
Energy efficiency is defined as using less energy to get the same or better results. Weatherization is a key part of energy efficiency because it reduces the energy needed to keep your home’s indoor temperature comfortable. Insulating, which is like wearing a puffy coat in winter, and air sealing, which is like putting a windbreaker on over it, are the main activities of weatherization. With a snug and well-insulated home, you’ll be rewarded with lower utility bills and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. As a side benefit worth thousands of dollars, you’ll need a smaller, less expensive heating and cooling system when it’s time to replace the one you have.
Electrification
Electrification is a home improvement strategy that favors electric systems and appliances over those that use fossil fuels. This means that oil boilers and gas furnaces are out, heat pumps are in. Heat pumps use less energy and generate less emissions than burning fossil fuels to get the same amount of heat. Right now, our electric grid in Massachusetts still uses fossil fuel – mainly natural gas – as one of the sources that generates electricity for us. This means that electrified home technologies aren’t completely emissions-free. However, each year as our grid displaces fossil fuel generation with more solar, wind, and hydroelectric sources, electrified appliances and systems will represent lower and lower emissions. If you don’t want to wait for a cleaner grid you can install a solar system at your home, get your electricity from a community solar farm, or choose your electric utility’s clean electricity offering.
Planning to Transition Your Home to Clean Energy
Welcome to Clean Energy Lives Here, your friendly guide to the world of clean energy! We’ll help you explore the modern, electrified options that match your home’s needs. Your home’s systems and appliances each have their own expected lifespans. By picking the products you want next and planning contractor appointments before a home system or appliance stops working, you’ll avoid scrambling when home systems or appliances break down. Clean Energy Lives Here is right there with you, offering a planning tool that takes the guesswork out of going clean.
Understanding Your Home’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions
In Massachusetts, about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions come from our homes. Fifty-four percent of those emissions come from keeping warm. By switching to heat pumps, you can really shrink your home’s impact on the environment. Water heaters are the next largest source of emissions. So upgrading to a heat pump water heater is more than a drop in the bucket when it comes to making our environment cleaner.
Household transportation also contributes about a quarter of the emissions associated with each household, though those emissions mostly take place away from our homes. The average vehicle emits 3.7 metric tons of CO2-equivalent each year, and many households have more than one car that’s actively driven. Make your next vehicle an EV or e-bike!
Together, we’ve got the power to make a real difference as we make choices about home improvements or vehicle purchases.
If you are interested in better understanding your household’s carbon footprint, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers a Household Carbon Footprint Calculator.
Footnotes
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- Source: MassEEA and MassCEC analysis of MassDEP 2017 Greenhouse Gas Inventory data and ARUP’s unpublished application of NREL’s EnergyPlus model to statewide buildings data
- MassEEA and MassCEC analysis of MassDEP 2017 Greenhouse Gas inventory data and EIA’s State Energy data
