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Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of October 26, 2010
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held on October 26, 2010
in the Legion Meeting Room, Cary Hall. A quorum of three was present.
Members Present: Mark Sandeen, Chair
Rick Abrams, Todd Rhodes
Members Absent: Ken Moraff
The meeting was called to order at 7:10.
The committee addressed the following topics:
Approval of the October 14, 2010 meeting minutes as amended.
Mr. Sandeen led a discussion of energy efficiency programs and factors that affect
success/failure.
The committee decided to set a target of 20% energy reduction for each home that
undertakes an energy efficiency upgrade over the next three years and that our
program would target the following categories of homeowners that would be most
likely to undertake an energy efficiency upgrade:
1.Homeowners undertaking a major addition or renovation affecting 2000 square
feet or more.
2.Homeowners undertaking a smaller project – like upgrading a kitchen, bathroom
or any project that requires pulling a building permit
3.Transitioning homeowners who have oil heat to natural gas.
Based on estimates of roughly 10,000 residences in Lexington, there are
approximately 75 to 100 permits issued for new construction each year, 150 to 200
permits issued for major additions or renovations, and roughly 1000 permits issues
for smaller projects.
The stretch energy code requires new homes to be at least 20% better than base
energy code, so by default 100% of those homes will operate at an efficiency of 20%
better than base energy code.
For the other areas, the committee agreed to work to develop programs with the
following objectives:
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1.Getting 75% of the homes applying for “major renovation” permits (~200 per
year) to achieve 20% energy reduction
2.Getting 20% of the homes applying for “minor renovation” permits (~1,000 per
year) to achieve 20% energy reduction.
3.Transitioning 500 homes (10% of oil users) to natural gas each year.
4.Given these estimates, this should result in the following number of energy
efficiency upgrades each year:
75 – 100 new homes
115 – 150 major renovations
200 minor renovations
500 furnace upgrades
890 – 950 energy upgrades per year
At that rate it would take ~10 years to have the vast majority of Lexington
homeowners participate in an energy efficiency upgrade.
Action items from the meeting are as follows:
Prepare a proposal for an oil to natural gas conversion program – Todd Rhodes
Prepare a proposal for a program to convince home owners that are pulling
building permits to complete an energy efficiency upgrade – Rick Abrams
Conduct a survey of Lexington GWAC members to understand reasons they have
or have not completed energy upgrades – Mark Sandeen
Arrange a meeting with Next Step Living to understand their recommendations
for implementing a successful energy efficiency program – Mark Sandeen
Confirm building permit numbers and the number of homes with oil heat – Mark
Sandeen
We discussed the importance of offering financing to complete the higher cost energy
efficiency upgrades. Mr. Sandeen will prepare some thoughts regarding our options
for providing a revolving fund for energy efficiency programs.
Several ideas for specific programs that could help to reduce residential energy
consumption in Lexington were discussed. They are included here for reference only.
They may be considered more formally at future meetings.
Serve as the interface between residents and the utilities to help residents
navigate the free programs, rebates, etc. that are available and help them to
understand what to expect when participating in these programs. (e.g.,
working with Mass Save / CSG).
Organize service groups, churches, etc. to do basic work at people’s houses.
Initiate a revolving loan fund.
th
Coordinate with 9 grade high school science “home energy assessment”
program to promote energy savings.
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The meeting adjourned at 9:30.
The following documents/exhibits were reviewed during the meeting:
Presentation of Residential Energy Usage
Respectfully Submitted,
Todd Rhodes, Scribe
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