Case Study #7: What I’ve Learned and Why I’ve Done What I’ve Done to Get Off Fossil Fuels
- jahaugh
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 19 hours ago
The earth’s climate is deteriorating and we must do what we can do to avoid making things worse – work to protect our planet and all its people.
Part One – Climate Refugee
I have experienced climate change firsthand. I call myself a three-time climate refugee.
In 1991, my husband and I left our D.C. lawyer lives and moved to what seemed like paradise on Bayou Liberty, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, Louisiana. Twelve years later in 2003, repeated, increasingly damaging storms drove us from the Bayou and into New Orleans, which was at least theoretically protected by levees. (First climate refugee experience)
We renovated a Victorian cottage in the Bayou St. John neighborhood. In August 2005, while we were away, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. We went home in October after electricity returned to the city. Lucky for us, our house was not too badly damaged. But over the next eight years, New Orleans experienced repeated hurricanes, long power outages and loss of water. At the same time, my husband’s health had deteriorated dramatically, so in 2013 we moved to Sebastopol in Sonoma County, California to be nearer his daughter. (Second climate refugee experience)
When we moved, our friends said “but what about the
earthquakes?” No one mentioned the wildfires. In October 2017, the Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County burned to the ground the Coffey neighborhood about 10 miles from us. My husband’s health deteriorated further, and not long before his death in March 2020, we were mandatorily evacuated from our house. After his death, I repeatedly moved important papers to my car when fires threatened. In the fall, I finally had had enough, sold our house and moved back to Lincoln where I had grown up. (Third climate refugee experience)
Part Two – Creating a Fossil-Fuel-Free Home
So, I have direct experience of climate change. And I have studied the issue and believe climate change is caused by carbon dioxide and other emissions from the burning of fossil fuels – the greenhouse effect. For that reason, I committed myself to getting off fossil fuels in the 1968 one-story house on Beaver Pond Road that I bought in 2021.
Simultaneous with the closing, I took steps to install a charger for the electric vehicle I brought from CA. Next, my old friend R.L. Smith, who has solar panels on his house, told me whom he’d used for installation. In early 2022, I arranged for a 10 kWh/34-panel array. Lucky for me, the man who sold me the house had just replaced the roof. The section on which the panels sit faces pretty much south, and there is no problem with trees. I paid for the panels out of savings, received a 30% federal tax credit on the substantial cost of the panels, a $2,000 MA tax credit, and a $1,000 rebate from the installer. Data for the five months since I stopped using natural gas suggests I won’t have to pay much for house electricity going forward. I will continue to receive payments through the SMART program for the electricity the panels produce. In warmer months, Eversource credits me for power beyond my needs that I generate and send to the grid, and then in colder months uses those credits when my power needs exceed production. When I do get power from the grid, I pay for 100% renewable electricity through Lincoln Green Energy Choice.
When I renovated my garage apartment, I installed a minisplit for heat and air conditioning. The total cost of the minisplit was covered by a MassSave grant arranged by the installer. The apartment has an electric water heater and an electric stove. I now rent the apartment.
Cutting Ties to the Natural Gas System
The house came with a gas stove, which I replaced with an induction stove (for which I received a $500 rebate from MassSave).
The house also came with a natural gas heating system and two old heat pumps used only for air conditioning, one of which broke down in 2024. In connection with getting off gas I bought new heat pumps (partly financed with MA and federal incentives), disconnecting the old gas boiler. Through the MassSave HEAT loan program, I covered the rest of the purchase amount with a seven-year, zero-percent loan, and each month the relatively modest monthly payment is removed from my checking account.
This last spring/summer National Grid (NG) replaced the natural gas main on 0.6 miles of Beaver Pond Road, including the area where I live. It took several months and the noise and disturbance were intense. At a point in the main replacement, I decided to take the final steps necessary to get myself off gas.
I replaced my natural gas water heater with a solar heat pump hot water heater (this involved a MassSave rebate). And finally, I got rid of my natural gas clothes dryer and bought a combo washer-heat pump dryer for which I’m just now applying for a $200 MassSave rebate.
Along the way, I let the supervisor of the Beaver Pond main replacement know that I was getting off gas and that I didn’t want NG to replace the line from the new main to my house. Twice during these last steps NG representatives (including a higher-level supervisor from HQ) visited my house to try to persuade me to stay connected to the main. They argued that not having a gas connection would make my house less valuable. I said they were ignoring the value of my solar panels and cutting-edge electrical appliances. I thanked them for coming, and they left.
In addition, this year I installed a battery (with another due soon) to store some of the electricity generated by my solar panels for backup in the event of a power outage. The cost of the batteries will be partially offset by a 30 percent federal tax credit which expires at the end of this year. I participated in an Eversource Connected Solutions program this summer during which electricity from my batteries was withdrawn by Eversource to meet peak demand in the late afternoon. This program avoids use of oil- and gas-fired peaker plants to meet demand at that time of day. I expect to receive payment from Eversource for the electricity I supplied.
In the Winter, Don’t Let the Heat Escape!
In addition to spending money to get off gas, I have invested in improving the energy efficiency of my house.
After a winter study of my house with a thermal imaging camera, I repaired and installed insulation in crawl spaces, improved the weatherstripping around two outside doors, and installed cellular shades on some of my big picture windows. I’m looking into replacing a few remaining old windows and having some other windows improved with interior, low-E storm windows.
It's been quite an intense process, and I’ll be glad when it’s done! The federal tax credits mentioned will no longer be available after December, but all the MassSave incentives that I received will be, and they are quite generous.
This case study was developed by CFREE (Carbon Free Residential - Everything Electric), a subcommittee of the Lincoln Green Energy Committee. CFREE provides guidance on how households can reduce use of fossil fuels and decrease greenhouse gas emissions to help Massachusetts meet statewide emissions limits set for 2030, 2040, and 2050. It also provides information about state and federal incentives that help reduce the cost of such changes. For guidance on such projects at your home, contact: Lincolngreencoach@gmail.com. For more information visit: lincolngreenenergy.org.
PS
In CFREE's Case Study #7, Anne Sobol described her experiences as a climate refugee and the changes she has made on her house to make it free of fossil fuels. A careful reader suggested that a laundry line would have been better than the heat pump dryer Anne installed.
In addition to the dryer, Anne does have a laundry line, which she uses a lot. Near the end of the editing process, Anne had proposed including the attached photo, with the caption, "Solar laundry line - no federal tax credit, no Mass Save rebate, much joy." The photo didn't make it into the final version, but we wish now that it had.
