A district's rebate program has recently raised its levels and expanded eligibility for homeowners looking to add eco-friendly upgrades to their abodes.
The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript reported that the HeatSmart+ program for Peterborough and Harrisville, New Hampshire, now applies to all residents' income levels. The maximum rebate was raised from $3,300 to $5,000. It now covers a range of home improvements like weatherization, electrical wiring and panel upgrades, induction stoves, and heat pump installation.
The rebates are open to all detached single-family homes in either town and cover the price of appliances and not labor costs.
For a state with long, cold winters like New Hampshire, weatherizing a home is a no-brainer. Simple improvements can help reduce energy consumption, benefiting both homeowners and the environment. Induction stoves offer all of the benefits of gas without the health risks.
Heat pumps are energy-efficient devices that gather heat from the air or ground outside the home and concentrate it for indoor use. They can be used to heat or cool a home for a fraction of the cost and energy use.
Similarly, a heat pump water heater is around three to four times more efficient than a standard model. According to Energy Star, that can translate to annual savings of $550 for a typical family of four. Mitsubishi's free quote tool can help you find a local installer with ease.
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Washers and dryers have a surprisingly large pollution footprint, contributing about 10% of homes' harmful emissions. A dryer especially uses large amounts of energy and releases about 4.2 tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime, almost the same as driving a car for a year.
It's much cheaper and eco-friendly to simply let nature do the drying, but in New England winters, that's not always practical. Fortunately, eco-friendly washers and dryers are also part of the rebate program.
Tricia Cheever, Peterborough's energy and community planner, believes that upfront costs are the biggest barriers to residents wishing to move away from dirty energy. But this program will help alleviate that issue:
Cheever told New Hampshire Public Radio: "All of this kind of aligns with the end goal of electrification and being more renewable that both these towns want and see for the future."
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