Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) organizes free weatherization parties to teach volunteers how to lower their energy bills and carbon emissions. The work takes place in homes or nonprofits where we improve a building while teaching important skills.

The labor is free to the home-owners/tenants. They only pay for materials, unless they are low-income, in which case we raise the money for materials. All Cambridge residents are eligible to have HEET work on their homes. Just email us.

Anyone can sign up to volunteer for our events. You gain hands-on skills on how to lower energy use. According to a survey of our volunteers, 76% go on to use these skills in their own homes.

We do a thorough audit before each event to make sure we pinpoint the work that will effectively lower energy use. Our audits include a blower door test, combustion analysis, and more.

We continue to monitor the energy use of the buildings we work in to ensure we have been successful. On average we have lowered electricity use by 10% and heating by 11% (controlling for heating degree days, or how cold the winter was). All this is accomplished in just three hours of team labor.

The work we do concentrates on air-sealing (stopping drafts) and electrical and water efficiency. The majority of the work we teach can be done yourself using materials you can buy at most hardware stores.

For volunteers who want to learn more, we also offer an introduction to the more challenging work in the attic and using the blower door.

At our events, neighbors meet each other and work together, building community. They also see everyone working together on energy efficiency, demonstrating that energy efficiency is something people like us should, and do, take action on.

We call our events "barn-raisings" after the historical barn-raisings of 18th and 19th-century rural North America, in which a community came together to assemble a barn for one of its families. Neighbors worked together, pooling strengths and tools to take on tasks too big for any one of them. Fighting climate change is a task too big for any one of us as well.

History

We are a grassroots nonprofit group founded in August of 2008.

HEET has received a tremendous response from the community, with 30 to 90 volunteers participating in monthly barn-raisings since 2008. Participants have included neighbors, contractors, City Councilors, School Committee members, and the President of the Cambridge Energy Alliance.

Our barn-raisings have inspired climate activists from other communities to explore similar initiatives and have been the subject of over 20 articles in publications including the Boston Globe, Cambridge Chronicle, and Boston Phoenix. HEET was recognized by the Mass Climate Action Network as a "Climate Superstar." In May 2009, HEET was given the GoGreen award by the City of Cambridge as the City's outstanding community organization working toward sustainability.

If you would like more information, please see our About Barn-raisings and HEET PDF file.