Awardee Profiles

The Brodeur Home

Zach and Beth Brodeur and their son Oliver migrated from New Mexico for grad school at Cornell in 2018 and soon found themselves the new owners of a big old farmhouse in Lansing up on a ridge with big views – but also potentially BIG heating bills. Zach works in environmental engineering so he knew to be proactive before their first winter and called up Snug Planet to assess where they should start with efficiency retrofits. As usual the best investments were in air sealing and insulation for the main and rear attics, plus the crawlspace. They also replaced the aging propane boiler with a new high efficiency one. Unfortunately, it is hard to make air source heat pumps cost effective in big rambling farmhouses with rooms tucked away at so many levels, all needing their own heat source. Until that technology can connect to existing radiators or ductwork, we can get well on the way toward zero carbon by tightening these old buildings up and heating them as efficiently as possible. Our 27th climate fund grant for $2,491 represents 99 tons of CO2 saved by this first round of efficiency measures.

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