AARC Resource Library
Resource Library
General Resources:
- Introduction to the Clean Energy Home: This guide provides an overview of technologies available to transition your home to clean energy, a framework for making those upgrades and links to more in depth resources for each specific home upgrade.
- Clean Energy Home Plan: Fill in the tables about your current home systems to identify opportunities to transition your home to clean energy.
- Massachusetts Residential Guide to Solar Electricity: This guide is intended to assist Massachusetts residents who are considering installing solar on their homes. This guide can help you determine whether a solar electric system is right for you, both technically and economically. It reviews the installation process, provides resources for finding an installer, and explains available incentives and other pertinent information about solar electricity.
- Solar Solutions for Landlords & Tenants: Among other things, this guide will help you understand common metering scenarios for landlords that live onsite or offsite and methods to use solar to create value for you and your tenants.
- Saving Energy at Home: Energy saving tips and light bulb information.
- Cómo ahorrar energía en el hogar: Consejos para ahorrar energía y información de la bombilla
- Heating Help - Heating Assistance & Energy Efficiency Programs: Fuel Assistance provides eligible households with help in paying a portion of their winter heating bills.
Financing Programs for Energy Improvements:
- Cost-Saving Energy Efficiency Programs & Technologies Resource List: A comprehensive list of programs offering rebates, incentives, and low- to no-cost solutions for affordable housing & low-income residents in Massachusetts
- Providing Energy Assistance to Income-Eligible Massachusetts Residents: An overview of energy assistance programs for income eligible Massachusetts residents
- Brindar asistencia energética a los residentes de Massachusetts con ingresos elegibles: Un resumen de los programas de asistencia energética para los residentes de Massachusetts con ingresos elegibles
- Mass Save No-Cost Home Energy Assessments: Whether you’re a homeowner, renter or landlord, the Sponsors of Mass Save® offer no cost virtual or in-person Home Energy Assessments to help you learn about your top energy-saving opportunities in an easy, convenient way. An Energy Specialist will assess your current energy use, help you develop a plan to make your home more energy efficient, and educate you on rebates and incentives you may qualify for, like knob and tube removal and various other weatherization projects.
Financing Programs for Energy Improvements of Multi-Family Buildings (+5 units):
- Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Massachusetts: PACE Massachusetts is an innovative program to help commercial, industrial, or multi-family residential property owners in Massachusetts finance energy improvements.
- Low-Income Energy Affordability Network (LEAN): This program offers technical support and up to 100% paid assistnace for energy efficiency improvements in existing affordable multi-family building. Please view this guide for a quick overview or this guide for more details.
Energy-Saving Technology Guides:
- Battery Storage: Battery storage save electricity for later use, offering a convenient and easy way to provide electricity to your home in a power outage.
- Electric Vehicles: An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that runs on electricity, instead of gasoline.
- Ground-Source/Geothermal Heat Pumps: Ground-source heat pumps run on electricity and use the constant temperature of the ground to provide heating and cooling for your home. A system can serve as your all-in-one, central heating and cooling system – no backups required.
- Heat Pump Clothes Dryers: Heat Pump Clothes Dryers use heat-pump technology to extract moisture from your clothes. Rather than generating heat with a gas burner or electric coils, a heat pump moves thermal energy from one area to another. Using a ventless, closed-loop system, they save energy and space!
- Heat Pump Water Heaters: Heat pump water heaters are an efficient hot water system that transfers heat from the surrounding air to heat your home’s water without burning fossil fuels.
- Induction Cooking: Induction cooking uses a magnetic field to heat cookware ~50% faster with substantially less energy than conventional electric and gas stoves. Only cookware on the stovetop will become hot and there is no flame or hot coils which reduces the risk of fire or accidental burns in the kitchen.
- Mini-Splits/Air-Source Heat Pumps: Air-Source Heat Pumps are heating and cooling systems that move heat in and out of a building rather than generating it. Instead of burning fossil fuels, they operate on the same principle as your refrigerator: using a refrigerant cycle, powered by electricity, to move heat and to keep your home at a comfortable temperature year round. They are much more efficient than electric resistance (electric baseboard) heating and also provide highly efficient air conditioning.
- Modern/Automated Wood Heating: Modern/Automated Wood Heating is a heating system that burns locally sourced, sustainable wood pellets instead of fossil fuels. An automated wood heating system works just like a gas/oil boiler or furnace except that is burns wood instead of fossil fuels. Unlike traditional wood stoves or boilers, these heating systems are automated and don’t need to be manually loaded or cleaned. Automated wood heating systems can use the existing pipe or ducts in your home and require minimal homeowner interaction besides emptying a small ash bin a few times a year.
- Solar Hot Water: Solar Hot Water is a hot water system that uses energy from the sun to heat your home’s water. Solar collectors, mounted on the roof or ground next to a home, absorb heat from the sun and transfer it through a fluid loop into a solar storage tank (typically located in the basement or mechanical room) that stores preheated water. This heated water is then piped throughout the home to showers, dishwashers, sinks, and washing machines. Solar hot water systems can also be used for pool heating and for space heating.