Kate Wing might be the only person you’ll ever meet who smiles when she talks about her utility bill.
“We don’t have to buy oil, we don’t have to worry about gas,” she said. “Everything in our house is electric because we have a heat pump that will heat our house and actually also cool our house, which has been helpful this summer.”
Wing is speaking from outside her West Barnstable home, which she and her husband purchased last year through Habitat for Humanity. Before that, the couple struggled to find affordable housing for their family. They say they spent years searching and thousands of dollars heating poorly insulated rentals.
“Those walls would sweat in the winter from the heat and the condensation,” she said about the last home they rented. “And there was no insulation in the attic. So you’re paying for all this oil to heat your house and it’s just going out the windows.”
So when the Wing family was selected through Habitat’s housing lottery, they were thrilled. And when they learned that their new home would be solar powered and built with energy efficiency in mind -- that was icing on the cake.
This is all part of Habitat’s nation-wide effort to build homes that are both sustainable and affordable.
Vicki Goldsmith heads up the local chapter of the organization. She said they have installed solar panels on dozens of homes in recent years. These homes are heated using high-efficiency electric heat pumps rather than gas-fired furnaces. Plus, they are equipped with bamboo flooring and energy-efficient appliances. These sustainable features keep the cost of utilities down for families like the Wings, but they also significantly reduce their carbon emissions.
“We’re people who live in this world we’re not just all about housing,” Goldsmith said. “We bring the bigger perspective of really a care for the earth and wanting to use resources and be good stewards of the earth.”
The sustainability focus began about two years ago, Goldsmith said, and it’s been made possible by donations, grants, and partnerships with businesses like E2 solar and Cape Light Compact.
Part of the goal is to keep energy expenses as low as possible for Habitat homeowners.
“To have their utility costs under control is such a marvelous help for them to be able to live within the budget that they have with Cape Cod wages,” she said.
But it’s also about keeping carbon emissions low and demonstrating that green building practices are accessible and affordable. Bob Ryley, Habitat Cape Cod’s director of construction, said that the solar energy program has been a huge success.
“We’re very close to net zero,” he said.
By that, Ryley means that Habitat homeowners are close to producing as much energy with their solar panels as they use.
“That’s the direction where we’re going to get to net zero. Or, even better, net plus, where you’re delivering more energy than you’re using. We’re not there yet, but that’s where we’re going.”
For the Wing family, living in a solar-powered, energy efficient home means not having to worry too much about household energy use.
“We have another baby on the way and we plan on cloth diapering,” Wing said, “which will be nice in an energy efficient house because we don’t have to worry about too much of the electricity going into that.”
Habitat builds are currently underway in Yarmouth, Chatham and Mashpee. The plan is for these homes, and future homes that Habitat works on, to incorporate clean energy and sustainable technology as much as possible.
