Want to win prizes for saving energy? Now you can, thanks to EnerSave, a new app from our friends at Code for Boston! Over the past year Code for Boston, a chapter of the nonprofit Code for America, has been working on EnerSave. EnerSave is a web app that lets people team up and compete to lower their electricity use. The EnerSave team just announced the launch of their app this month, and Cambridge Energy Alliance is offering prizes to the winning teams. To get started, visit EnerSaveApp.org.

EnerSave is designed to let people easily upload electricity use from their utility accounts and then create teams in which to compete. A leaderboard showcases the teams that are the top savers each month. You can use a Google account or other email to sign in.

To support the work EnerSave is doing, Cambridge Energy Alliance will be offering energy-related prizes to the best Cambridge team each month this winter. Teams can be up to six people.

The EnerSave team is a made up of volunteer coders, project managers, and designers who came together last winter at Code for Boston. Cambridge Energy Alliance engaged with Code for Boston to find a project that could help Cambridge residents save energy in an innovative way. Cambridge Energy Alliance will be collaborating with the EnerSave team to learn from user feedback over the next three months, helping inform us about future iterations and potential new features.

Visit EnerSaveApp.org to start!

Are you a Cambridge resident? Come to the Cambridge Winter Farmer’s Market this Saturday, Dec. 10, from 10am-2pm and swap up to three of your incandescent or CFL bulbs for free LED replacements! (Please note that only the most common bulb types will be available to swap). There will also be a pop-up store with heavily discounted LEDs for all of your other lighting needs.

This event is part of the City’s 100% LED Campaign that encourages residents to change over their lighting to LEDs, which use six times less energy. The bulb swap is limited to Cambridge residents and the most common types of bulbs, while supplies last. For more information, go to cambridgema.gov/LED

To help Sunny Cambridge participants go solar, Sunny Cambridge will be hosting an informational workshop about making a solar decision on Wed, December 7.

Register for the workshop here

• Learn about Sunny Cambridge success to date
• Hear from neighbors that already went solar
• Have your important solar questions answered
• Get one-on-one support for your solar quotes

Schedule:

5:45pm – Refreshments

6:00 – 7:30pm – Program

Location:

Main Library
449 Broadway
Community Room
Cambridge

Cambridge Energy Alliance’s 100% LED promotion has been extended!

From now until DEC. 7, residents can go to https://www.techniart.us/Cambridge/ to get special pricing that is available to Cambridge residents only. Customers can also get discounted shipping while supplies last. Not sure what bulb to get? See our guide at CambridgeMA.gov/LED

Mass Energy is collaborating with local heat pump installers, running the Greater Boston Heat Pump Program. Heat pumps are a great way to efficiently heat and cool your home.  Installing energy efficient heat pumps can help the City of Cambridge win the $5 million dollar Georgetown University Energy Prize!

Copyright: MassDOER

Mass Energy has partnered with highly qualified installers like Fisher-Churchill Co. and Genove Oil & Air Co. to offer homeowners competitive price for the installation of high efficiency, air source heat pumps (ASHP). ASHP systems circulate air from the outside via a heat exchanger and compressor to either heat the house or cool it by transferring hot air to the outside or inside, as needed. The increased efficiency can reduce your energy bill and actually save you money over time, ASHPs also improve indoor air quality, while operating more quietly than the typical Cambridge radiator.

Not only has the Greater Boston Heat Pump Program offered incredible prices for this project, the state has a variety of state and federal incentives to make ASHPs even more affordable. For anyone interested in purchasing an ASHP, sign up for a no-cost, no-obligation assessment for your home here. Continue to look on our Facebook and Twitter for more information in the future!

On April 20th, the City of Cambridge took part in the Cambridge Science Festival, a multi-day event within the city that celebrates science, technology, engineering, art and math in Cambridge and New England, as well as their impact on the global community. The city of Cambridge was proud to work in conjunction with MIT, Harvard, the Museum of Science, and the Cambridge Public Library to host the event. At the event, the city was able to inform citizens about two of its initiatives, the ongoing Georgetown Energy Prize Campaign and Sunny Cambridge, a new collaboration with Energysage that helps homeowners use online technology to find the most affordable rates for installing solar power.

While at our event outside of the Cambridge Public Library, we showcased our new energy efficiency bicycle, a project done in collaboration with students at MIT. The bicycle helped to show citizens the energy use associated with different lightbulbs by allowing us to light them through pedaling. An 8 watt LED bulb, which you can purchase for your home for an affordable price, quickly turned on, while a 60 watt incandescent bulb, which many people in Cambridge still use, proved to be too difficult for most people to light up! With the bike, understanding the need to purchase new lightbulbs to help the environment and help citizens with their energy bills becomes as simple as showing them! Keep an eye out for the bicycle as we table for other events around the city of Cambridge! Don’t forget to sign up for a free home energy assessment to learn how you can save energy in your house through ways besides light bulbs!

The City of Cambridge has launched Sunny Cambridge, an exciting new program to help residents of Cambridge learn about solar and receive online quotes from local installers through an easy-to-use online platform! Sunny Cambridge is focused on helping residents that have any kind of property, including single-family homes, condominiums, rental properties, and commercial properties. The program website is www.sunnycambridge.org and is offered in partnership with local solar marketplace provider, EnergySage.

For those curious about the benefits of solar, there are a number of great reasons to go solar in Cambridge today, including:

• Reduce or eliminate your electricity bill
• Increase the value of your property
• Reduce your carbon footprint
• Help create local green jobs
• Earn solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) from producing solar energy and generate income from your panels!
• Help Cambridge to achieve its zero energy goals and to win the Georgetown Energy Prize competition to win $5 million for Cambridge!

Some residents may think that solar is confusing and that the whole process will take a lot of time. The Sunny Cambridge program was designed to help simplify this experience; to make it easy by using an online marketplace from EnergySage. The City worked with EnergySage to line up specific solar installers who specialize in serving Cambridge homes and businesses. Building owners can get multiple online solar quotes from solar installers that have been vetted and hand-selected to give consumers confidence in their options, with support every step of the way.

In order to participate, simply sign-up at www.SunnyCambridge.org by entering your address and some basic information about your electricity usage. You don’t even have to share your phone number and, while your email address is used for communications and to access your account, it will not be shared directly with solar installers. This process puts you in charge of shopping for solar! In no time, you’ll have a few online solar quotes! You can compare them easily using helpful comparison tables and informational resources. You can also speak with Solar Advisors to help you make a confident decision. Check our Facebook and Twitter pages for more information, as Sunny Cambridge will be a year-long initiative for our city. Go solar today!

It has been incredibly quick, but the Georgetown University Energy Prize (GUEP) is now at the halfway mark, leaving just one year left for the City of Cambridge government and residents to reduce its total energy use through the Win It Campaign. In the past year, we have accomplished many projects and initiatives designed to help us win the GUEP!

– Block Captains: The City of Cambridge organized 3 community leaders and 11 volunteers to help citizens sign up for free home energy assessments to reduce total home energy use. Block Captains will continue to work throughout the year to inform citizens on reducing their energy bills for free. As the Block Captains will be an ongoing campaign, you can sign up to be part of this amazing initiative here!

– CPS Outreach: Cambridge Energy Alliance (CEA) partnered with the Cambridge Public School system (CPS) and the Department of Public Works to create activities around energy savings in school. In addition to implementing energy-saving actions such as turning off classroom lights and equipment, schools are provided free classroom and seminar instruction on energy efficiency through nonprofits ACE and “e”-inc. Email the Cambridge Energy Alliance if you are interested in hosting such an event at your school!

– Glocal Challenge: For the past four years, the Cambridge Community Development Department, Rindge and Latin High School in conjunction with EF Education First have organized the Glocal Challenge. Glocal (a combination of the words “Global” and “Local”) challenges Cambridge high school students to tackle global and local challenges with solutions that can be implemented at the local scale. The city worked with Glocal on the GUEP campaign, resulting in multiple winning projects that created energy efficiency kits for low-income housing units in partnership with organization Nest.

– Municipal Improvement Plan: The City of Cambridge committed to spending $5 million per year for 5 years to upgrade its facilities to improve their energy performance.

– Community Brainstorm: The City of Cambridge has routinely developed meetings to engage with local community leaders, educational institutions, businesses, and NGOs to brainstorm on further ways to enhance the Win It Campaign. In the late spring and early summer 2015, the city met with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Microsoft, Industrial Economics, Inc., and the Venture Café Sustainability Collaborative to discuss barriers to energy efficiency implementation. At the start of 2016, CEA developed the Steering Committee, a group of organizations that routinely meet to discuss the next steps for the Win It Campaign.

In addition to all of these activities, Cambridge will continue to provide outreach to citizens to make them aware of the progress of the Campaign. Currently, there is a sign posting throughout Cambridge that will update citizens on how many home energy assessments we’ve achieved. Check our Facebook and Twitter accounts for constant updates, and visit the Win It website to learn more and sign up for a free home energy assessment! We’ve got plenty still left to do!

Keep on the lookout for more posts this week as we continue to cover our GUEP progress!

It is 2016, and we are now entering the final year of the Georgetown University Energy Prize, a country wide competition to get cities in America to reduce wasted energy. In order to be the city that reduces its energy use the most, Cambridge is encouraging residents to sign up for no-cost home energy assessments through its Block Captains Initiative. As you know, the Block Captain is a friendly face that works with people in their social networks to help them sign up. These networks can include family, friends, neighborhoods, co-workers, classrooms, and schools.

During the assessment, a professional home energy advisor evaluates the health, safety, and performance of heating and cooling systems in your home and provides no-cost instant savings measures such as LED light bulbs, water saving devices, and smart power strips. The advisor will follow up with a report of further opportunities to save energy and money in your home while taking advantage of opportunities through the MassSave program.

The Initiative was kicked off on Tuesday, January 12 at 344 Broadway on the 4^th floor conference room. Eleven Block Captains were in attendance, where CEA conducted a meet and greet, program training, and brainstormed with the audience on effective strategies for success. These captains, and others in the future, will be working actively within the city for the foreseeable future.

Look to hear from your Block Captain during the 2016 year, and also consider becoming one yourself! Signing up is easy and activity is based solely on your level of availability, with contributions towards the Prize being as big or small as you want. Sign up here!

As we all continue helping Cambridge Win It during the year, keep an eye out for the Cambridge yard sign posted in front of City Hall and circulating throughout the city. It tracks our progress in reaching our goal of 5,000 home energy assessments!