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Dear Reader,
This blog is now an archive. John Abrams (Founder of South Mountain, author of this blog, and a book of the same name) retired on December 31, 2022. All posts published up until this date are preserved below.

For updates on John's next chapter, visit abramsangell.com.

For updates on South Mountain's second act, subscribe to our newsletter using the form below.

Tough Work, Worthy Goals

By John Abrams | February 26, 2010

I rode the boat from the Vineyard to Woods Hole a few days back to see the energy efficiency work we’re doing to Katharine and George Woodwell’s house.   George is the founder of the Woods Hole Research Center, where we are currently in the middle of construction of a major Deep Energy Retrofit of a large 1905 carriage house WHRC h2ocolor copy small w textrecently acquired by the center (the completed building will become office and meeting space for their expanding staff; they’re in the climate change business, so theirs is booming!).

It was the first time I had been to George and Katherine’s house.  I got off the boat, walked up the road, and turned right on Church Street.  As I walked I gawked at the sprawling old-world summer mansions on the right side (the water side) of Church. Woodwell’s is on the left, and is smaller and more subdued, except for the giveaway large solar thermal system on an outbuilding to the left. woodwell solar Built by George 26 years ago, it has provided half the home’s heat and hot water ever since.  But the house is a big old leaky rambler needing many fixes.  We’re doing some of them now, as partial steps toward George and Katherine’s eventual goal: eliminating the use of fossil fuels altogether.

Several of our carpenters were working there.  Just as I turned into the driveway our project lead, Pete D’Angelo, was ripping a 2×4 on a table saw and the grain was running all ragged so it bound up and kicked back on him. He turned to one of the carpenters, Curtis, who was right next to him, and said, “What else could possibly happen to screw me up today?”

At that moment he turned and saw me walking up the driveway, threw his hands skyward, and said, “Oh no – not him!”

I checked out the job.  Tough work.  Tearing stuff apart, re-working, insulating, and airsealing in a messy old attic with cast iron pipes and BX cable running everywhere.

As we looked at the work Peter (who is also one of my co-owners) revealed to me that I was the least of his problems on this particular day, unlike on so many other days.

I was glad to hear that but troubled to see how hard this important work is.

Unlike the Carriage House, the Woodwell project does not qualify as a true Deep Energy Retrofit as we’re only doing a part of what needs to be done – picking the low hanging fruit.   Hopefully, over time, we’ll be able to do the rest.

On the Vineyard we have another complete Deep Energy Retrofit in progress,  for Bill Lake and Morgan Hodgson in Aquinnah.  Bill and Morgan bought a typical patched-together summer camp from the 50’s on a beautiful site overlooking Lobsterville.  The realtors were selling it as a tear-down (obviously nobody would want that worn out hunk of junk) but Bill and Morgan were interested in saving it and fixing it.  It had charm, character, and some good parts – why cart it all away to the dump?

We helped them figure out how to make sense of it.  This is a gut re-hab, which makes it easier.  When it’s done, it will still be a charming old camp but with more light and space and new aesthetics.  And it will perform, in terms of energy use, comfort, and durability, nearly as well as the high-performance new buildings we are making these days.  In my last post I said  “On the Vineyard we have approximately 18,000 existing buildings.  Each will – at some point – need to be brought into the 21st century, or just thrown away.”

One down, 17,999 to go.

The Lake/Hodgson House and the Woods Hole Research Center Carriage House will be, when completed, the first true Deep Energy Retrofits our company has produced.  Sometime in the future, when we have monitored and measured, I will quantify what this means, discuss the components, tell of the successes and failures, and try to explain what it takes to do these (aside from committed clients, which is the most essential requirement).SMCo DeepEnergy GAZ 4x6 cropd small

Meanwhile, on March 6th we are hosting an open house at Lake/Hodgson’s, mid-construction, with bones exposed, so people can see what goes into such a project and how it’s done.  We will examine the troubles and the triumphs midstream.  If you’re around, join us.

I’ll be there – if the carpenters don’t kick me out first!

Categories: Energy, Martha's Vineyard, South Mountain Company Tags: Deep Energy Retrofit, Woods Hole Research Center

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mike Hines (@eXapath)

    February 27, 2010 at 9:21 am

    Excellent post…well written as always…summarizes the process of reusing instead of razing…and hints at the intricacies of deep energy retrofit. Informative.

    Despite the inability to call it Deep Energy Retrofit the project demonstrates real energy conservation improvement…small but additive to resolving a global dilemma

    Progress.

    Thanks for posting the story.

    Reply
  2. Anne Alexander

    March 1, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    I’ll be interested to hear more details on these retrofits. I live in a 70’s era house that I have insulated and tightened up as best I can. There are millions of such dwellings and they won’t all be torn down for a long time to come, so we have to do whatever we can.

    Reply
  3. jabrams

    March 4, 2010 at 7:09 am

    Yes, Anne, many millions. It’s predicted that 50% of the homes in the U.S. that exist today will still be with us in 2050. They’ve all gotta be fixed; it will be a different world then. We don’t know much, but we do know that!

    Reply
  4. herbal vaporizer discount

    August 26, 2010 at 7:24 pm

    Such a thought-provoking read. I will come back to your website very soon.

    Reply

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