Heat pumps and induction stoves will be making their way into New Haven homes for free this year, thanks to a $1 million government-to-government grant.
The Board of Alders voted unanimously during their latest meeting in City Hall Monday night to accept the pending three-year grant from the federal government, which would put $1 million towards researching and implementing home electrification.
The terms of the grant, according to City Climate Director Steve Winter, remain under negotiation. Wednesday’s vote amended a previous motion by the alders that will retroactively allow the city to apply for and accept the money, which Winter actually first sought back in April of last year.
The city had to make that amendment to accommodate for the fact that the grant is actually a multi-year agreement rather than a lump cash payment. The so-called “Government-to-Government” grant has already been awarded by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency to New Haven, which now has to hash out the details of how it will be used before officially accepting the money.
Winter said that around $500,000 is expected to go towards the cost of contracting construction workers to make energy efficiency improvements within peoples’ homes. The remaining half of the grant will pay for outreach to homeowners by nonprofits like the Community Action Agency and Junta for Progressive Action; counseling and design work by energy experts to homeowners; and academic research surveying the health benefits associated with improved indoor and neighborhood air quality.
“The focus will be on helping households that are still using oil heat move to heat pumps.” Through state and federal rebates for home electrification in tandem with money from the grant, Winter said the city will be able to cover the full cost of homeowners’ related renovations.
Winter said the final deliberations, which will solidify to who what proportions of the funding are allocated, should wrap up in the next month — at which point “we can get started on the work.”
I have confidence that this money will do nothing but underwrite the two organizations named, pay inflated administrative salaries and result in minimal impact in upgrading any low income residential locations.