Home Heating Event Recap: Collaborating to Educate our Neighbors
In January of 2024, Sustainable Sharon Coalition (SSC) co-hosted an event with the Sharon Historical Society (SHS) about the history of home heating and its future, specifically focusing on a technology that is rapidly gaining in popularity: heat pumps. The path to design and execute this event, however, began about six months prior.
In July of 2023, SSC members gathered at the Sharon Community Center to strategize for the upcoming fiscal year. As she has done in years past, Cheryl Schnitzer, the group’s president, asked the attendees to select a “word of the year” to focus our planning. After much thought and discussion, the word we settled on to guide us was: collaborate.
The group was also asked to brainstorm on potential events we could host throughout the year. Rather than simply meeting on a monthly basis as we had been, the hope was that we could dream up ideas for more community engagement. Out of this came programs including a demonstration of the eBikes that can be found at several locations around Sharon, and a tour of our town water infrastructure. SSC’s Energy Interest Group, led by Ralph Halpern and Colleen Mirabello, volunteered to organize a presentation about heat pumps.
The original conception for this event was that it would take place over Zoom and be an opportunity for several HVAC contractors to present to the audience. However, as this planning was going on, Sharon Historical Society (SHS) was replacing their old gas furnace with a heat pump. We immediately saw an opportunity for collaboration: a presentation about heat pumps in a building that had recently had one installed. Even better to do it in late January so the audience could experience the warmth it was providing on a cold winter’s night.
SSC and SHS worked closely to plan the program for the event. Being an organization concerned with history, SHS would first present on the history of home heating. SSC would assemble speakers to talk about heat pumps and a panel of Sharon residents pulled from our neighbor-to-neighbor initiative to share their personal experiences with home heating upgrades. Both groups advertised the event on their websites, Facebook, and member newsletters.
The event was a great success. Over 30 people attended to hear Paul Lauenstein, board member of both SSC and SHS, give an overview of home heating throughout the ages. Claire Forman, former president of SHS, spoke in detail about wood and coal-burning stoves, and a stove polish business that began in Sharon and operated out of Canton. Paul explained the process of getting the heat pump installed in the SHS building. Tina Shuker of Endless Energy, one of SSC’s heat pump partners, gave an overview of the available heat pump technologies and how residents could take advantage of incentives offered by the federal government and Mass Save to reduce the cost of installation.
Finally, our panel of Sharon residents, made up of Debbie Tatro, Kevin Izzo, Matt Mallozzi, Cheryl Schnitzer, and Paul Lauenstein, detailed their own experiences with heat pumps and answered questions from the audience. Tina Shuker also sat on the panel, answering questions and offering advice for specific situations. Afterward, the audience and speakers had an opportunity to mingle and talk in more detail.
A brief overview of the event can be viewed on SHS’s YouTube channel. The entire event is available on Sharon Community TV’s website and on air as part of the schedule for Community Events/Channel 8.
To learn more about heat pumps, see SSC’s online Resources/Energy & Renewables. The page on heat pumps offers basic information; advice on selecting, purchasing, installing, and paying for the equipment; and links to trusted and expert online resources for comprehensive information, videos, Q&As, and more.
A future event about the history of electric power and experiences with solar is being contemplated for later this year. We look forward to further opportunities to collaborate with others throughout Sharon in the future.
