Last Sunday was another one of our summer days of threatening rain and occasional downpours but I biked down to Henry Street for the first local weatherization barnraising. Lots of people showed up as did the rain while we crowded into the garage to arrange the work parties. One group worked on pipe insulation in the basements, another group worked on weatherstripping doors, and two groups worked on weatherstripping windows, one for simple weatherstripping and another for complex weatherstripping which required the removal of sash.
I worked on the pipe insulation crew. We finished one basement and I believe made a good start on the second. At first, we thought there wasn't enough pipe insulation to go around but it worked out. We spent about three hours getting organized and working on windows, doors, and pipes, and ended up with pizza, pot luck, and a jam session.
Two city councillors and the new head of the Cambridge Energy Alliance attended as well as a reporter from the local newspaper. Whether the reporter did any weatherization work I do not know.
Here's the report from Greenport, eco-active in the Cambridgeport neighborhood of Cambridge, MA:
From the Energy Co-op:
The August 10 weatherization barnraising was an incredible success! 39 people came, worked in teams guided by skilled team leaders, and got a lot weatherizing done on windows, doors, and pipes.
The Cambridge Chronicle has a story about the barnraising on the front page of today's paper, and online at
http://www.wickedlocal.com/...
Please note one minor inaccuracy in the story: The barnraising was actually organized by the Energy Co-op and not by GreenPort. (The Energy Co-op is a spinoff of GreenPort and is now its own group with a citywide scope.) Otherwise it's great coverage!
More pictures of the event, taken by Susan Altman, are at http://picasaweb.google.com/...
We have selected a name for the Energy Co-op: Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET). More weatherization barnraisings are in the works, with planning already started for an event in September. We have also had folks from several other communities -- Roxbury, Medford, Beverly, Newton, and Northampton -- express interest in holding barnraisings in their communities. And MCAN may promote this idea as well. Much more to come!
Next time the organizers might want to think about inviting public access TV and filming the directions for each task to spread the word and capture the knowledge. It would make for more efficient barnraisings if participants could see what they're supposed to do on a website or through youtube before showing up at the work site.
Thirty years ago, we did solar barnraisings. We may be working up to that again.
