A historic firehouse and former furniture store aim to revitalize the gateway to downtown with 44 energy efficient mixed-income apartments and 8,400 square feet of commercial retail space.
After nearly two years of renovations at 10 Main Street, The Apartments at Moran Square are now accepting applications for highly efficient residential units that are expected to use approximately 50 percent less heating energy versus a building that only meets the minimum building code.
Luke McKneally from ICF in Cambridge, the lead vendor that supported the energy efficiency design, said the project is unique because it included both historic preservation and building to Mass Save’s Passive House path energy efficiency incentive requirements.
"Even though the project fell just shy of the even higher standard Phius+ required for air leakage performance, due to the limitations of redeveloping existing historic structures, the development team succeeded in designing and constructing a very low energy building that should serve the owner and tenants well into the future,” McKneally said.
Unitil provided incentives of $141,350 in energy efficiency rebates as well as technical assistance. The improvements are expected to save over 172,000 kWh per year of electricity and more than 1,650 therms of natural gas per year. The savings in electricity alone represent what 23 homes typically use annually.
The incentives help offset the added cost of insulation, air sealing, high efficiency windows, whole building VRF heat pump system, energy recovery ventilation, high efficiency natural gas water heater, low-flow plumbing fixtures and LED fixtures and controls.
Unitil, a sponsor of Mass Save, provided technical support in the form of feasibility studies and energy modeling as well as financial incentives to cover the incremental cost of building to, or exceeding, Passive House standards.
"We structured our offerings to reduce the risk a developer may perceive in pursuing Passive House standards by providing incentive payments aligned with the feasibility, design, and construction phases,” said Unitil’s Joe VanGombos, Senior Energy Efficiency Program Coordinator, who oversaw the project for the company.
