Resources and Citations

For details on the data and analysis methods behind the facts presented on the home page and FAQ, please refer to the references below, broken down into information categories.

Jump to categories:

Economics
Heat Pumps
The Grid
Health & the Environment
Legal
List of Example Buildings

Economics

Claim supported:
$41/month higher heating costs for 2,500 sq. ft. stretch code compliant home

Reference: RLPNC 17-14: Mini-Split Heat Pump Incremental
Cost Assessment

Claim supported:
Cost of electricity in Arlington

Reference: Arlington Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program details

Claim supported:
Electrification is an affordable alternative to gas in most cases, and in fact is becoming standard for affordable housing and multi-family buildings.

Reference: MassCEC testimony to Brookline on availability of alternatives to gas

Claim supported:
Bylaw would affect an average of 70 buildings max per year, resulting in about 12-15% of total buildings affected by 2050.

Reference: Arlington Planning Department Analysis [Department website]

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Heat Pumps

Claim supported:
Air source heat pumps (ASHPs) have a COP of 2.5+ even in cold New England winters

Reference: Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Air-Source Heat Pump Market Strategies Report

Claim supported:
There are many ccASHPs available, some with extremely high season COP values and that go down to very cold temperatures (-15 F)

Reference: Cold Climate Air Source Heat Pump Product List

Claim supported:
The temperature around here never gets cold enough for ccASHPs to not work

Reference: How Cold are Boston Winters?

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The Grid

Claim supported:
Electrical demand in New England is decreasing, overall and peak demand. Year to year variability is around 1%.

Reference: New England’s Electricity Use

Claim supported:
Natural gas generates about 50% of the electricity that we use

Reference: ISO-NE Resource Mix

Claim supported:
Electricity emission rate of about 550 lbs/MWh

Reference: New England Electricity Emissions, according to the EPA

Claim supported:
Electricity emission rate of about 700 lbs/MWh. Decreased by 200 lbs/MWh over the past decade, or about 20%, and shows no signs of slowing

Reference: ISO-NE 2017 Emissions Report

Claim supported:
About 80% of electricity generated within MA is from natural gas

Reference: Massachusetts State Energy Profile

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Health & the Environment

Claim supported:
CO2 emissions from different fossil fuel sources

Reference: Greenhouse Gases Equivalencies Calculator

Claim supported:
Buildings make up about 60% of the Town’s emissions

Reference: ISO-NE Resource Mix

Claim supported:
Makeup and percentage renewables for Arlington default electricity

Reference: New England Electricity Emissions, according to the EPA

Claim supported:
Portion of residential energy going towards space and water heating is about 75%

Reference: MA Residential Energy Use

Claim supported:
We cannot meet our legal obligations for emissions reductions while continuing widespread use of fossil fuels for home heating.

Reference: Massachusetts Gas versus Massachusetts Climate Goals

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