Environmental Science

Developing a Comprehensive Monitoring Program for Community-wide Energy Efficiency Upgrades

For our project, we created a website with information about the energy upgrade program and energy upgrade case studies, visualized air-quality monitoring data from the arduinos, and developed a reproducible energy audit template

Developing a Comprehensive Monitoring Program for Community-wide Energy Efficiency Upgrades

Maine is the most heating-oil dependent state in the country, with 58% of homes using fuel oil as the primary source of heat (EIA). Maine does not have any fossil fuel reserves or extraction. In recent years, we have spent more than $4 billion annually on fossil fuels, resulting in more than 6% of the gross state product leaving the state each year for energy imports. In the last two years, heating oil and kerosene prices doubled from $2-$3/gallon (January 2015-January 2022) to $5-6/gallon, and stayed above $4/gallon for the entire year from March 2022 to March 2023.