The May Memorial Universalist Unitarian Church, 3800 E Genesee St., Syracuse (Design by Pietro Belluschi, 1964) 'Before' in Winter 2010 with a wall of icicles, and Winter 2014 'After' reinsultion and weather tightening.
Energy saving RENOVATIONS can offer really DRAMATIC results - visually, financially and environmentally. Just ask the May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society on East Genesee St in Syracuse. The beautiful but uninsulated solid cedar planks of their main services auditorium and meeting house roofs had been hemorrhaging heat, icicles and money every winter, year after year, since 1964... locally earning it the nickname “the ice palace.”
After considering a detailed ENERGY AUDIT in 2011, the society went ahead with building envelope renovations in the fall of 2012 - primarily insulating and venting the roofs and re-glazing the cupola. Thereafter, their natural gas “therm” consumption fell 20%, and by the winter of 2014, following a furnace equipment upgrade, they saw heating costs down 34% compared to the prior five years. As former MMUUS president Harsey Leonard, who led the energy upgrade renovation campaign, noted, "Saving our building and reducing costs was one thing, but contributing to global carbon emission reductions - in this case some 17.5 metric tons/year worth - was just the right thing to do.”
WHAT YOU CAN DO...?
Well, if you’ve got a hundred foot wall of ice like May Memorial did, or even a small corner of your roof that produces bothersome icicles every winter, getting some professional advice could be an important next step. One great place to start is with NYSERDA, the New York State public benefit corporation that has been developing partnerships to advance innovative energy solutions in New York since 1975. There you’ll find... #1 links to NYSERDA’s online application for a FREE Home Energy Assessment (click here), as well as... #2 a list of Energy Star participating contractors (click here). For a broader view of NYSERDA’s other programs for commercial, industrial, single-family and multi-family residential buildings, see... #3 their full listing of Energy Efficicency and Renewable Programs (click here).
Whatever you do, IF YOU'VE GOT ICICLES, then for safety’s sake, for money’s sake, and for planet’s sake, take some action today.