by Ally Heath SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – As the temperature drops and the snow starts falling, people in Central New York are cranking up their heaters. Some, however, might be reluctant to keep their homes toasty this winter because the cost of using fossil fuels and other traditional heating methods is expensive.
“Most of us in Central New York are still heating and cooling our homes with what is quite literally dinosaur technology,” Lindsay Speer, campaign manager of HeatSmart CNY said.
HeatSmart CNY is a campaign started by Speer and other environmentalists that is helping middle- to low-income households in Central New York to convert their homes away from the “dinosaur technology” to methods that are more environmentally friendly and cheaper to operate.
Their focus is geothermal heaters, which have traditionally been installed in more upper class homes in the suburbs, according to Yusuf Abdul-Qadir, a Syracuse resident currently installing a geothermal system in his home. HeatSmart CNY is trying to bring those systems within reach to low-income households by providing subsidies, tax breaks and other incentives to anyone who installs the system.
Once the heaters are up and running, Speer says they reduce heating costs to about $50 per month, significantly less than costs racked up by a traditional gas heater. Abdul-Qadir says his mother is considered low-income, retired and living off social security checks.
“The reality is,” Abdul-Qadir said, “that system has helped to make sure my mom has been able to heat and cool her home in a way that’s accessible to her.”
The money saved by the geothermal systems, Abdul-Qadir said, would allow low-income families to have more disposable income at the end of the month to, say, buy a child a pair of cleats to play soccer. It allows them more room to live.
Earlier this week, the Syracuse Common Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting HeatSmart CNY and the $500,000 grant provided by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority as a way to address several of the issues facing the Syracuse community.
“It works on so many levels; economically it makes sense, environmentally it makes sense, socially it makes sense,” Joseph Driscoll, common councilor for the 5th District, said. “It’s the intersectionality with the environment, with poverty and with keeping the residents of Syracuse healthy and safe.”
The campaign officially launches on Thursday with a kickoff workshop at the South Side Innovation Center in Syracuse. For more details on the campaign and future events and workshops, visit heatsmartcny.org.
