St. John’s Episcopal Church, Newtonville

Introduction: Reducing Emissions Step-by-Step

St. John's Episcopal Church in Newtonville, built in stages beginning in 1902, is a historic stone structure cherished by its small but active congregation. The church engaged Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light for its first Environmental Stewardship Assessment (ESA) in 2013 and implemented a number of its recommendations over the next ten years, reducing their carbon emissions 25%.

A failing boiler confronted the church with an immediate challenge but also an opportunity to accelerate its transition to a more sustainable future. Guided by moral responsibility to reduce climate impact, practical needs for comfort and efficiency, and the reality of limited financial resources, St. John's conducted a multi-path evaluation.

Aging Infrastructure & The Turning Point

The church's heating system was an aging mix: a 2013 Buderus high-efficiency boiler for part of the building and a steam boiler installed in 2018. In 2023, when the steam boiler began to fail after only six years, leaders faced a choice: stick with fossil fuel or seize the chance to go green.

While repairing the boiler would have been the least disruptive path, it wasn't clear that repair would be more than a short-term fix. Plus, with the steam pipes over 100 years old and so past their expected useful life, the likelihood of expensive pipe replacements in the future weighed against this choice and focused the Green Team on a full replacement of the heating system.

Planning the Green Path

While the Green Team and Vestry began exploring options for new heating systems, MassSave increased its incentives for insulation, paying up to 100% of the cost. No matter what heating system would ultimately be chosen, reducing the need for heating would save money and lower carbon emissions for years to come.

The church solicited proposals from two insulation contractors, selecting Rogers Insulation due to their attention to the unique challenges of the building. They installed a mix of loose- and dense-packed cellulose, foam board, and fiberglass batts in attics and crawlspaces, with a small amount of spray foam to air seal key junctures. In addition, all doors were weatherstripped. MassSave estimates these improvements will reduce heating energy use by 15%. The benefits were felt even before seeing the lower bills, as one leader said: “It's the best thing we ever did—rooms stay at consistent temperatures now.”

Big Moves: From Insulation to Heat Pumps

Replacing a steam system was a more complex decision involving many interrelated decisions. At the same time, parish leaders wanted flexibility for multiple spaces and aesthetics that respected the building's historic charm. In order to inform these decisions, the Green Team consulted widely:

• Peers: First Unitarian Universalist Society of Newton (FUUSN) shared lessons from its HVAC modernization.
• Experts: Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light, Newton Green Team, City Sustainability Coach, MassSave consultants, and electrical inspectors.
• Vendors: Two insulation contractors, three HVAC firms, and three electricians provided bids.

Options and issues that were considered included:

• Hybrid system: Given the state of heat pump technology, it is common to design heating systems that retain a fossil fuel back-up for the 10–20% of the coldest winter days. The church ruled this option out due to complexity and not meeting their sustainability goals.
• Ducted heat pumps: Ductless systems require mini-split heads that some people find ugly. But given the church's construction, ducts would also be highly visible and compromise the aesthetics of the space. Since the church did not have ducts that could be reused, the cost of designing and building ducts ruled this option out.
• Electrical system upgrade: The church's electrical system was 200 amp, barely adequate for the new heat pumps and leaving little room for additional electric needs. The church weighed whether to upgrade to 400 amp or 600 amp service, but chose 400 amp service. While the 600 amp upgrade would have given them greater future flexibility, the significantly higher cost and complexity put this option out of contention.
• High occupancy needs: The church hosts a community theater group whose performances can draw up to 250 audience members. The new system needs to be sized to maintain comfort during these occasional events.
• Condenser and mini-split head placement: Condensers sit outside the building and, ideally, are placed where they are least visible. Mini-split heads need to be placed to ensure adequate heat and even distribution to ensure occupant comfort. A number of different options were considered to balance cost and aesthetic concerns.

The final design included 4 high-efficiency condensers, 9 ductless mini-split heads, and 3 thermostatically controlled zones. This resulted in two small rooms (used primarily for storage) not having heads, instead relying on air circulation to heat them, while a small electric resistance baseboard was added to another small office, which is used for few hours during the week.

A mix of mini-split head types was used to balance efficiency, comfort, and aesthetics, including low-profile wall-mounted units (below left), underceiling units (below center), and ceiling cassettes (below right), where appropriate.

Challenges & Surprises

With over a year of research and planning, the journey encountered some hurdles. As one leader told us, “Scope creep is inevitable.” Some of the unexpected issues that occurred included:

• Electrical inspections uncovered extra grounding requirements.
• MassSave unexpectedly paid less than the full cost of the insulation, adding over $5,000 to the church's costs.
• A cash flow headache of paying for the new heating system then waiting for MassSave rebates to arrive.
• Since heat pumps add air conditioning which the building hadn't had before, the church needed to develop guidelines for tenants about when they could use cooling.
• During installation of the thermostat, the team encountered compatibility issues when trying to operate multiple different heads from a single thermostat.

But there were wins too:

• Due to the originally specified equipment being unavailable, the HVAC contractor upgraded equipment at no extra cost.
• No transformer replacement was needed as part of the electrical upgrade.
• The newly implemented import tariffs might have further increased costs, but the contractor was able to make use of equipment already in the country.
• The city of Newton had amended its zoning ordinance to allow placement of air source heat pump condensers within the property line setback, allowing them to be placed behind the building and out of sight.

Financing the Vision

In total, all this work cost about $140,000. The church received about $65,000 in rebates from MassSave. The balance was covered by unused Covid funds and a low-interest loan from the Episcopal Diocese.

Lessons Learned

1. Insulation first: It delivers big comfort and efficiency gains.
2. Understand your building: From basic information about electric and gas consumption to historic quirks (knob-and-tube wiring, slate roof), to the decision process of your community, invest time in learning about and documenting these facets of the project.
3. Ask for help: Technical aspects of these projects can be daunting, but there is ample information available from contractors, volunteers, and sustainability networks.

Results & Impact

• Greater comfort year-round; consistent room temperatures.
• Added cooling for parish hall events and tenants.
• 23% reduction in carbon emissions, bringing their total emissions reductions since 2012 to 58%, exceeding the state's goal of 50% reduction by 2030 (MassIPL estimates).
• 20% reduction in heating cost for the portion of the building using heat pumps.

Looking Ahead

St. John's is starting to explore solar PV and community solar options to offset electricity costs. Smart thermostats, smart circuit boards, and energy monitoring are on the horizon. With this transformation, the church is not only stewarding its historic building but also modeling climate leadership for the future.