You have the opportunity to become a Green Newton Home Visit Volunteer and help assess if a neighborhood networked geothermal system is the right fit for Newton. This innovative clean technology uses a network of heat pumps connected to underground wells to provide heating and cooling to multiple buildings.

To volunteer, you’ll need to recognize a heating and cooling system… but you don’t need to be an expert!

If you’re interested in visiting residents to collect basic heating and cooling information to help evaluate networked geothermal in Newton, sign up below to become a Green Newton Home Visit Volunteer. As a volunteer, you will help Green Newton evaluate the feasibility of installing a networked geothermal heating and cooling system in the neighborhood of Countryside Elementary School.

Click to learn more about networked geothermal and the potential pilot.

See below to sign up or express interest in the training.

What will you do as a Home Visit Volunteer?

Over the next several months, as a Home Visit Volunteer, you will visit the homes of people who are potentially interested in a neighborhood networked geothermal system. You will collect basic information about the heating and cooling characteristics of homes that might participate. The data you collect will be vital in helping to understand the opportunities and challenges of installing the networked geothermal in the Countryside neighborhood.

After the volunteer training in October, you will have opportunities to visit homes over the next several months. Home visits will be scheduled based on the homeowner’s availability and your schedule.

What is the time commitment?

To volunteer, you commit to attending a training or meeting with a trainer a mutually agreed upon time.  Once you are trained, you will perform your first visit with an experienced volunteer.  You can sign up for as many or as few home visits as suits your schedule. We prefer that you will be available for at least five visits from November through February.

What are the qualifications?

If you can agree to the requirements on the list below, you are qualified, and we hope you’ll sign up. If you can’t make the October 8 training, let us know on the form and we will organize another session to accommodate your schedule.

To volunteer, you will need to be:

• available to visit a Newton home for an hour some days and/or nights,
• comfortable representing Green Newton,
• comfortable using data collection form with clipboard,
• comfortable estimating percentages, and
• able to climb stairs easily.

You will also need the following:

• a camera (phone)
• a flashlight (phone or other)
• a car (or bicycle) to travel around Newton

Please complete the form below to sign up for the training. Questions? Email Judy Jacobs at judy@greennewton.org.