Success Story: Electrification with Doris Martin

Doris’ Story 

Doris Martin has always had a passion for helping single parents in rearing their children. A single mom herself, Ms. Martin has supported other parents in her community for nearly two decades, whether that involved helping the children get to school on time or just teaching them little life lessons along the way. When Elevate electrified Ms. Martin’s home last year, the retired computer science engineer got the chance to finally receive, instead of give.   

“I mostly help single moms and single dads, that’s been my passion,” Ms. Martin says, “I’ve been doing it for 18 years. But one day I stumbled across the Bungalow Association and then I kept myself in the loop on electrification. They sent out some information about solar panels. This was about 2 years ago, so I accepted their offer when they approached me regarding the electrification program.” 

After the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic was over, Ms. Martin began renovations to her home. Her great uncle built the house in 1957, and it has remained the same for the last sixty years that her family has lived there. Ms. Martin and her daughter moved into the house in 2005.  “I was in the process of remodeling my home, and pretty much everything overlapped onto one another. They did the weatherization program, I got some remodeling done at the same time and Elevate came in and took care of all my electrical sockets.”  

Since Ms. Martin was already getting her house remodeled, Elevate’s crews were able to make energy-saving upgrades to her home during the same timeframe. Before she knew it, Elevate had completed work on her electrical outlets, her air conditioning system, the furnace, and replaced her water heater. 

“Everything was upgraded,” she says. “Even my breaker box was updated! It was a seamless process.” 

Ms. Martin said she felt that Elevate’s team genuinely cared about upgrading her home and ensuring she had a positive experience. When Ms. Martin noticed issues with her new heating system during the winter holidays, Elevate’s crew came back to fix it as soon as possible. 

“The Elevate team are very pleasant people to work with and they do care about making you feel comfortable,” Ms. Martin said. “You can’t always get that kind of service anymore. I really appreciate that they came back during the Christmas holiday, even though I know some of them had young kids. I haven’t had a problem since then.” 

Since receiving upgrades to her home, Martin said she has noticed she can cook faster using her electric stove and her house retains its temperature better than it did before. Because Ms. Martin’s appliances and heating/cooling systems are more efficient, she has noticed she pays significantly less for utilities each month. “It’s been more convenient to just pay one bill, instead of gas and electricity,” Ms. Martin said. “It’s been nice because I don’t have to worry about changing the temperature in the house. It stays for some reason. It automatically adjusts itself; it turns itself off when the house cools down and back on when the temperature outside gets hotter.”  

Work Done and Estimated Savings 

Work Completed 

The following work was completed at Doris Martin’s home. The total cost of this work was $45,469.00 (free to the homeowner). 

• Installed wall and attic insulation – was done prior to Elevate BEP 

• Professionally air-sealed gaps and cracks in the home – was done prior to Elevate BEP 

• Replaced gas furnace with electric air source heat pump 

• Installed new smart thermostat (Ecobee) 

• Replaced water heater to electric heat pump water heater 

• Electrical upgrades to the service panel 

• Replacement of stove with induction stove and dryer with heat pump dryer 

Estimated Savings 

• Estimated Change in Gas Use: 917 therms saved annually 

• Estimated Change in Electricity Use: 6,254 kWhs added annually (due to electrification) 

• Estimated Change in Cost: $1,042 annual savings (expected to be more after full electrification and eliminating gas bill) 

Funding 

Elevate braided multiple funding streams from ComEd, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Kresge Foundation to pay for the upgrades to Doris Martin’s home. 

Elevate’s Building Electrification Program 

Our Building Electrification Program (BEP) provides financial support and a full support service delivery model for homeowners and multi-family building owners. We remove and replace on-site combustion of fossil fuels for space heating, hot water, clothes drying, stoves, and ovens with clean energy technologies to create a healthier living environment as well as generate energy and carbon savings. Our program takes an equitable approach to building electrification by providing these upgrades in communities that have historically been under-resourced and covering the costs for people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford the improvements. 

Learn more about the program at ElevateNP.org/Building-Electrification.