Lancaster DER

Family friends wanted to retire and downsize from a giant inefficient and drafty old victorian home in the village to a much smaller, inefficient drafty farmhouse on a quiet dirt road just outside of town. This charming cape was old enough to have seen duty as shelter for both humans and their livestock in its time, according to a nonagenarian neighbor, and the time was right for the DER treatment.

This was Tom’s last full house and he hit it out of the park. With an assist from Ben, the project became our first with, at that time, a cutting edge Air Source Heat Pump in the form of a ductless minisplit. We were fearful that the heat pump might not keep up in the cold winters, but it has chugged right along to this day cheerfully keeping our friends warm, alongside a cute little Vermont Castings wood stove for when the power goes out. Much to our friends’ wonder, the Heat Pump also provides a respite from hot summer days with air conditioning. Confusion and a little bit of shame was expressed when these hard bitten Vermonters admitted to using the AC “sparingly” during the hot summer months.