Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven

Home Improvement and Energy Conservation Laboratory

Upcoming Home Maintenance Classes: 
$20 per class

Wednesday, March 24, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Home Maintenance 101

Your first step in home repairs

Saturday, April 10, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Window Repair Workshop

In-depth, hands-on training with expert, Jade Mortimer. In collaboration with the New Haven Preservation Trust

Saturday, April 17, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Tool School for Women

Whalley Ave Hardware Store owner, Sheila O’Neill introduces home repair skills

 

Wednesday, June 9, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Tool School Part II

Further hands-on exploration of do-it-yourself projects

 

Space is limited. Please call (203) 562-0598 x 24 or email: sjamison@nhsofnewhaven.org to register and reserve your place in the class.

NHS of New Haven's state-of-the-art Home Improvement and Energy Conservation Laboratory is the centerpiece of our post-purchase homebuyer education programming. With rising energy costs and limited disposable income, it has become critically important for home buyers, homeowners and tenants to avoid unnecessary expenses. The Lab serves as a hands-on training facility for residents to learn useful skills to maintain their homes and conserve energy. The Lab also incorporates an “Identifying Home Health Hazards” component into each of our classes.  The Health Hazards program is designed to address the myriad of preventable health risks that are present in the home.

In addition to offering hands-on classes in home repairs and energy conservation, the Lab serves as a green demonstration model. The building utilizes existing urban infrastructure and salvaged, reused, or repurposed materials from NHS rehabbed properties. It has been constructed as an energy-efficient structure, and we are pursuing LEED certification on the building.  Energy conservation techniques are taught to our clients through the demonstration exhibits.

The Lab is the first of its kind in Connecticut, and NHS of New Haven is the first affordable housing producer in New England to develop a green Home Improvement and Energy Conservation Laboratory.  NHS was awarded a Challenge Grant from the Kresge Foundation to support the construction and development of the Lab.

On March 17, Construction Communications named NHS' Home Improvement and Energy Conservation Laboratory a Green Building of America Award-winning project. The Lab will be featured as a Success Story in an upcoming special edition of Real Estate and Construction Review - Northeast. The publication is also available online. We're honored that the Lab was selected from among more than 2,500 nominated projects to be profiled in the Review!

 

MOST INTRIGUING/Commerical Award
Connecticut Green Building Council:
"The Home Improvement and Energy Conservation Laboratory submitted by the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, Inc. immediately caught the jury’s attention. Although the project was limited in scale, it sits in the midst of the community it serves and incorporates many sustainable features that readily demonstrate building projects the neighbors can examine firsthand and understand well enough to undertake on their own. Originally a neighborhood grocery store in the late 1890’s, the frame, and later masonry addition, single story building illustrates how much can be created out of a very small space and budget. Many of the products used in the building are recycled including light fixtures, built-in cabinetry and office furnishings. The extensive green roof planted with sedum can accommodate any future expansion the photo voltaic array already providing energy to the building. The first residential scale cogeneration system in the state is used to heat and cool the building."

CTGBC's Highlights of the design:

 

- Extremely small space opened up into a very successful demonstration that we believe will only get better uponcompletion

- The ability to achieve LEED Gold with a minimum impact on the community and budget

- Photovoltaic plans to provide complete energy needs for this building

- Total Reuse of all materials within the structure.

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