February 21, 2025 by John H. Borger, Hingham Net Zero, Hingham Energy Action Committee
We will have an important opportunity at the Hingham Town Meeting on Monday, April 28 th to vote to further align Hingham’s building code with our goal of attaining net zero carbon emissions by 2040, while preserving builders’ freedom of choice. The agenda will include a warrant article proposing that the Town adopt the state’s most recent building energy code, called the Opt-In Specialized Code. This code provides non-monetary inducements to encourage those involved in the construction of new buildings (not additions or renovations) to construct all-electric buildings that do not use fossil fuels. Adopting this code is one of the key recommendations in the Town’s Climate Action Plan (available here: https://www.hingham-ma.gov/1068/Climate-Action-Commission). Forty-eight municipalities covering some 30% of the state’s population have already adopted the Opt-In Specialized Code. Eight municipalities often cited as Hingham “peer towns” have opted in: Concord, Dedham, Lexington, Milton, Needham, Wellesley, Weston and Winchester.
In 2022 and 2023, there were 51 new homes constructed in Hingham, almost all of them on tear down lots. People are retiring old housing stock to make way for new homes. According to data from the Town’s Tax Assessor’s Office, of these 51 new homes, fully 50 of them were built with oil or gas heat, this in a Town that has set one of the most ambitious climate goals in the Commonwealth. Each of these new houses is one more home that we will need to transition from fossil fuel to carbon-free heat pumps in the next 15 years. This is called digging the hole deeper. Clearly, we need new measures that will encourage housing professionals to move on from fossil fuels and offer updated all-electric options to their customers. That’s exactly what the Specialized Code does.
Here’s what you should know about the new code:
- Scope includes provisions for both residential and commercial new buildings. The Specialized Code applies only to new construction, not to renovations, additions, or historic buildings.
- Encourages non-polluting new construction by making all-electric the easiest “compliance pathway.”
- Requires all new commercial buildings and low rise residential homes using fossil fuels to include “pre-wiring”, i.e., to provide properly sized circuits for future electrification with electric heat pumps, water heaters, induction cooktops, and dryers. This is a prudent, economical way to limit owners’ exposure to what might otherwise be costly, intrusive retrofits for future electrification of new buildings initially constructed with a dependency on fossil fuels.
- Requires new homes greater than 4,000 conditioned square feet (CSF) to be all-electric, or, if using fossil fuel, to be built to a net zero standard of high energy efficiency and pre- wired for future electrification. The average home in Hingham measures around 3,100 CSF. Net zero means the home produces (typically via solar panels) as much energy as it consumes.
- New, high rise residential/multi-family buildings greater than 12,000 CSF must use the “passive-house” pathway (i.e., by constructing a highly efficient building envelope with very low energy required for heating and cooling). Note: verifying compliance with Passive House construction standards is done by specially trained, independent contractors at the builder’s expense, and thus does not burden the Hingham Building Commissioner’s office with additional workload or costs.
- Requires a relatively modest solar array scaled to size for all new buildings using fossil fuel (shaded sites and passive houses are exempted). Solar typically pays for itself within 3-7 years and generates free electricity for decades thereafter, thus significantly reducing electric utility bills and demand on the grid.
- Hingham’s town-chartered Energy Action Committee and Climate Action Commission have both unanimously endorsed opting in to the Specialized Code and the Select Board has voted unanimously in support of favorable action on the Specialized Code warrant article.
- The Advisory Committee voted 12-1 to recommend to Town Meeting favorable action on the Specialized Code warrant article. The Recommendation in the article is to adopt the Specialized Code by amending Town By-laws per the legal language this requires.
- The Hingham Building Commissioner’s Office has done a thorough review of the Specialized Code and has stated it is ready to enforce it when adopted.
Now it’s up to us. Let’s join the 48 communities that have already adopted this code by voting YES on the Opt-in Specialized Code warrant article!
I have received an update from the Hingham Tax Assessor’s office regarding the data they provided to me that I cite in the article above. They clarified that the initial data contained 2 duplicate permits and an entry for a vacant parcel. The new tally is a total of 48 homes constructed with 47 being equipped with fossil fuel heating and only 1 with electric heat pump heating. These adjusted figures do not materially alter the basic message – almost all of the new homes being built in Hingham are being equipped with fossil fuel equipment.