There are doors that don’t close right, uninsulated pipes and drafty windows that make the 175-year-old First Parish Church in Harvard Square less than accommodating on Sunday mornings in the winter.
Thanks to HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team), the old building is one step closer to an overhaul after yesterday’s “weatherization party,” where volunteers of all levels help out in exchange for learning tricks of the trade.
“Not only are we helping to weatherize a building and decrease carbon emissions but we are also teaching people to be more efficient,” said Audrey Schulman, president of HEET.
HEET normally does smaller projects in and around Cambridge homes. The church is the group’s first historic endeavor.
The prominent windows of the steeple had crumbling wood. Uninsulated pipes in an unoccupied upstairs maintenance room gave off heat before ever reaching their destination. Floor vents used to warm feet in the pews were ineffective.
From 2001 to 2008, carbon emissions due to heat soared 17 percent at the church as the old boiler system gave way, according to Michele Sprengnether, former chair of the buildings and grounds unit at the church.
“It’s very challenging to reduce the emissions of a historic building like this,” Sprengnether said. “Today we are doing it, which is great.”