Retrofit Toolkit – Triple Decker Challenge

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The goal of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Triple Decker Design Challenge was to develop an easily replicable and scalable approach for deep green retrofits of Boston’s existing housing stock. Renovations are complicated procedures, though, and no single design would fit the varied existing conditions and construction budgets of triple deckers around the city. Instead, our approach to this problem was to provide a kit of tools to help homeowners and contractors decide the most effective ways to renovate their buildings, balancing immediate factors such as cost and disruption as well as lifetime factors like energy performance and environmental benefit. Our first tool, a decision matrix, provides a quick overview of all options, while more in-depth information is available in the extensive retrofit guide that we are developing.