Upper Valley Upgrades: Nifty New Tool for Hanover Homeowners
As a capstone project for their final year at Dartmouth and under the auspices of faculty advisor Erin Mayfield, engineering students Aidan Curtis, Liz Kendrick, Ian Moore, and Ryan Proulx spent the fall ’25 and winter ‘26 terms creating a web-based tool to help Hanover residents make their homes more energy efficient. Called “Upper Valley Upgrades,” this interactive tool integrates building energy simulation data, clustering and matching algorithms, and a multi-criteria decision model to produce ranked retrofit options tailored to a user’s home and stated priorities. It also connects homeowners with local contractors for follow-through.
Upper Valley Upgrades” takes a homeowner through three pages:
Welcome page — brief description and a Get Started button.
Questionnaire — the homeowner enters square footage, year built, energy consumption, electricity use, utility bill, and their priorities.
Results page — the tool displays the five best retrofit options for that home, each with a description and contact information for local contractors. A downloadable PDF summary is also generated.
Behind the scenes, two algorithms run when the user clicks 'See Results':
An algorithm matches the user's home to the five most similar homes in the ResStock dataset (1,209 New Hampshire single-family homes).
A scoring model ranks 23 retrofit pathways by calculating a weighted score based on percent reductions in energy consumption, carbon emissions, and utility bills — weighted by the user's stated priorities.
“Upper Valley Upgrades” aligns with the Town’s Ready for 100 goals: 100% renewable electricity by 2030 followed by heating, cooling, and transportation by 2050. Many Hanover homes predate modern energy standards, leading to high emissions and costs. While owners are often motivated to upgrade their homes, identifying viable retrofits and navigating contractor options can be daunting. This tool facilitates that process. Sustainable Hanover hopes to test this tool on its website in the very near future. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, Sustainable Hanover extends to Aidan, Liz, Ian and Ryan its heartfelt gratitude for their incredible work and best wishes for success in all their future endeavors. Bravo!
