CHS Field Hockey Coach Goes All-Electric FTW!
The Hicks Family
Kathleen Druzba Hicks was thrilled to hear about the opportunity to switch her Albemarle home from propane to electricity with our LEAP/C3 electrification project. This mom of two daughters and a sweet boxer puppy named Phoebe recently moved back to Charlottesville from South Carolina to be closer to family. After living at Lakeside apartments, she bought a 1972 home in Ivy and is remodeling herself. As a single-mom, Charlottesville High School P.E. Teacher, and head coach for CHS varsity field hockey team, Kathleen Druzba Hicks didn’t want to get blindsided in the winter months by high utility bills.
“The heating system was original to the home, super inefficient, and felt unsafe,” she told me. “And they warned us of the utility bills. Our first winter we were really cold,” she said before the new system was installed. The furnace really wasn’t doing the job and the smell.
“It’s rustic, but not in the good sense,” she explained to me. “It literally smelled rusty.” They were also running space heaters just to keep up.
That’s why she jumped at the chance to be a part of the fuelswitching initiative. Immediately after the equipment installation and the insulation, they could tell a difference. The new heating/cooling system has a SEER rating of 18, and the additional 10” of insulation raised the R value to 49 (R-value is a measure of how well a two-dimensional barrier, such as a layer of insulation, a window or a complete wall or ceiling, resists the conductive flow of heat and therefore the higher the R value the more efficient your home).
Before: Fuel Oil tank
After: Electric Heating/Cooling System.
“It’s been great and we are super grateful.” She and her adult daughter living there now, but she’s also had her sophomore daughter home from college during COVID. “We have 6 out of 7 family members living here in Charlottesville, so it’s nice to be close to them now.” Her parents retired here and are 80 and 85.
They couldn’t be happier with the new system. “Right girls?” and her two daughters vehemently nod. She offered to share her story with anyone else interested in going electric. In the meantime, don’t be surprised if you find her tearing down another wall or painting the kitchen cabinets with a fresh coat of no-VOC paint!