Energy Saver Home Loan Program
Massachusetts Community Climate Bank Offers Low-Cost Energy Saver Home Loans!
Massachusetts has a Community Climate Bank (MCCB) affiliated with MassHousing that is dedicated to helping residents and businesses with energy saver projects.
Have you put off energy saver improvements or limited them to small ones because of cost, not knowing what to do, or whom to trust to do the work? The Energy Saver Home Loan Program (ESHLP) may be the answer. It can provide you with guidance and money for projects that will reduce your energy bills and help the state achieve its decarbonization goals.
All the way from conception to installation, projects are managed by professionals (like Abode Energy Management), who truly care about clean energy, energy efficiency, emissions reduction, and safety.
Key Details:
- Loan Limits: $10,000 to $100,000.
- Purpose: Financing major home energy improvements that go beyond standard Mass Save offerings.
- Eligibility: Owner-occupied 1-4 family homes (no condos) for households earning below 135% of Area Median Income (AMI). Use the Income Limits button below for more information.
- Loan Structure: A low-interest, long-term subordinate second mortgage (up to 20 years).
- Benefits: No upfront cash required, allowing use of rebates and incentives to pay down the loan, and low monthly payments.
- Administration: Abode Energy Management handles energy advising, and MassHousing underwrites the loans.
- CET (Center for Eco Technology) serves as a designated Concierge Service Provider (CSP) for the Massachusetts Energy Saver Home Loan Program.
- Free end-to-end support through all aspects of the home improvement process, loan closing and post-construction.
- Identification and coordination of all available incentives, rebates and other credits.
Start Exploring
Click the MCCB logo to go to the MCCB home page. Or, you may want to use one of the shortcut buttons below for a specific interest
Try the Savings Finder to see if you have missed any savings already or what you can save going forward. It also will give you a quick sense of the kind of work covered by the program.
Use the Find ESHLP button to search for contractors that have signed up for ESHLP.
NOTE: It takes you to the Abode Energy contractor search page, as if you were a contractor. You might want to check on contractors you have used or have heard about. The search filters are geared toward energy saver improvements. The contractors listed are attuned to the program.
You can use the SEARCH CONTRACTORS or the INTERACTIVE MAP button. Also, there also is a good list of qualifying energy improvements below the buttons
NOTE: The home page on the Abode website, has a Homeowner button that takes you to information on Mass Save, but does not get you to the search page.
Looking at the success stories will give you a quick idea of the kind of projects you can do with ESHLP.
The ESHLP loans aren’t zero interest, but they are long term (20yr) very low interest (.5% or 2.0%) 2nd mortgage loans stewarded by MassHousing.
The program is geared toward low- and moderate- income residents. Check the income limits to see if you qualify, but even if you don’t qualify for the low interest loan, you can still use the incentives database that the program uses: Massachusetts Energy Savings Finder and the contractor network: ESHL Network – Abode Energy Management.
Typically, if you are screened out, you won’t get the in-home visit by Abode, the energy model, or decarbonization plan. But don’t just bail! If you need help, ask for it.
However, there is another possibility. The Mass Save HEAT 0% Interest Loan, which is stackable with ESHLP loans. It can apply to a variety of energy-efficient upgrades—including insulation, heat pump installations, batteries, and more, but the maximum is a $25,000 0% interest loan. 0% Interest Financing | Residential | Mass Save
Get Sarted Now!
To begin the process with a free consultation, contact the Concierge Service Provider (CSP) for Middlesex County. Center for Eco Technology (CET) is our CSP. It acts as the primary guide for homeowners from initial eligibility screening to project completion.
They help you navigate the loan application process, connect with energy service providers, and secure funding for energy-efficient upgrades.
You may call the phone number below. Or, click the mailto link below to bring up an email addressed to energysaver@cetonline.org. All it needs is a simple subject, like “ESHLP Information Request“, and text such as
Hello, I am a homeowner looking to learn more about the energy saver home loan program. Please email me back to discuss next steps.
Center for Eco Technology (CET)
energysaver@cetonline.org
413-303-0667
What's the Relationship Between Mass Save and ESHLP?
You probably wonder how Mass Save and ESHLP relate to each other. Asking that question to Google returned:
Mass Save and the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank (MCCB) partner on the Energy Saver Home Loan Program (ESHLP) for income-eligible homeowners, offering low-interest loans for upgrades like heat pumps, solar, and weatherization, complementing Mass Save’s general efficiency programs, with MCCB (stewarded by MassHousing) focusing on decarbonization for low-to-moderate-income (LMI) residents who might not qualify for standard Mass Save HEAT Loans, providing a key funding stream for bigger projects.
The maximum loan you can get from the Mass Save HEAT Loan Program is $25,000, available as a 0% interest loan for eligible energy efficiency home improvements, with terms typically up to 7 years (84 months) for owner-occupied properties, though amounts for smaller loans ($2,000 or less) might have shorter terms. Eligibility depends on completing a Mass Save energy assessment, getting contractor quotes, and creditworthiness, with loans available for items like insulation, heat pumps, and ENERGY STAR windows.
ESHLP provides crucial financing for larger upgrades (solar, heat pumps, windows, electrical upgrades, etc.) that go beyond typical Mass Save offerings.
You might start with Mass Save, get an assessment, and then be directed to the ESHLP for financing larger, complementary projects.
Storyline by Tom Amiro
I first heard about the ESHLP program at a Decarbonization event in early December, 2025 at the Follen Church in Lexington, my home town. I’d gone mostly to hear Senator Mike Barrett, but when one of the last speakers, Frank Stone from MCCB, described this relatively new energy saver home loan program, I was jumping for joy. I’d been saying we need such a resource for a long time.
I’ve decarbonized my house on my own. Besides the cost, the biggest difficulty is getting the right contractors, who care about saving energy, clean energy, and reducing carbon emissions at a reasonable cost. For the most part, contractors have a specific expertise. Getting an electrician who knows solar, inverters, and storage batteries is tough.
Solar companies do assembly line type projects. They are good at flush mounted panels on a slanted roof with their favorite inverter, but you are out of luck if you want to do something different. I tried for years go get some additional panels installed on my small flat roof and in my side yard, but the solar companies weren’t interested or would have charged way too much. If I’d know about the Abode contractor search engine, I might have been able to find a company willing to do a small out the ordinary job.
In 2024, I saw a youtube video in the “Now you know” series by the Cataldos of Westford. It described a do-it-yourself install of an Ethos storage battery and a LuxPower Inverter. With that battery and inverter, I could save a lot of money. Adding a backup battery by a solar company is very expensive. Also, I could install solar panels wherever I wanted to and connect them to the Luxpower inverter. It took over a year to do it myself, but now I have a battery backup system and 16 solar panels in addition to the panels previously installed by a solar company (Brightstar Solar of Marlborough) on my main roof.
I’m glad I did it, but wouldn’t recommend DIY solar to others, because of all the work getting the permits from the town and the electric company. I got a local electrician to do the connections between the inverter and the electrical panels. But it was very difficult to get an electrician who knew enough about the interconnection with the grid to ensure my newly added power could be exported safely. I wondered if I could find a contractor through MCCB’s search mechanism who could help me verify my DIY system was good or needed some upgrading.
Here is a link to one of the recommended contractors that I found.
https://ecosavehomesolutions.com/about-us/
Almost immediately an employee came right out to my house and looked inside my electric panel without charging me anything and actually didn’t think I needed to upgrade anything. He said I already had a supply-side tap, which I knew was needed (but didn’t know I already had) to export more power to the grid with my new self-installed solar panels. Obviously they aren’t trying to upsell.
I’ve had solar for over 10 years and have tried very hard to convince others to install solar at their homes and have heard many reasons for balking. Of course the initial cost (when you own the panels) is a big hurdle. So when I heard about the Mass Community Climate Bank, it was an answer to my prayers.
You don’t just get a loan, but in the process you get a free consultation for your overall project to improve your home’s energy efficiency, and you get someone to manage the whole project that is committed to decarbonization rather than profit and is expert in energy related improvements. Finally, you get connected to a network of contractors who have the skills and inclination to get us off fossil fuels!
Here’s a link to the page for some Energy Saver Home Loan contractors near Chelmsford that have expertise in
Storage Batteries, Solar, and Electrical Upgrade
Click the Submit button after the page loads. Then you will see included in the list returned EcoSave Home Solutions