That’s what he said.  I asked him to check his numbers.  Yes, that’s the estimate – 8,000 gallons of oil per year.  It will require a two thousand gallon tank. To double check, I contacted the Town of Merrimack, MA and inquired about the heating bills for their nearly identical and similarly restored building.  Their gas bills validated the estimate.  That was at the Town Hall Restoration Committee in 2007.  Nobody seemed concerned at all with the number.  At today’s prices, the total annual energy bill would be greater than $40,000.

The problem was that the plan didn’t specify any insulation for the walls, windows would not be replaced, and the ventilation system was overdone so that it would continuously blow hot air out of every crack and hole in those old uninsulated walls.

Last week, one of the Selectmen thought I should be happy that after four years of my pointing out the problem, they finally spent $15,000 to have Building Science Corporation look at the plans and show how it could be sealed, insulated, and efficiently heated.  My only question is why wasn’t anyone else as concerned about it?