Solar, Heat Pumps & Roofing in Andover, CT

Local Home Electrification

Solar & Heat Pump Installation in Andover, Tolland County and All Communities

Andover is a small Tolland County town of about 3,100 people with no town water and no town sewer. Nearly every home runs on its own well and septic system, apart from three tiny community systems that together serve about ninety residents, so an outage here means no water as well as no heat. Piped gas does not reach Andover, though Connecticut Natural Gas serves neighboring Bolton, Coventry and Hebron.

Census figures show about 70 percent of Andover homes burn fuel oil and another 11 percent propane, with under one percent on utility gas. The housing runs older than most of our Tolland County towns: about 21 percent was built before 1940, much of it around Andover Center, where a National Register district covers roughly 270 acres along Hebron Road, Center Street, Boston Hill Road and Cider Mill Road.

Andover Lake shapes the other side of town. The 159-acre lake was created in 1927, is privately owned and managed by two associations, and many of its summer cottages have been converted to year-round homes. Converting a seasonal lake home to year-round use requires meeting full year-round lot standards and installing a complete septic system, and the lake watershed overlays add runoff and impervious surface limits.

What Makes Andover Projects Different

• Andover has no town water or sewer, and state records show only three small community water systems serving about ninety residents, so close to every home in Andover Center, along the Route 6 Corridor and around Andover Lake depends on its own well pump.
• Ground-mounted solar is allowed by administrative review in the main residential district but needs a special permit inside the Andover Lake district, can stand up to twenty feet tall, must stay out of required setbacks, and does not count against lot coverage.
• The Andover Center Historic District is a National Register listing only, and the town has no historic district commission, so homes along Boston Hill Road and Center Street need no certificate of appropriateness for solar or a new roof.
• In the outer Andover Lake watershed zone, adding more than three hundred square feet of impervious surface within ten years requires a zoning permit, and a generator pad, patio or ground mount near the lake counts toward that total.

Permits & Interconnection in Andover

Andover's Building and Land Use Department works from the lower level of the town offices at 17 School Road and keeps short hours, Monday through Thursday 8:15 to 1:15 and closed Friday, so we schedule submittals around them. Septic and well review, including the full septic system required for an Andover Lake conversion, goes through the Eastern Highlands Health District. Roof-mounted solar is exempt from zoning setbacks, and ground mounts follow the district rules for setbacks and height.