Solar, Heat Pumps & Roofing in Coventry, CT

Local Home Electrification

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

Coventry sits in Tolland County between the Hop River on the west and the Willimantic River on the east, and it is built around Coventry Lake, a 378-acre lake with five miles of shoreline also known as Lake Wangumbaug. South Coventry Village, the nineteenth-century mill village along Mill Brook, is the traditional downtown, North Coventry Village grew up around Routes 44 and 31, and about a quarter of the town's residents live around the lakes.

Many lake homes started as seasonal cottages that were converted to year-round use, often on lots of five thousand square feet or less, and the town's own plan notes those conversions brought inadequate heating along with overused wells and septic. Overall the housing is older than most of our Tolland County towns, with a median year built of 1966 and about 45 percent of homes built before 1960.

Heating is mostly oil. Census figures show about 61 percent of Coventry homes burn fuel oil and another 14 percent propane, against under 3 percent on utility gas, because Connecticut Natural Gas built only a single 3.6-mile main in 2017, from the Mansfield line along Route 44 and Main Street, offered to about 65 homes. Water comes from a patchwork of small Connecticut Water systems such as Coventry Hills and Pilgrim Hills, with many other homes on private wells.

What Makes Coventry Projects Different

• Coventry zoning states that yard setback requirements do not apply to generators, utility transformers or propane tanks, which gives real flexibility on tight Coventry Lake lots.
• The lake sewer system grew out of a 1971 state order citing pollution at Waterfront Manor and Lakeview Terrace, was built from 1982 to 1987 and expanded in 2008 to about 1,000 properties, and North Coventry still has no sewers.
• The South Coventry Historic District is a National Register listing only, and the town's plan notes that village homes have no formal preservation controls, so homeowners in South Coventry Village need no certificate of appropriateness for solar or a roof.
• Ground-mounted solar goes through wetlands and Water Pollution Control Authority review with a plot plan showing wetlands, septic or sewer and well lines, plus Eastern Highlands Health District review where a well or septic system is involved, which matters on Pine Lake Shores and other lake lots.

Permits & Interconnection in Coventry

Coventry permits come from the Building Department in Town Hall at 1712 Main Street, open Monday through Wednesday 8:30 to 4:30, Thursday until 6:30 and Friday until 1:30, and all permits are filed online, so allow a day or two for callbacks. Roof-mounted solar takes an electrical permit with zoning and building review and a stamped engineered plan that also shows any batteries. Ground mounts add wetlands and WPCA review, and septic and well review goes through the Eastern Highlands Health District.