Solar, Heat Pumps & Roofing in Tolland, CT

Local Home Electrification

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

Tolland sits along Interstate 84 and grew fast after 1960. It had about 905 housing units that year and more than 5,500 today, with the biggest single decade of building in the 1960s, so outside the older homes around Tolland Green, the typical house is a colonial, raised ranch or cape on a sizable lot. About ninety percent are detached single-family homes and about ninety-one percent are owner-occupied.

It is also one of the heaviest heating oil towns we serve. Census figures show about 74 percent of occupied Tolland homes burn fuel oil, another 9 percent burn propane and only about 1 percent use utility gas, even though Yankee Gas is the town's listed gas company. For most homes the heat pump comparison is against a delivered oil bill, which is where the savings and the Energize CT Energy Optimization rebate count most.

Most of Tolland runs on private wells and septic. Public sewer was extended along the Route 195 Corridor in 2004 and 2005, sending wastewater to the Vernon treatment plant, and the town-owned Main System serves about 440 water customers from two wells on South River Road. Everywhere else, an outage stops the well pump, and Tolland has a record of long ones: about two-thirds of the town was still without power two days after Tropical Storm Isaias hit in 2020.

What Makes Tolland Projects Different

• The Tolland Green Historic District is a local regulatory district, so exterior changes visible from the street on properties around the Green need a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic District Commission, though the commission cannot deny a solar system unless it cannot be installed without substantially impairing the district.
• Tolland's building office spells out a useful generator rule: a unit within ten feet of the foundation on a non-permanent pad needs only an electrical permit, while one farther out or on a concrete pad adds a twenty-five dollar zoning permit and fifteen foot side and rear setbacks, whether the home is near Tolland Green or out by Shenipsit Lake.
• Public sewer and water are concentrated along the Route 195 Corridor, where sewer built in 2004 and 2005 sends wastewater to Vernon's treatment plant, and most homes beyond it rely on private wells and septic reviewed by the Eastern Highlands Health District.
• After the October 2011 nor'easter about 22 percent of Tolland was still without power nine days later, and Tropical Storm Irene that August had already taken out most of the town, which makes standby power a practical decision from Skungamaug to the Tolland Village Area.

Permits & Interconnection in Tolland

Tolland's Building Department is on the third level of the Hicks Memorial Municipal Center at 21 Tolland Green, open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 8 to 4:30 and Tuesday until 7:30, and closed Fridays. Roof-mounted solar takes building and electrical permits plus a structural engineer's letter, with a zoning permit only if panels sit more than six inches off the roof. Ground-mounted arrays need a health review through the Eastern Highlands Health District when the home is on septic, a zoning permit, a site plan showing septic and well, and a wetlands permit within fifty feet of wetland soils or a hundred feet of a watercourse.