Page 23 - BusinessWest May 11, 2026

Sweater Weather
New UMass Research Could Reduce Home Heating Use
“When you’re
cold, you put on
a sweater, so we
started thinking:
what would you
do if you’re a
building?”
Researchers at UMass Amherst
recently unveiled a tool to combat
climate change, fossil-fuel depen-
dency, skyrocketing home heating bills,
and gentrification all at once — a simple
fabric treated with a photothermal dye
that, when placed on outside walls, can
help keep a home almost 9 degrees
warmer over the course of a day.
“Sometimes, a simple solution works
best,” said Trisha Andrew, professor of
Chemistry at UMass Amherst, and one
of the paper’s senior authors, along with
Carolina Aragón, associate professor of
Landscape Architecture, and Ho-Sung
Kim, senior lecturer in Building and Con-
struction Technology.
“When you’re cold, you put on a
sweater,” Aragón added, “so we started
thinking: what would you do if you’re a
building?”
Heating buildings is a huge driver
of fossil-fuel consumption, greenhouse
gas emissions, and energy insecurity.
More than 33 million homeowners in
the U.S. report trouble keeping their
houses warm, and more than 24 million
people — often renters — report skipping
food or rationing energy in order to pay
for heat. Meanwhile, according to the
U.S. Energy Information Administration,
residential and commercial buildings
account for 39.1% of the primary energy
used in the U.S. Reducing heating costs
also translates into an enormous reduc-
tion in CO2 emissions.
The typical way to address an inef-
ficient home is to tighten it up: new win-
dows and doors, more and better insula-
tion, etc. But renters don’t necessarily
have these options open to them. Worse
is the phenomenon of ‘reno-viction,’
where a landlord upgrades a property
and then raises rents beyond what’s
affordable for current tenants. “Too many
people have to choose whether they heat
or eat,” Aragón said.
But what if keeping a house snug
were as easy and affordable as putting
on a sweater?
Andrew, whose specialties include
inventing high-tech fabrics that can
mimic animals adapted to extreme cold
UMass
Continued on page 24 >>
Trisha Andrew (left) and Carolina Aragón
(second from right) with their research team
members. (Photo by UMass Amherst)
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