I don’t own a single family home, but if I did, I’d probably be hunting for efficiency programs. The good news for homeowners: there are lots of programs and there’s lots of money on the table. The bad news: the number of options and incentives is somewhat bewildering.
In Oregon, for example, a single family home owner might apply for funding for an audit and low interest financing for improvements through the Clean Energy Fund. If improvements qualify, the homeowner can apply for a tax credit as part of the Residential Energy Tax Credit program and she can deduct the cost of the improvements from her state income tax. And there is the possibility, if I am buying a new home, of getting an Energy Efficient Mortgage into which costs for energy improvements can be combined with my monthly payment.
Oh, and I might also qualify for a tax credit on my federal income tax as well totaling 30 percent of the costs of my improvement. All of this is on top of the energy savings I get from the improvements on my utility bill.
All of these options require an audit and an official rating of how energy efficient the home in question is today. Whether it is a new home or one that a homeowner is planning on improving, agencies and lenders want to know which improvements will save the most money over time. Scoring homes has become important, and the quest has been to create the equivalent of the miles per gallon (MPG) measure associated when a person is buying a new car. The idea is to have one number which would encourage manufactures to improve MPG to meet consumer demand for efficiency. The rating is listed on the window of each car on the lot. The idea would be to use the same kind of system for houses—where buyers and lenders could quickly determine a home’s efficiency.
There are two scoring systems that are already in the works, the Energy Performance ScoreHousing Energy Rating Score (HERS) Index. The HERS Index is about 3 years old and is part of the federal government’s Energy Star program. The EPS was developed, in part, by Energy Trust of Oregon and debuted earlier this year. The City of Seattle’s new efficiency initiative will use the EPS system for its rating.
Both these efficiency rating systems rely on the “blower door” test and tests of insulation and leaks in duct work. Both also report a particular rating in comparison to a reference home and each of the ratings goes from high to low with zero being a net zero energy home. EPS lowers the score for power generated on site and the HERS Index does not.
Here is a side by side comparison of the HERS Index and the EPS Certificate.
If I was buying a home or considering efficiencies I would prefer the EPS. It is easier to read, provides monthly and yearly energy costs in dollar figures and it measures a home’s carbon emissions, something the HERS Index does not measure.
Okay, so it’s a lot to consider. But at least there are lots of incentives out there for home efficiency. As a matter of fact, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if I shouldn’t be in the market for a single family home with lots of energy inefficiencies. Between the incentives, tax credits and energy savings, an affordable fixer-upper might just pay for itself.
Have you had an audit using either EPS or HERS as the rating system? Are you planning to make some improvements or are you holding back? We’d love to read about your experiences in the comments.
Paul Birkeland
Roger- I am a HERS certified rater, and expect soon to be teaching EPS scorers. (The EPS methodology is just now being finalized by the ETO.) There is a good deal of confusion on these two systems, as well as the plethora of other certifications out there. They each have their purposes.HERS is a system that was created by the Government (EPA, DOE, and IRS) to facilitate energy efficient mortgages (EEMs). With HERS, a home is analytically compared to a reference home of the same size, geometry, and location. What mattered in the EEM was NOT how energy efficient a home is on an absolute scale, but how energy efficient it is compared to a sort of “baseline building code” home of the same size and shape. The Government did not want to be seen as favoring smaller homes over larger ones. The result is that a 20,000 sq ft home could have the same HERS rating as a 1,000 sq ft condo despite the fact that the condo would obviously use much less energy. This is because the homes are NOT being compared to each other. They are each being compared to a “twin” reference home.The EPS on the other hand, is intended to provide a more absolute comparison between any two homes in the area. This allows people to actually factor energy scores into their decisions on which homes to rent or buy. The different home size, configuration, and features actually end up making a difference in the scores the homes receive.All this being said, let me caution people considering energy audits of some sort. Pretty much anyone can walk through a home and point out where CFLs should replace conventional light bulbs, where some weather stripping should be applied, and how to lower your water heater thermostat. This is great. But the energy savings are small compared those to be gained by air sealing a home, sealing the ducts, and strategic insulation. Unless your energy auditor is using a blower door and duct blaster, you will not be seeing the real potential in your home. It will be like being handed a menu of appetizers rather than meals. A good auditor also knows the dangers of tightening up a home, especially when it comes to combustion appliances like your furnace or stove, and the right way to do it. So don’t be fooled. You get what you pay for.Paul Birkelandpbirkeland(at)IntegratedRenewableEnergy.com
Roger Valdez
Great comments Paul. There were two things I especially appreciated after looking at the many issues affecting retrofits and trying to figure out where to make them, how to measure whether they work and how to pay for them. First,the danger of retrofits being “like being handed a menu of appetizers rather than meals” is the real hazard of programs like Seattle’s where there are lots of audits planned but no sustained effort to complete the work indicated by the audits. Once a person gets handed a list of repairs it may just get filed away with other “someday” projects. “A good auditor also knows the dangers of tightening up a home, especially when it comes to combustion appliances like your furnace or stove, and the right way to do it. So don’t be fooled. You get what you pay for.”This is also a key issue. Being able to pay for the best audit may not be possible for many homeowners and prohibitive for renters.
John Gear
One of the things that all these programs have missed is followup. It’s astonishing to me that you can get Energy Trust dollars and tax credits without having to sign a release that authorizes your utilities to provide your pre- and post-improvement energy consumption data to them so that the effectiveness of the incentives can be determined.What we need is for the PUC/UTC (or the equivalent in other states) to adopt an “opt-out” as the default on energy usage—that is, to keep your energy consumption data private from programs like Energy Trust, you must positively opt-out (such as at signup or whenever you change your mind).AND, it should be a condition of taking any state or federal tax credit or public purpose rebate (Energy Trust) that you authorize the release of all your energy usage data to those entities for effectiveness measurement purposes.We’ve poured a lot of money into energy efficiency updates since 1973 —- but our ability to measure the benefits from that spending is nearly nil.
Tom Balderston
A good discussion from Paul. The statement in the original Article that “EPS lowers the score for power generated on site and the HERS Index does not” is simply wrong. the HERS index certainly takes PV and solar hot water into account. While generally respected for new homes ratings, Current HERS software has been subject to criticism for being inaccurate on existing homes, so expect a number of improved versions out in the next year or so. Some of these problems were inherent in design decisions since the original intent was specific for the mortgage industry. perhaps for a time we can show both scales!Tom BalderstonHERS rater, trainerSeattle
Castle
Thank you for posting this. I find it interesting that state governments are finally making an effort to help homeowners make their family homes more efficient. I also enjoyed your explanation of the HERS rater system. Thanks again.