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February 12, 2018 - Washington DC – Today, President Trump released his budget for fiscal year (FY) 2019, which includes a significant cut in funding for residential energy efficiency programs at the Department of Energy (DOE). The Weatherization Assistance Program, Energy STAR and the State Energy Program are zeroed out completely in the President’s budget. [continue reading]
Thousands of energy models for newly constructed single family homes is a treasure trove of information if you’re like me and have a zealous obsession with cutting kilowatt-hours. As the utility company, we pay monetary incentives to builders that construct homes above an energy baseline, which in 2017 was a mixture of codes and measures from 2009 and 2015 IECC, with the overall goal of cutting peak demand and electricity consumption. The one overarching theme after ... [continue reading]
On January 29, 2018, the Home Performance Coalition submitted comments on four Illinois investor owned utilities’ energy efficiency plans. Comments on the Ameren Illinois, ComEd, Nicor Gas and Peoples Gas Plans were submitted through the Illinois Energy Efficiency Stakeholder Advisory Group which reports its evaluations to the Illinois Commerce Commission. [continue reading]
The National Home Performance Conference is where home performance and weatherization professionals gather to hear what’s new in the industry, learning from a diverse group of presenters, discussing cutting edge content and advanced building science techniques for experienced attendees. But at the heart of the conference is providing education that lays a solid groundwork for those new to the industry, office staff, or those who just need a refresher in important industry topics. [continue reading]
Last fall, a group of Maryland contractors hit the Hill to meet with legislators and their staff. Our goal was simple – to educate lawmakers on what we do and why it matters, and explain what types of policies can help our businesses grow. One meeting we had turned out to be particularly important, and that was our meeting with Senator Van Hollen (D-MD). [continue reading]
When I woke up Saturday morning, the temperature outdoors was -40 degrees†. The wind chill was -100 degrees! It was just unbelievably, impossibly, inhumanly cold outside. Fortunately, that was on a mountaintop in New Hampshire and not where I was. I happened to have woken up on a mountaintop in North Carolina, where the temperature was a much warmer -3° F. [continue reading]
I am always impressed with the work of Susan Shelton and the Shelton Group. So an email message with the subject line from her office, “Age, religion & environmental messaging: what works?” immediately caught my attention. [continue reading]
This year’s hurricane season is the most expensive on record, with $202.6 billion in damages according to Bloomberg. These storms across the Atlantic had devastating impacts on people’s lives and homes, on communities, and on infrastructure in the hardest-hit areas. [continue reading]
A 2015 study, “Impacts of global warming on residential heating and cooling degree-days in the United States,” comparing heating degree-days (HDD), cooling degree-days (CDD), and HDD + CDD across the United States during the historical period 1981–2010 and the future period 2080–2099 predicts that New York City weather will become more like today’s Oklahoma City weather and Seattle’s will become more like present day San Jose’s weather. In general, ... [continue reading]
“Why do you need to cool and heat the whole building? Why don’t you cool and heat individual people?” asked Yi Cui, professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford University. [continue reading]
