Feds Make Recommendations to Jumpstart Home Retrofit Industry

On October 19, Vice President Joe Biden and the White House’s Middle Class Task Force released a report highlighting federal strategies to encourage more Americans to retrofit their existing houses to become more energy efficient , thus saving consumers money and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change . “Existing techniques and technologies in energy efficiency retrofitting can reduce home energy use by up to 40 percent per home and lower associated greenhouse gas emissions by up to 160 million metric tons annually by the year 2020,” states the Recovery through Retrofit Report , which was produced by the Office of the Vice President and 17 other federal agencies and offices. “Furthermore, home energy efficiency retrofits have the potential to reduce home energy bills by $21 billion annually, paying for themselves over time.” The report makes policy recommendations to overcome three main barriers to household retrofits: access to information, access to financing, and access to skilled workers.

First, the report recommends that the federal government extend the ENERGY STAR label to retrofitted existing buildings. ENERGY STAR labels are currently used to measure the energy performance for appliances and new buildings. In order to create this label for existing buildings, a standard measurement system would need to be developed to measure the energy performance of existing houses in America. These measures would give homeowners and homebuyers more reliable information about the energy efficiency of their homes.

Second, new financing tools provide incentives for households to undertake retrofits by allowing the costs of retrofits to be paid off in annual installments as part of municipal property tax bills. This addresses owners’ concerns about recovering the costs when the property is sold, because the retrofits would be linked to the property, not the owner. Another option is to expand and improve energy efficient mortgages, to ensure that the value of the retrofit is recognized in the appraisal and to help standardize measures of energy performance. Finally, the report states that federal government should encourage states to adopt state revolving loan funds, which allow homeowners to borrow from private firms at lower interest rates for retrofit projects. These loans are currently available in only 16 states.

The third barrier, access to skilled workers, can be overcome through standardized certification programs and national energy performance standards. Federal agencies such as the Department of Labor, Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) should collaborate to develop consistent training and certification programs. High national standards for energy efficiency will motivate training programs to specifically address energy performance in buildings. A steady supply of skilled workers will increase consumer confidence that retrofits will be done properly.

“These recommendations can pave the way for a self-sustaining retrofit market, a market that can reliably cut energy bills while also creating good green jobs and saving consumers money,” says the report. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5) has created an excellent opportunity to fund these suggested programs, as $80 billion in stimulus money is designated for energy and the environment, with an emphasis on energy efficient buildings .

Energy efficient buildings also have been the focus of two recent Congressional briefings hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI). On October 7 , EESI partnered with the Swiss Embassy to highlight the success of the MINERGIE energy performance standard in significantly reducing building energy use, operating bills, and greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland. On October 14 , DOE's Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Cathy Zoi joined several other experts to discuss the innovative building technologies and designs available today that can be used in combination to create zero net-energy homes. Currently, buildings account for approximately 40 percent of American energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.