Vice President Joe Biden and the government's Middle Class Task Force unveiled a report this week that aims to make homes more energy efficient. Dubbed "Recovery Through Retrofit," the report offers suggestions on how to use existing Recovery Act funding to create a home energy efficiency retrofit industry. An ambitious goal, to be sure, but is it plausible?
One of the report's most innovative ideas is the creation of energy performance labels for homes--something akin to the government's ENERGY STAR label for appliances. Before such a label can be used, however, the government has to create a standardized home energy performance measure. That's more difficult than it sounds, as evidenced by recent allegations that the Energy Department doesn't require appliance manufacturers to conduct independent energy efficiency tests. At the same time, the ENERGY STAR label is plagued by critics who say that its standards for efficiency are too low. If a label that has been around since 1992 still deals with these issues, how long will it be until a home energy efficiency label can claim reliability? Such a program will have to be vigorously monitored for quality assurance.
The report's suggestion for comprehensive retrofit workforce certification and training is also promising. Under the Recovery Through Retrofit plan, model training programs and apprenticeships for workers will be developed, and a nationally recognized worker certification standard will be created. In addition to providing new jobs for willing workers, the Recovery Through Retrofit plan could create an industry of retrofit specialists who will always be needed--even after an initial retrofit is completed on a home, maintenance will be necessary.
Whether these ideas ever come to fruition depends on what happens in the government's Energy Retrofit Working Group, an interagency organization that will give Biden a proposal on how to implement the Recovery Through Retrofit plan sometime in the next month. Stay tuned.
[Via Recovery Through Retrofit]
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Recent Comments | 2 Total
October 21, 2009 at 2:55pm by Herbert Reininger
Having lived in Europe and Asia for much of my live, I find the building structure of most US home pathetic. I affectionately call them bird houses, a slight whiff of a storm blows them away. Compared to other parts of the world our homes here are not energy efficient by a long shot. But they are quite expensive nonetheless!
We may need an energy label to raise awareness, but what we need more urgently is a change in consumer behavior, as our demand drives and shapes supply. Let's stop destroying value by buying homes that require TEN times more energy than comparable houses elsewhere, and lets lead the world into a new era of zero footprint housing!
October 22, 2009 at 11:53am by jack hafeli
The government, even with huge sums of money, cannot "create a home energy efficiency retrofit industry"... nor can it create ANY industry, with cash, education and piddling incentives. The government is set up only to make and enforce laws. So, if it is to participate constructively, here is one suggested path:
1- Legislate that all new construction - residential and commercial - include the capacity to self-power. Solar, wind, geothermal... whatever.
2- Legislate that all existing commercial buildings begin to retrofit, with the goal of becoming self-powered in, say, 5 years. Require that the building owners allocate some minimum percentage of annual budgets to this end.
3- Legislate that all residential property owners begin to retrofit, with the goal of becoming self-powered in, say, 10 years.
4- Enforcement should begin immediately, and all retrofitted buildings hook into the existing grid and deliver any excess power.
The legislative mandate will create a viable industry faster than education and meager incentives could, new and commercial construction compliance will create a significant market from the get-go, the demand will push development and bring prices into line for everyone, especially so residential owners can more afford it, and the existing grid can distribute the excess power (presumably at higher prices, further incenting everyone to self-power).