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Star Homes: Retrofitting American Housing

Lynn Kirshbaum

Retrofitting homes and improving weatherization is a strategy that benefits not only the global environment as a whole, but also the local environment and economy, as well as individual households. There are numerous opportunities for retrofitting within most households, and the Home Star Retrofit Rebate Program that passed the House of Representatives in late March further incentivizes home improvements that have multiple benefits.

Choosing appliances with low energy consumption has been a major component of reducing a home’s energy usage since the US’s Energy Star labeling program began in 1992. Since then, however, many other methods for reducing energy consumption have become popular, and can be achieved at a relatively low cost. Plugging air leaks with weather stripping and caulking improves the efficiency of heating and cooling systems, as do programmable thermostats. Households can also reduce water usage by installing aerators and low-flow showerheads, faucets, and toilets. Installing solar panels, geothermal wells, or wind turbines can also help a household reduce the amount of energy it draws from an electric grid, and can even allow the household to sell unneeded energy back into the power grid.

Reduction in energy use is the most obvious benefit of retrofitting homes. Each of the methods mentioned above reduces the amount of energy required by an individual household, and would therefore reduce the household’s energy costs. The environment also benefits from reduced energy usage. The United States relies heavily on the burning of coal at large power plants to meet our electricity needs, which emits methane, CO2, nitrates, SO2, and particulate matter. Reducing the amount of energy demanded at the household level can help the United States to further reduce its emissions of such harmful substances.

Another benefit of home retrofitting is improved health. Retrofitted homes are better able to stay warm in winter months and cool in summer months, improving the health and wellbeing of residents and decreasing the financial burden of health care. Recent studies have provided increasing evidence on the specific health risks and costs of a cold, damp and moldy indoor environment, as well as the health risks associated with low indoor temperatures during winter and high temperatures in summer (i). While retrofitting provides these benefits immediately, it also has long-term positive externalities for health and wellbeing.

The economic benefits to individual households from retrofitting are significant. A 2006 study of the 1976 national Weatherization Assistance Program found that the total estimate for non-energy benefits in all categories associated with weatherizing a home is $3,346 in 2001 dollars (ii). While these savings are significant, the cost of implementing changes has caused consumers to be wary of weatherization and retrofitting. The Home Star Retrofit Rebate Program, also known as “Cash for Caulkers,” hopes to rectify this gap by further incentivizing home retrofits.

This legislation, passed by the US House of Representatives on March 25, 2010, is proposed “to create jobs in existing industries by providing strong short-term incentives for energy efficiency improvements in residential buildings (iii).” This initiative would establish a $6 million rebate program to encourage immediate investment in energy-efficient appliances, building mechanical systems and insulation, and whole-home energy efficiency retrofits (iii). Home Star provides two types of consumer incentives: the Silver Star prescriptive path, and the Gold Star performance path.

The Silver Star path “provides a near-term incentive for specific energy savings investments that is simple to administer and easily introduced into the existing marketplace (iii).” Homeowners would receive between $1,000 and $1,500 for each measure installed in their home, or $250 per appliance, with a benefit not exceeding $3,000 or at least 50% of total project costs (iii). Covered measures include air sealing, attic wall and crawl space insulation, duct sealing or replacement, and the replacement of existing windows and doors, furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, water heaters, and appliances with high-efficiency models. Any appropriately licensed and insured contractor may implement such improvements (iii).

The Gold Star path “offers an incentive to households that choose to conduct a comprehensive energy audit and then implement a variety of measures that are designed together to provide greater total returns in energy savings (iii).” This performance path represents the future of home efficiency: state-of-the-art building science is used to identify problems, present solutions and deliver verifiable energy savings (iii). This is a technology-neutral approach that is based on performance, not products, so that market forces are able to direct funds to those solutions that achieve the best results. Under this path, consumers would receive $3,000 for modeled savings of 20% plus an additional $1,000 incentive for each additional 5% of modeled energy savings, with incentives not to exceed 50% of project costs (iii).

These measures will improve the energy efficiency of the United States, reduce the country’s demand for oil, and provide skilled jobs for American workers. This program focuses on domestic job growth and, if implemented, would create jobs throughout the country and across various sectors.

Retrofitting homes is an immediate, individual level action that will help to reduce the nation’s carbon emissions while providing co-benefits at the local and household level. While the passage of the Home Star bill would further incentivize individuals to retrofit their homes, the economic benefits are such that households need not wait for the bill to pass the Senate to implement such changes.

References

i. R. Chapman, et.al., “Retrofitting houses with insulation,” p. 271

ii. Martin Schweitzer and Bruce Tonn, “Non-energy benefits of the US Weatherization Assistance Program: a summary of their scope and magnitude,” Applied Energy, (2006) p. 333

iii. Home Star Coalition, “The HOME STAR Initiative to Retrofit America’s Housing for Good Jobs and Energy Efficiency,” PDF.

SPRING 2010 Climate Alert

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