How to Explain Licensed Professionals Role in Residential Energy Efficiency Upgrades?

Hi Mary Ann, Interesting – and important – questions. One big challenge is figuring out how to provide professional input and guidance when the residential market might be described as millions of penny-pinching special snowflakes… Here are a few anecdotal case studies from residential program offerings in Portland, Ore in the past decade: Two different approaches to professional oversight and a third product-driven approach: 1. In 2009, a pilot program called Clean Energy Works Portland offered low-interest loans and oversight for residential energy upgrades, financed with “on-bill” re-payment thru utility bills. We replaced an old furnace and water heater and got air-sealing and blown-in insulation for a 1916 house. Administered by the Energy Trust of Oregon, we had an ETO-approved contractor do the work with oversight by ETO program staff. The oversight included approval of the measures for cost-effectiveness, blower-door testing (went from 12 Air Changes per Hour to 5.1 ACH), and thermal imaging during insulation to ensure better coverage and filling of stud & rafter bays. Loan came from an atypical bank that was willing to take second position since payment was bundled with utility bills. Repayment is included on our monthly gas bill. Due to the utility involvement, fuel switching was not allowed – we could not switch our primary heating from a gas furnace to an electric heat pump (Grr...). The program was successful and expanded state-wide. The Energy Trust of Oregon is a fairly unique entity – it’s an independent nonprofit promoting energy efficiency that is financed by a surcharge paid by rate-payers to utility companies. Not long after the New Yorker article about The Earthquake That Will Devastate the Pacific Northwest, we joined the mob of homeowners looking for a seismic retrofit. We hired a local company that was providing reinforcement of basement cripple walls and anchoring to the foundation. They had partnered with a structural engineer who recommended a simplified method for calculating the number and spacing of spacing of hold-downs based on sf, house shape and number of stories, and used a prescriptive approach to cripple wall bracing. We had to wait 6 months for the installation, but it was done well and reasonably priced. There were no incentives or involvement of a utility, an insurance company, or any other entity. Give us a call if the Big One happens and we’ll let you know how we are doing… By comparison, we sat thru a pitch from a window-replacement company that was offering to replace our wood windows with vinyl, and would Guarantee We’d Save Big Bucks on Our Utility Bills Or They Would Refund…. I don’t remember exactly. We passed on that offer. These are two examples of professional input and oversight that wasn’t from a product manufacturer, doesn’t involve hiring a licensed architect or engineer directly, and provided reasonably impartial and good quality guidance. One was initiated by a utility-funded program at the state level, that has the resources to provide technical expertise, but required a fairly innovative collaboration between utilities, incentive programs, banks, and state agencies to get off the ground. The second was enterprising contractor at the local level who we judged to be reliable and technically sound. The utility program had some string attached – like no fuel switching, and the seismic contractor’s approach wouldn’t be appropriate for all houses and is relatively unregulated. The better examples have embedded the input of technical/ design professionals into a process that was already established to deliver services to the market. I think the challenge is balancing the amount of professional input and oversight with the economies of scale and delivery, marketing effectively (scary articles and one-stop shopping might help), and negotiating the politics of regulation... From: Mary Ann Lazarus

Hi Mary Ann, I think it’s a timing thing. When remodels are planned, being financed, exterior walls are perhaps being opened up, the homeowner may be leaving for a few months or at least ok with construction noise…this is the best and nearly only time to upgrade the envelope, and a good time to reconsider equipment and ductwork layout as well. Most architects are not going to run an energy model and tell you that this improvement will save you $XX (unless we provide resources to them!) but the timing thing is key to getting access to homes for consideration. Plus, architects are great at talking to homeowners about the impacts of upgrades in plain terms. -Kjell Fro

Hi Mary Ann, I think it’s a timing thing. When remodels are planned, being financed, exterior walls are perhaps being opened up, the homeowner may be leaving for a few months or at least ok with construction noise…this is the best and nearly only time to upgrade the envelope, and a good time to reconsider equipment and ductwork layout as well. Most architects are not going to run an energy model and tell you that this improvement will save you $XX (unless we provide resources to them!) but the timing thing is key to getting access to homes for consideration. Plus, architects are great at talking to homeowners about the impacts of upgrades in plain terms. -Kjell Fro

I echo what David said. For residential upgrades (energy, water, seismic) I don't think there much of an argument to be made for bringing in an architect. We are working on block scale energy upgrade, electrification and microgrid of a residential block in Oakland, and I have to say that the bulk of the decisions are being made by the contractor and the energy efficiency company. We had early design input and if anything weird is encountered during construction, we'll help sort it out, but they are mostly leading the process To keep it affordable and fast you want a streamlined permitting process that can take advantage of over the counter trade permits for the upgrades. When an architect is involved the City usually wants to see full plans and calcs. If we start doing this at scale maybe the role of engineers and architects could be to help homeowner evaluate proposals from contractors, set design/build performance parameters and maybe review shop drawing and submittals but that might be too much. Let the trades lead the process for simple upgrades. Larry