MONITORING HOME ENERGY IN AUSTIN

A New Enforcer in Buildings, the Energy Inspector
Clifford Krauss, July 17, 2009 (NY Times)

SUMMARY
Houses inspected by Energy Efficiency experts can be expected to save energy and money for the owner for decades.

Austin, Texas, has one of the most demanding building codes in the U.S. and requires such an inspection by a certified energy auditor before any building can be occupied.

Scientists with a global rather than a bedrooms-and-bathrooms perspective report there is no single policy that would have a greater impact on climate change than a national energy efficiency building code standard.

click to enlarge

About half of U.S. states have weak efficiency codes. 7 states have none. This means that in all those places, every new structure adds another new long-term waste of energy and money.

In the absence of strong efficiency codes, builders take a short-sighted approach to cost and use too little insulation, inefficient water heaters, and low quality roofing materials and window panes which reduce the cost of building and buying but increase the cost of living for decades.

A change in policy, coupled with effective enforcement, can reduce a building’s greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs) by 30% without any technology breakthroughs or addition of New Energy generation capacity.

click to enlarge

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the Obama administration stimulus package, included $3 billion in energy programs for states that pledged to institute energy efficiency building codes. The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACESA), passed last month by the House of Representatives and now making its way through the Senate, would require gradually tightening efficiency codes through 2030, with 30% efficiency improvements in states with strong codes and greater improvements where there are not strong codes.

A recent Austin energy audit of an ecologically friendly-looking new house (a pretty yellow house at 3013 Sea Jay Drive) with code-satisfying insulation, a highly efficient tankless water heater and kitchen counter tops made from recycled glass, revealed leaks twice what the code allowed when the air conditioning ducts were tested. The auditors climbed into the attic and found leaks in the duct connectors and around the wires on the air blower. A certificate of occupancy will require rectifying the leaks. If they had not been caught, energy would have been wasted for decades during Austin's long hot summers.

click to enlarge

COMMENTARY
Buildings and appliances account for ~40% of U.S. GhGs.

Leary of the estimated $2,000 per house increased cost that efficiency codes would add, builders and real estate lobbies have traditionally fought them and prevailed. Only in some states (California) and cities (Austin) have environmental considerations won out. The anti-efficiency code lobbyists say new codes will further depress the currently staggering housing market and encourage people to stay in older, inefficient houses rather than move to new ones that, even in the absence of good codes, are marginally more efficient.

In the more progressive regions of the West and Northeast, state, city and community lawmakers are finding support for effective codes. The Building Codes Assistance Project says Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming are among the staunchest opponents of strong efficiency codes.

click to enlarge

Where efficiency codes have been instituted, energy usage has dropped. Available technologies can make new houses 30% more energy efficient.

One expert estimates a national efficient building code could reduce U.S. GhGs 11% by 2030.

Austin Energy, one of the most respected municipal utilities in the U.S., calculates Energy Efficiency upgrades take about 5 years to pay off but continue to save hundreds of dollars per year for the life of the house. In cities where energy is more expensive and codes are weaker than in Austin, the payoff could be faster and the savings greater.

Austin’s energy codes were instituted in 1985 and were designed to become progressively stronger. A typical home has gone from 8.95 kilowatt-hours of energy consumption per square foot to 6.5 kilowatt-hours, a 27% improvement, despite the proliferation of electronics (computers, big screen TVs, microwaves). As a result, Austin Energy was able to scrap plans for a new coal plant.

click to enlarge

In 2008, Austin proposed progressively stronger codes to match newer, already available technologies. It wants new buildings to be 65% more efficient by 2015. The new codes will require reflective heat barriers below roofs, more efficient lighting and windows and better insulation. They will also require homes built from 2015 on to be solar panel-ready and New Energy friendly. They also have strong enforcement provisions, including the requirement for an energy audit certificate of occupancy before a house can go up for sale.

Builders and other tough code opponents simply point out that roof heat barriers for “a typical 2,100-square-foot house” will cost ~$400 and such a house’s 20 windows will cost an extra $20 each to meet the new standard.

California has cut energy use in new houses and commercial buildings 75% since efficiency codes were introduced in the 1970s. In Florida, where efficiency codes were enacted in 1979, a new home is 70% more energy efficient than it was then.

Amory Lovins, the Patron Saint of Energy Efficiency and coiner of the term “negawatts” to quantify energy saved, says if every state had California’s standards, new homes would use 75% less energy.

Austin’s proposed new standard is stronger than the California standard.

click to enlarge

QUOTES
- Hal Harvey, chief executive, ClimateWorks: “If you build a building well, it’s an asset for 100 years; conversely, if you build a shoddy building, it can be a 100-year liability…Energy building codes are the single biggest opportunity to save the environment while saving the consumer money.”
- Ed Mazria, executive director, Architecture 2030: “A national building code is the key for getting our greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption under control…As you begin to level off emissions from buildings, you can begin to phase out coal plants as they age.”

click to enlarge

- Harry Savio, executive vice president, Austin Home Builders Association: “It’s extremely difficult to market and sell efficiency in a new house as an incentive…”
- John Umphress, energy auditor, City of Austin: “The buyer gets a better house…This is why we test…Otherwise we would never catch [things like a hole hidden behind the bathtub, and leaks in the air conditioning ducts] and this house would have been leaking dollars and contributing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for decades, or until the ductwork fell apart.”