Texas Bill Regulating Energy Auditing Work Public comments accepted until March 26 hearing held in Austin   Texas, March 21, 2013 - Texas Senate's Committee on Business and Commerce held a hearing on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 on legislation that would regulate and narrowly restrict the definition of Energy Efficiency Professionals. Texas Senate Bill 617 and companion House Bill 1522 would require that energy auditors be licensed as HVAC contractors if they include HVAC equipment in their audit inspections, recommendations and reports.  The sponsoring Senator's office indicates virtually no objections have been raised to this legislation.  Minutes from yesterday's meeting may be found at the website for Senate Committee Meetings for Business and Commerce. Under the proposed legislation, state-licensed Energy Efficiency Professionals would be required to "obtain a certification through an applicable training and certification program accredited by a state or national regulating body". BPI certifications would not be recognized as an applicable HVAC certification program under the current wording of the legislation, effectively barring BPI certified professionals from conducting energy audits and developing scopes of work for energy upgrades that include HVAC measures, unless also licensed as an HVAC contractor. These bills have been developed with assistance by Texas HERO and ACCA Texas. To read the two bills, click on the hyperlinks below. Senate Bill SB 617 Sponsored by Senator John J. Carona: District 16 http://www.carona.senate.state.tx.us/ House Bill HB 1522 Sponsored by Representative Ryan Guillen (D) http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/?district=31 If you have comments or suggested language changes you would like to submit to this open, consensus-based process, the committee requests you submit them by CLOSE OF BUSINESS, Thursday, March 21, 2013 to: Kelsey Erickson: Kelsey.Erickson_SC@senate.state.tx.us or  Katy Johnson: Katy.Johnson@house.state.tx.us  The Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce will hold its next meeting next week to hear stakeholders express their views.  BPI certified professionals or others who may wish to educate bill sponsors about or encourage bill sponsors to accept verifiable skills associated with national standards and professional personnel certifications relying on rigorous written and practical field exams may wish to attend.  Texan BPI certified professionals may also wish to immediately contact their local House and Senate Bill sponsors (see links below) as well as their federal representatives to express their views. Senator Carona acknowledges "that language of the file version of the bill needs a little work, (and is) asking all stakeholders to work with committee staff in the coming week, that is week singular, to reserve any outstanding issues so that we can lay out a committee substitute for the next meeting". Public Hearing: Texas SB617 Senate Committee on Business and Commerce Tuesday, March 26 - 8:00 AM Central Texas Senate Capitol Extension  201 E. 14th St. Room E1.016 (Hearing Room) Austin, TX    Find your Texas House Representative Find your Texas State Senator Find your federal Texas Congress People Senators Representatives Members of the Committee on Business and Commerce (CBC Webpage) include: Sen. John Carona Sen. Larry Taylor Sen. Kevin Eltife Sen. Craig Estes Sen. Kelly Hancock Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. Sen. Leticia Van de Putte Sen. Kirk Watson Sen. John Whitmire    Sincerely,   Larry Zarker Chief Executive Officer Building Performance Institute, Inc. 107 Hermes Road, Suite 110 Malta, NY 12020 Phone: (877) 274-1274 Fax: (866) 777-1274 lzarker@bpi.org www.bpi.org    You are encouraged to:

BPI Introduces New Renewal Policy for Certified Home Performance Professionals 

Malta, NY, March 4, 2013 - Today BPI announced a new certification renewal policy that recognizes the work experience of BPI certified professionals. The new policy eliminates field exam requirements in certain circumstances according to verified work experience. This change will benefit those professionals who maintain continuous certification and remain active in home performance roles.

   

The renewal policy outlined below applies only to those certified professionals who maintain continuous certification. However, BPI is allowing a one-time exception for those individuals whose certifications have expired no more than six months before this policy is enacted (that is, going back to August 28, 2012). All eligible individuals whose certification expires after August 28, 2012 and before April 15, 2013 have until April 15, 2013 to apply for certification renewal under these new rules. (If exams are required based on the new policy, they must be taken by June 15, 2013.) After April 15, 2013, all individuals who wish to renew under this policy must do so before their certification expires; otherwise, they must retake the relevant written and field exams for each certification they wish to renew. 

Tell Your Customers: Consumer Tax Credit Extended

Malta, NY, January 9, 2013 -  We know home performance can be a tough sell. But thanks to Congress' last-minute deal to avert the "fiscal cliff," a $500 tax credit for your customers will make it just a bit easier for you to make your own deal. Take a moment to educate your customers on the importance of these upgrades, and the limited time in which they have to redeem the tax credit. This is an opportunity for you to grow your relationship with your customers, and for your customers to save money on improvements that will make their homes safer and more comfortable places to live.  

 

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 passed by Congress on January 3, 2013, provides extensions of energy tax credit provisions that benefit homeowners seeking energy-efficiency improvements. Under section 25C, homeowners can claim a $500 maximum tax credit to cover material costs of energy-efficient upgrades to existing homes for all taxable years. The credit is only redeemable if the upgrades are in place by the end of 2013.  

 

If a taxpayer has claimed $500 or more of this tax credit in any year prior to 2013, they may not claim any additional credit. For those that remain eligible, the tax credit can be applied to any of the following upgrades:

• Insulation - Additional insulation to walls, ceilings, or other part of the building envelope that meets the 2009 IECC (& supplements) specifications.
• Windows - 10% of material cost, up to $200 for replacement windows and skylights, and exterior doors that meet EnergyStar requirements.
• Windows must be equal to or below a 0.30 U factor and a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) of 0.30. Storm windows that meet the IECC in combination with their paired external window are eligible (taking into account the applicable climate zone). Storm doors paired with U-factor rated wood doors are eligible provided they do not exceed the default U-factor requirement for the combination. See the 2009 IECC for details.
• Window Films -The product must meet the requirements of a "qualifying insulation system" and be manufacturer certified.
• Home Sealing - Sealing cracks in the building shell and ducts to reduce infiltration and heat loss in a manner consistent with the 2009 IECC.
• Electric Heat Pump - Must yield an energy factor of at least 2.0 in the standard Department of Energy test procedure,
• Natural Gas & Propane Furnaces - Credit of up to $150 for furnaces that meet an Annual Fuel Use Efficiency (AFUE) 95 or higher. Oil furnaces and gas, oil and propane boilers must meet an AFUE of 90 or better.
• Central air Conditioning Units and Air-Source Heat Pumps - Credit of up to $300 for units that meet the highest tier standards set by the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) as of February 17, 2009, which in most cases requires a Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) of 16.
• Natural Gas, Propane, or Oil Water Heaters - Must have an energy factor of at least 0.82 or thermal efficiency of at least 90 percent.
• Biomass Fuel Property - A stove that burns biomass fuel to heat a dwelling unit located in the United States and used as a principal residence by the taxpayer; or to heat water for said dwelling unit, and must have a thermal efficiency rating of at least 75 percent.

Happy New Year

Well now that 2012 is behind us and 2013 has officially begun, the official changes to ASHRAE 62-10-2010 have been delayed and the new changes for ASHRAE 62-10-2013 are waiting for release. Have a great year everyone...

Energy Efficiency;Who's driving this car?

If you ask this question the short answer is the DOE. If you ask those of us who have been around the block in the car the answer is no one! If you look at the majority of jobs being offered for auditors and installers they are all tied to programs funded or subsidized by the DOE, State and local governments. As budgets continue to tighten I have seen these programs get smaller and smaller. That's the bad news!
The good news I am seeing more companies cross over to going after the general public market place with good success. The issue is no one is doing an audit the same or by the BPI or RESNET book by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, of the last 175 contractors we contacted only 34% saw the value of being certified   and 77% said they have never performed CAZ testing and avoid sealing a house up to tight because of the liability connected to it. Holly Crap! that's what I said too! Here in Texas, most, if not all the programs ran by the utilities use, for the most part, 1 CFM50 per square foot and will not allow them to go below that number. What does all this mean? it means the DOE and EPA are clueless about the backbone of the industry and think cranking out more certifications and workforce guideline is going to get everyone on the same page without first educating and informing the general public. If the public says hey are you certified to provide this service and conduct these safety test on my house? then guess what? it now has value! and CAZ would be a household name.

Energy Saving Upgrades; Profitable or Not?

Once again it has been some time since my last blog. One reason is I was asked to do some consulting for a weatherization contractor in Florida. It was very interesting and posed my question today. This company works in the local utility low income weatherization program and wanted to expand into the; what I call B to C market. B to C? yes business to consumer. Working in the utility program they were getting their business from the utility which means they were working B to B or business to business.
Well needless to say the B to C transition was not going well. They had tons of leads from clients who did not qualify for the utility program. People were willing to sign up for audits but the company's closing ratio was; well lets just say less than 3 out 10 leads turned into a sale. So the owner was beginning to wonder if it was worth continuing not seeing much return on investment. Well it took me about 2 days of ride along with auditors and a day in the office to figure out the problem and get them on the right path. I cannot give you my secrets or what I look for but I can say that after a week with some training and changes their sales closing ratio went to better than 60% up from below 30%. I can say that they will improve from there even more once they start using the Tight Audit program coming out in June.
If your company needs help or just a fresh look from the other side of the fence then give us a call.

Weatherization Contractor Blues

As a BPI trainer I hear many stories about the ups and downs of being a weatherization contractor. Most of them, if not all of these contractors are involved with utility driven WAP programs. They have been telling me the budgets are getting smaller each year and they are worried, and rightly so!
My first question is why on earth would you put all your eggs in that one basket? To survive in the residential energy world you must be diverse and offer several services to various markets. If anyone thinks your going to come into this business and get rich selling just energy audits or just doing weatherization or WAP programs or just selling one energy saving product that is suicide in the long run.
Balance!, the Yin & Yang is where you will find peace and stability for your business. So many companies I consult for are an absolute disarray, a train wreck! but, there is hope, the ones that follow my recommendations from inside to out have become very profitable and efficient organization.
I tell my students this; "If your company has and office, trucks, ton of equipment, half certified and half non-certified staff, no internal QA, no safety policies and the appearance of organized chaos then you might be a red neck!...LOL just kidding! You might be in need of someone from out side to come in and look around; you know what I mean, give a different perspective.
That is how I learned over the years to build my businesses and career. That's how I got this cool job. Kirstin, our CEO had a vision ans love for our environment and some really great ideas. She contracted with me to come and work within her organization and make it function efficiently. She knew I came from starting a development business from nothing to 15 years later having a $200+ million a year operation, until the banks collapsed in 2008. Guess what? all my eggs where in one basket and I got my clock cleaned as Nevada & California the two states I was leveraged to the tilt in collapsed with the housing and bank bust. I used my experience form that and the 15 years previous to help Kirstin build her 411 dream. Now 2 years later she is a very successful woman and I have a job! win/win. If you would like a different perspective on your business contact me alan@411energyexperts.com