EPA’s New Home Labeling Programs: ENERGY STAR, Indoor airPLUS and WaterSense

August 17, 2011


John:
Our first speaker will be Brian Ng, with EPA, he’s with our ENERGY STAR program, and
Brian, if you’re on the call, feel free to un-mute yourself and take it away. 

Brian:
Great. Thanks very much, John. 

John: You got it. 

Brian: I’m Brian Ng from the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Residential program. It’s a
pleasure to be here with everybody to talk about ENERGY STAR qualified homes, specifically, I’ll get into some detail about our new more rigorous requirements, referred to as Version 3. My understanding is that there’s probably many affiliates on the webinar that have built ENERGY STAR homes in the past, but there are probably some that have not. So I’m providing a sort of broad overview of ENERGY STAR and Version 3 requirements. There’s much more detail that I don’t have time to get into. But, you can go to our website and I’ll give you the web address later on. Next slide please. 

Brian: I threw this picture in because I thought it was a great picture and a great looking house. I was just sent this picture yesterday. It is a picture of an ENERGY STAR qualified home built by Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver. So, the metro Denver folks probably recognize this. This looks like a really good ENERGY STAR house – not all ENERGY STAR homes come with a bow on the front door, I just want to let you know. But, I just wanted to provide a nice visual of what an ENERGY STAR qualified home can look like. Next slide. 

Brian: So, ENERGY STAR, what, what does it provide affiliates in terms of value? Basically, the ENERGY STAR logo represents cost effective, government backed, meaningful energy efficiency in products, homes and buildings and obviously, we are talking about homes today. And it’s used by our stakeholders and partners to indicate their environmental leadership in building homes that not only save money for the occupants but also help save the environment through reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Next year is the 20th anniversary of the ENERGY STAR program, so it started in 1992 and the homes program was started in 1995 and since then, obviously there have been many, many other sort of similar green programs that have been developed over the years, but, I think ENERGY STAR is probably the first government backed voluntary energy efficiency program and many including myself would say probably say the most, one of the most successful programs, voluntary programs to date. Next slide please. 

Brian: So, why, why participate in ENERGY STAR, why build ENERGY STAR homes? For the reasons that are up on the slide there, you can see but also in addition, there are many utilities and energy offices that incentivize ENERGY STAR homes, for example, so you could qualify for those. There seem to be more and more HUD grant programs, specifically the Shop Grant Program that is now requiring ENERGY STAR homes. So, to qualify for grant funding through HUD, you may or may not have to build ENEGY STAR homes, and also, obviously, Habitat is moving towards building all ENERGY STAR homes, requiring ENERGY STAR very soon, I think it’s 2013 if I’m not mistaken. Also building, by building ENERGY STAR homes, you’re building energy efficiency into the homes and hopefully those homes will, will be there for a hundred plus years, so you’ve got the energy efficiency measures working for the families living in that home for the next 100 years or so, so that’s, that adds up to a lot of utilities bills savings and greenhouse gas emissions savings. Next slide, please. 

Brian: Just a brief update on the ENERGY STAR Qualified Homes Program. I’ve mentioned on the previous slide that these homes are independently verified and labeled to meet stringent efficiency guidelines that we establish. It’s geared towards single family and low-rise multifamily, so three stories or less. The ENERGY STAR brand and label is recognized by most consumers these days and just last year we achieved over 25 percent market share of all single family new homes built in the U.S. That’s a pretty high market penetration over 1.2 million ENERGY STAR homes have been built to date. And one interesting fact, is that last year we had over 25 percent market penetration despite the housing downturn. So, I think that shows that ENERGY STAR homes is valued in the marketplace – builders are interested as well as homebuyers. Next slide please. 

Brian: Oh, I’m sorry, one more thing I wanted to mention, you can just stay at that slide, but looking at our data, there are over 500 Habitat affiliates that have built over 8,600 ENERGY STAR homes since we started the program in 1995. So, I just wanted to throw that out there. This blue label you see on the screen right now goes on every single ENERGY STAR qualified home. It’s a requirement of the program that homes get that blue label. And you can see there are some spaces for entering the home address, the builder name, the home energy rater name, the date it was verified. And there’s also a box for entering which Version of ENERGY STAR the home was built to, which I will get into the Versions in a couple of slides. But, basically, the label is the main proof that the home has earned the ENERGY STAR label and that label typically goes on the circuit breaker box or some other suitable location. Next slide. 

Brian: So as many of you probably know, we are moving toward more rigorous requirements of ENERGY STAR homes called Version 3 and just to give you a brief history of the Versions that we have had…Version 2, I think was put in place around 2006 and those requirements had two main components: there were some core energy efficiency measures plus what we call the Thermal Bypass Checklist which basically, ensured a consistent air barrier around the living environment of the house. What we’re doing now is we’ve put into place two new Versions, one called Version 2.5, which is valid until January 1, 2012, if the home was permitted before…if the home was permitted after April 1, 2011. Version 2.5 is basically a transitional Version of ENERGY STAR homes to help get builders and the contractors familiar with the Version 3 Checklist. So version 2.5 and Version 3, contain the same requirements in terms of the Checklist, the difference being, Version 2.5, the home will not be will not fail, in other words, if all the Checklist items are not fully complied with so, our intent with Version 2.5 is to get builders and contractors to fill out – at least attempt to fill out all the Checklist items and meet all of the core energy efficiency requirements associated with Version 3, but the home can still earn the label even if some Checklist items are not fully complied with. And then lastly, you have Version 3, which has all the Checklists and core energy efficiency requirements, and obviously with Version 3, builders have to comply with every single Checklist item in order to earn the ENERGY STAR label for that home. And Version 3 kicks into effect January 1, 2012. Just to mention quickly also, the Version 2 homes we estimated as being 15 percent better for heating, cooling and water heating than 2004 IRC, the International Residential Code. Under Version 3, we’re saying that ENERGY STAR homes built to Version 3 requirements are 15 percent better than 2009 IECC and with the additional Checklist features that are included under Version 3, that would boost efficiency to being somewhere between 20 and 30 percent better than typical new construction. Next slide, please. 

Brian: So, this chart basically shows you all the individual components that go into our new Version 3 requirements. They’re all based on building science principles to improve a home’s energy efficiency, durability, comfort and health by controlling the home’s air flow, thermal flow and moisture flow. So, everything sort of flows from the top down in terms of those benefits to homeowners and having a more affordable, comfortable, healthy and durable home by controlling the air flow, thermal flow and water flow, which includes moisture and vapor and bulk moisture flow. And, I’ll get into the Checklists in detail in a few more slides. But if you could just click one more time, John. The highlighted elements in red represent the items that basically go into the Thermal Enclosure Checklist for Version 3. So, the Version 3 Thermal Enclosure Checklist assures fully aligned air barriers, as well as Level One insulation installation among other things. Click again please. The highlighted elements in my screen at least, look kind of brown-ish, I’m not sure what it looks like on your screen, but those elements represent the HVAC system Quality Installation Checklist, which is Number Two Checklist under Version 3 and that basically involves pressure balancing, right-sizing the HVAC equipment, as well as duct and ventilation. So, the HVAC QI Checklists are there to deal with HVAC design as well as commissioning to ensure proper HVAC installation. Click one more time please. The purple elements highlighted there represent the elements of the Water Management Checklist which is the third of three main checklists under Version 3 and that obviously is there to assure that the home’s roofs, water, roofs, foundation and walls are, are, basically resistant to moisture, both bulk and, and vapor. Some people might ask “why is there a Water Management Checklist in an ENERGY STAR package, so to speak?” So, basically, it’s there to make sure that there are not only any structural compromises made to the home due to water issues and problems, but basically water can and will impact the home’s not only comfort, but also health and affordability if it’s not managed properly, so that’s why the Water Management Checklist is part of the ENERGY STAR requirements under Version 3. And click one more time. Another element of Version 3 involves house sizing which impacts the air and thermal flow of a home, and which I will get into in, in the next few slides. Next slide please. 

Brian: So, the main – I just wanted to highlight some main Version 3 requirements which are new under Version 3. So you have what is called the ENERGY STAR Reference Design which is a set of core energy efficiency requirements for the building envelope, HVAC, and water heating equipment, lighting and appliances. So they…these Reference Design elements go into every single ENERGY STAR home regardless of whether it’s a Performance or Prescriptive Path, the home has to be designed with these Reference Design elements in mind. The next bullet refers to a variable versus a fixed HERS score. So under Version 3, we have a variable HERS Index Target Score rather than a Single Fixed HERS Score. And the way the HERS Index Target Score gets calculated is that for each home, the home gets modeled using the ENERGY STAR Reference Design elements and that’s about a HERS Index Target Score for that particular home, so that’s the variable HERS Score versus the fixed HERS Score. The next new requirement under Version 3 is called the Size Adjustment Factor. So, this refers to homes that are larger than the average size for specified number of bedrooms, which we call the Benchmark Home Size. These larger homes must apply a Size Adjustment Factor that reduces the HERS, ENERGY STAR HERS Index Target and increases the home’s energy efficiency requirements. I did not put the, the Benchmark Home Size scale up on the screen but basically it’s based on the number of bedrooms per square foot of conditioned floor area. So, if a home is larger than that Benchmark Home Size, then you have to apply the Size Adjustment Factor. And the last element on the screen there represents the four, four checklists that I mentioned earlier. So you’ve got the Thermal Enclosure Checklist which gets completed by the home energy rater. You have an HVAC Quality Installation Checklist both for the home energy rater to complete as well as for the HVAC contractor to complete. And then lastly, there is a Water Management Checklist which gets completed by the builder. Next screen, please. 

Brian: As I mentioned earlier, there ‘s two, there’s still two main paths to ENERGY STAR under Version 3, which was the same under Version 2. You still have a Prescriptive Path and Performance Path. So under the Prescriptive Path, the home is designed and built to the specifications that are contained in the ENERGY STAR Reference Design that I mentioned earlier. There are no trade-offs allowed under the Prescriptive Path. All the checklists must be completed and verified, and as I mentioned, only homes the same or smaller than the corresponding benchmark home can use the Prescriptive Path, otherwise, you’ve gotta use the Performance Path. And under the Performance Path, the home energy rater models the home to establish what the home’s ENERGY STAR HERS Index Target Score is. And for homes larger than the Benchmark Size Home, the HERS Index Target takes into account the Size Adjustment Factor. The builder has the flexibility to make trade-offs so they can select the custom-set of energy efficiency measures to earn the ENERGY STAR label for the home, but no matter what trade-offs are made, the home still has to earn the HERS Index Target Threshold that was calculated by applying the Reference Design to the home. And again, on the Performance Path, all checklists still have to be completed and verified. Next slide, please. 

Brian: So to just get into a little bit of detail about the checklists, the checklists that are completed by the rater include the Thermal Enclosure Checklist as well as the HVAC Quality Installation Checklist. So, the Thermal Enclosure Checklist is designed to ensure that the exterior envelope of the home is optimized for efficiency and durability and this Checklist replaces the Thermal Bypass Checklist that was valid under Version 2 of ENERGY STAR. The HVAC QI Rater Checklist is there so that the rater can verify that the home’s ductwork and ventilation system have been installed properly by the HVAC contractor. Next slide. 

Brian: The HVAC QI contractor Checklist is, is there to ensure that the HVAC system in every ENERGY STAR home is designed and installed according to industry accepted quality installation practices which are based on the Air Conditioning Contractors of America’s Quality Installation requirements. Only HVAC contractors who demonstrated the skills and capabilities to do HVAC QI can be permitted to complete the Checklist. And there are, there are some new training requirements for HVAC contractors as well as builders and raters which I will get into in a couple of slides. And we also provide a list of HVAC contractors on our website. Next slide. 

Brian: The one checklist that can be completed by the builder is the Water Management System Checklist, which requires the inspection of key areas to ensure that bulk moisture is controlled including the foundation walls, roofs and the building materials themselves. The Checklist has to be completed by the site supervisor or some other qualified person on the builder’s staff. The rater can also verify the Checklist, but the builder is ultimately responsible for the accuracy of this Checklist. And the completed and signed Water Management Checklist should be given to the home energy rater to keep with the home’s ENERGY STAR file. Next slide. 

Brian: So, as you can see, there are many new elements associated with ENERGY STAR Version 3 that were not there under Version 2 and this is going to require some new knowledge base on the part of the builders, raters and HVAC contractors. So, as such, we’ve put into place new training requirements for each of those stakeholders. So, for raters, as well as for field inspectors, they have to complete Version 3 Rater Training which is offered through RESNET accredited training providers around the country. They have to complete the training in order to become ENERGY STAR partners. Every rater that works on ENERGY STAR Version 3 homes has to be trained so the training requirement is at the individual rater level, not the rating organization level. And for builders, there is an online ENERGY STAR orientation training that is free and typically can be completed by the builder in about an hour. At least one person per building organization has to complete the training. And then for HVAC contractors, they have to complete Version 3 training and be credentialed through an EPA recognized industry organization, which currently is ACCA, the Air Conditioning Contractors of America. One HVAC contractor per contracting organization has to complete the training, so it’s at the organization level, not the individual HVAC contractor level. Next slide, please. 

Brian: To help partners with all of the new requirements under Version 3, we provide training resources up on our website; we host various webinars on each of the individual checklists. In fact, there are a couple of webinars coming up soon and you can check our website for the current webinar schedule. We also have recorded webinars and presentations on the Version 3 Requirements on our website. We also provide, free of charge, field guides for each of the checklist items. And these field guides provide visuals as well as text describing the checklist and each checklist item and provides visuals of the right way to do things and the wrong way to do things so it’s very helpful resource to have in the field and you can download those again off of our website for free. We also provide information on Version 3 policy changes and clarifications, so you should check our website for the most up to date clarifications on Version 3, and we also provide, can provide customized presentations to help you, if you are presenting about ENERGY STAR at a conference for example, we can help you get that together as well. Next slide, please. 

Brian: I just wanted to bring everyone’s attention to the fact that we do provide recognition to builder partners who build ENERGY STAR homes; they, two main awards we have, one is called “Leadership in Housing Awards,” this is an annual recognition for specific levels of accomplishment in building ENERGY STAR homes. These awards get sent to partners automatically, there’s no application process involved, it’s based strictly on the number of ENERGY STAR homes that are built. Another recognition opportunity is called the “Partner of Year” awards and this recognizes special achievements by ENERGY STAR builder partners not strictly based on the number of ENERGY STAR homes that are built. There is an application process required. The applications for this year’s ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year awards I think is due early December, I believe. You can check our website for that. There is an award category called “Excellence in Affordable Housing” and a few Habitat affiliates have won that award in years past, most recently, Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver, so, and one of the newer recognition campaigns we’re running is related to Version 3, so if you go to our website, website address listed on the slide there, you can make a commitment to build homes to Version 3 in 2012 and we will list your organization’s name on a special website listing of builders who will be building Version 3 homes in 2012. We also plan to release a national press release with the names of some of the key builder partners who are committing to Version 3 homes in 2012. So, I encourage you affiliates who are building ENERGY STAR homes to go ahead and make that commitment to Version 3. Next slide, please. 

Brian: So, if you’re not already an ENERGY STAR partner, you can easily become a partner by going to our website, energystar.gov/join and select the link for residential new construction. It’s a free online application, you get a confirmation email confirming your ENERGY STAR partnerships as you also get access to the ENERGY STAR logos as well as free marketing materials to help you promote your ENERGY STAR participation and all partners are listed on the ENERGY STAR website so people can find you. Next slide. 

Brian: If you have any other questions, or want to contact me, you can reach me through my email address and we also can be seen on social media including Twitter and Facebook. So, with that, that’s the conclusion of my presentation. 

John: Ok, thank you Brian. That was very comprehensive, a lot of information to digest. What we’re gonna do now is throw up a couple of polls related to ENERGY STAR. Just want to get attendees’ input on how familiar you are with the program, after hearing about ENERGY STAR program do you plan in incorporating it into your building practices? Ok, I think we’ll go ahead and close this poll and we’ll have one more for you. In terms of challenges, what do you guys see as the most challenging component to building to ENERGY STAR qualified homes? Good. Ok, I think we’ll close out the poll now and we’ll get on, move on to our next speaker, Rick Gazica, from Indoor airPLUS. Rick, if you’re on the line, feel free to un-mute yourself and we’ll dive right in. 

Rick: Thanks, John.

John: Sure thing.

Rick: As John mentioned my name is Rick Gazica, I work with ICF International and we are a support contractor for the Indoor airPLUS program. And while the ENERGY STAR program has been around for a long time, the Indoor airPLUS program is still in infancy stages right now so we’re really excited about the opportunity to tell you about what the program offers and how you can participate with the program. So, John, if you could go to the next slide. 

Rick: We have sort of an agenda of what we’re going to touch on today. First is why indoor air quality matters, not only to builders but also to us, the end users of the home, to consumers as well. What is Indoor airPLUS and what does it provide? How can you partner with the program to provide this benefit to your homeowners? And what additional resources do we provide all of our partners? So, next slide. 

Rick: We touched upon the reasons that indoor air quality matters. So, if we go to the next slide after this one, John. 

Rick: The reason indoor air quality matters is due to some of the studies that we’ve, we’ve performed. So, first, is we found that indoor chemical pollutant levels can be as high as two or five times greater than that of what’s outdoors. Studies that have been performed show that one in every five households has at least one person with asthma and that one of the main triggers for the asthma is increased if you live in a damp house. In addition to asthma as a respiratory illness that can be caused by an indoor air environment, radon is estimated to cause approximately 21,000 cases of lung cancer deaths per year. And throughout the country, nearly one out every fifteen homes in the United States is estimated to have an elevated radon level, so, Indoor airPLUS, which takes these triggers into account and have developed a program that will help us decrease liability of owning a home. So, on to the next slide. 

Rick: We have a picture of a house and how all these contaminants and pollutants can get into the house. So, you have chemicals that are released from modern buildings and furnished materials, so you’ve heard of VOCs, and combustion gases that occur from fireplaces and wood burning stoves, chemicals from paints and solvents, mold and bacteria, even outdoor air pollutants can cause air quality issues inside of the home, so building homes in urban areas where the outdoor air quality is poor can affect the indoor air quality of the house as well. 

Rick: On the next slide we show how Indoor airPLUS addresses these pollutant sources. So we realize that moisture control is very important to reduce the dampness inside of the house, making sure that the proper materials are used for this. Making sure that your combustion systems are properly vented, so not only fireplaces or wood burning stoves, but you have to think about your hot water heaters, your furnaces, situations like that, making sure that you have a system installed that will help control radon, mitigation, and also making sure that you’re venting and filtering the air that comes into the house so that the indoor air quality is even better than the outdoor air quality. On the next slide… 

Rick: The benefits to builders, in this case for Habitat, it creates an opportunity to be industry labeled later. It results in product differentiation and addresses potential liability issues for building home that doesn’t address indoor air quality and can harm…occupants’ health. It will help improve and achieve customer satisfaction. So, they’ll notice the difference in the house. And in an indoor air quality compared to a former house, there will be moisture control in the home and fresh air…having fresh air in a house without even having to open their windows because the house itself takes care of it. And then being a good steward is something that Habitat has had since its inception….to make sure that the end users final use is taken into consideration when building the homes.  So, on the next slide…

Rick: …Give you a little…so Indoor airPLUS…on the next slide…

Rick: ….is a program that also has been developed by the EPA and it’s a voluntary program that helps build homes with the reduced likelihood of indoor air quality issues. So EPA has parsed out over 30 home design guidelines, construction features that will help increase the quality of the air inside of the home. Similar to the ENERGY STAR program, it does require third party verification; the good thing though is if you are participating in ENERGY STAR, the rater that performs the ENERGY STAR verification can also help you perform the indoor airPLUS verification. Currently, if you’re building ENERGY STAR, it’s another prerequisite to meeting that Indoor airPLUS guideline. So, as Brian had touched upon in his presentation, ENERGY STAR has now requires modern management Checklist to build the home. Indoor airPLUS basically builds upon that Checklist and if you do build an Indoor airPLUS house, it isn’t a necessity to have a Water Management Checklist for ENERGY STAR, so you can just do the Indoor airPLUS Checklist so that will cut down on some of your paper work. Onto the next slide. 

Rick: We show a picture of the Indoor airPLUS Checklist. So, it’s hard to see in this picture here, but it’s broken down into about six or seven separate sections and how it is used to build a house. So, the largest section we have is the moisture control of the house. And in addition to that there’s HVAC controls, radon and pest controls, tools that make sure that sure combustion source is limited, making sure that you’re using low VOC or no VOC paints, and insulation, building materials, and then making sure that the HVAC equipment is properly sized so that you have the proper ventilation system working inside the house. On to the next slide. 

Rick: We go back to the picture of the house. So basically, the Checklist breaks down in a way that Habitat affiliates can understand how to construct the home, piece by piece so that it doesn’t cheat indoor air quality, so that you understand, you know how, when using this Checklist as guidance, the moisture control helps reduce the dampness inside of the house, the radon control does when building the homes, you’ll understand that they don’t have to worry about radon mitigation in the home because its already being taken care of, when it should be being taken care of at construction of the house. Having a proper ventilation and filtration system something that customers will be really excited to have not have to worry about mold in a home due to moisture and improper ventilation. So, these are some of the technical guidelines that will help was you construct the home with IAP. On the next slide. 

Rick: Now that we’ve …how do you partner with the Indoor airPLUS program? Next slide, 

Rick: It’s a pretty easy process…so first thing you’ll want to do is, get familiar with Indoor airPLUS. So, go to our website which is www.epa.gov/indoorairplus. We have a variety of builder videos and podcasts that discuss the program. You can also review the Verification Checklist, instruction specifications and other materials there to look at online. The next part is signing the partnership agreement. You’ll see a link there when you go to our Indoor airpLUS website, and then step three is just building and labeling the homes. So, the rater as we said before will use the Checklist that to receive both the ENERGY STAR label as well as the Indoor airPLUS label. On the next slide…

Rick: What are the resources in addition to that that we provide partners? So, we have many resources that are available, and I believe if you just click through, we’ll pop them up. 

Rick: So, as I discussed we have videos on the website that show you how Indoor airPLUS benefits your consumers. Click through again. We have the construction specifications and also an explanation of the construction specifications, so it helps detail the reasoning behind implementing some of these practices, and if you click through we have a couple of other things…we also have the Frequently Asked Questions. They come in to our program that we list on our website and again, the Checklist which you and your rater will use to verify the house. On the next slide…

Rick: We also provide great marketing support. So, we have you know, template marketing as well as homeowner focused marketing that will help them understand why the Indoor airPLUS label is so great to have on the house and how it will benefit them, not only through the construction process, but also living in the home, enjoying the benefits associated with a healthier home. On the next slide…

Rick: And and, like Brian discussed, we too are going through social media, so Indoor airPLUS can be found on Facebook and Twitter. We have some YouTube videos available for everybody to watch as well as widgets that can be placed on your website and even mobile applications for smart phones while you’re out on site making sure that you can pull up those specifications when you’re trying to build the home. Next slide.

Rick: And finally we provide technical guidance. So, outside of the website on the final slide we have here, I’ll show you, is the email address where you can email in an ask for support on technical questions and we can provide you with that support so that you can properly construct the home. So, final slide that we have here…is on the next one…

Rick: So, Indoor airPLUS, it’s a new opportunity, like I said, we’re still in our infancy stages, but it’s a place where builders, they cannot only build energy efficiently, but healthier homes for consumers as well, it’s something that we think a lot of consumers resonate with…so learn more about our program at Indoor airPLUS at our website. If you have any other additional questions, please feel free to contact us at our Indoor airPLUS email address which is iap@icfi.com. So, that does it for my portion of the presentation. I appreciate you guys giving me the opportunity to speak to you today about it. I look forward to working with you guys in the future. Thanks. 

John: Ok, Rick, thank you very much, that was another very informative presentation. I think we’re gonna…I want to remind everyone first, that please if you have questions for the speakers, feel free to enter them in the question box and we’ll get to them at the end of the webinar, but in the meantime we’re going to put up a couple of more polling questions similar to the ENERGY STAR ones and we’re going to have another general one…have you heard about Indoor airPLUS and are you incorporating it into your building practices? That’s great, ok, so now we’ll throw up our next poll. Again what do you foresee as the most challenging component to building to the Indoor airPLUS home, and these are the similar options as the ENERGY STAR poll. 

John:  Ok, so, we’ll share these results now, looks like again cost and compliance are the two biggest challenge…foreseeable challenges for people. Ok, we’ll go ahead and close that. And move on to our next speaker. Running a little bit behind, so our next speaker is Alicia Marrs, she’s with EPA’s WaterSense Program and she’s gonna tell you a little more about that. Alicia, if you’re on the line, feel free to un-mute and go ahead.

John: Ok, so as we know, the US is experiencing quite a bit of drought over the past ten years now, I think it is. It’s been quite a while and you know that at least 36 states are anticipating water shortage up until 2013; I think that number may have been revised recently to extend further out, even further. 

Alicia: I’m here now John.

John: Oh, ok, alright that’s great, ok.

Alicia: Alright, so I’m going to move on to the next couple of slides. I’m going to go through these pretty quickly. Basically we’re just talking about the importance of water efficiency, …move over from energy and Indoor airPLUS to water and WaterSense. 

Alicia: So this slide right here is showing you the domestic water in gallons per day as compared to projected population growth by 2030 in each state. As you can see, the darkest shades are where the most water is being used per capita and many of those states are also those that are expecting the most population growth in the next 20 or so years. And, as we’ve heard in the news, especially this summer, many of those have been suffering from extreme drought which just shows even more the importance for thinking about how we use water both inside and outside the home. 

Alicia: When we talk about the need for water efficiency in those southern states that we just showed in dark colors, often that’s a very familiar message to them. They’re, they’ve been having water restrictions or things like that in the past. There are other parts of the country that are traditionally fairly water rich, but, something that is consistent across the entire nation is that we have a great need for updating infrastructure. The EPA has estimated that it’s gonna cost about 500 billion dollars over the next 20 years just to maintain our current infrastructure, for delivering water and wastewater to homes. And, the rest of our cities. So, this something using water more efficiently can help us delay those costs. We’re gonna have to pay them eventually, but this is something that we can help reduce stress on those infrastructure resources. 

Alicia: So what we’re gonna focus on today and what WaterSense focuses on primarily is water use at home. About 70 percent of water use at home traditionally happens inside the home and 30 percent outdoors. However, in many states, particularly in the arid southwest, these numbers can be completely flip-flopped and a lot of water is used outside the home. Bathrooms are traditionally the largest water user inside the home and we focus most of the WaterSense labeled products in that area and we’ll get to that in a second. 

Alicia: So water isn’t only used at home, it’s also wasted. We’ve estimated that leaks just from U.S. homes can exceed about a trillion gallons each year, and a lot of those leaks are very easily fixed. WaterSense dedicates a week in March each year that’s called “Fix a Leak Week,” and you may have seen some of those materials, it’s towards getting all consumers more familiar with the fact that fixing that leaky faucet or shower head, or toilet can really impact your water savings and your water bill. Water wasted outside the home is also a huge issue and about 50 percent of water that’s used outside goes to waste because of evaporation when an inefficient watering practices. And I mentioned that it’s not only because it’s important for every home, whether or its new or not, but it’s also something that’s incorporated into our specifications because we found in our research that many homes, new homes, were built, actually had leaks and we want to make sure that everyone’s cognizant of that as well. 

Alicia: So, real quick what is WaterSense? ENERGY STAR, our sister program at EPA has been around for a while and as you heard from Rick, Indoor airPLUS is also quite new. WaterSense has been around for five years now, we just had our fifth anniversary. We’re also a voluntary partnership and labeling program, sponsored by the EPA very similar to ENERGY STAR, just focusing on water. Our goal is to promote simple changes at home to help save water. And help consumers identify homes or products and services that use less water and perform well. That performance factor is really important to WaterSense because those low-flow toilets of the past truly gave water efficiency kind of a bad name. Something that’s inherent in the WaterSense program and process and label is that products are third party certified, not only for water efficiency but also for performance as well. So, when people look for the WaterSense label as you can see on the phone right now…haha, on the screen right now, they’re able to identify something that is not only high performing but highly efficient. And it’s also the way this process has been set up by EPA, it’s a smart use of taxpayer dollars because the manufacturers actually absorb the costs of the certification and all of that happens outside of the government traditional manufacturing…processes. 

Alicia: So here’s a few places you can see the WaterSense label and look for them right now in your local stores. WaterSense labeled toilets, there’s over 800 models. Bathroom faucets, urinals, showerheads, professional certification programs, right now, this applies specifically to irrigation professionals and single family new homes which is what we’re here to talk about. One reason I put this slide up is because number one, you can find this information on the WaterSense website and number two, because we have so many products now that have earned the label, they’re available at every cost point, so that really helps for builders that are looking to keep costs low, which I know is very important to Habitat builders. 

Alicia: So, moving on to new homes program with WaterSense. 

Alicia: We developed this fairly recently and the first national new home labeling program for water efficiency so similar to what Brian mentioned about ENERGY STAR for new homes, we’re hoping to kind of build off of their momentum as the EPA program and provide the nation with one place to look for a label for a water efficient new home. We designed it to work in concert with other green building programs, specifically ENERGY STAR and Indoor airPLUS and also programs like LEED, Earth Craft, NHB’s Green Building Standard are all starting to incorporate not only WaterSense labeled products but also the WaterSense new homes specifications which is a LEED 2012 pilot credit as well. And like ENERGY STAR and Indoor airPLUS, our homes are also inspected and certified and verified by an independent third party, so there’s that verification factor as well. 

Alicia: So, to date, again this is fairly new, we’ve only had this final specification out almost for two years, which is crazy. But, we have 50 builders now, across the country, and more that are coming online. I think there’s a, almost 54 homes that have earned the label, or that have officially been reported, we know there’s more out there and I’ll talk about that in a second. But, basically, it was designed to help reduce water use in new homes, educate consumers about continuing behaviors that they can do to keep their homes water efficient and obviously help encourage community infrastructure savings, as I mentioned before. 

Alicia: So, why would you purchase, why would someone purchase a WaterSense labeled new home or what would you say to a prospective new homeowner or Habitat family, is basically a WaterSense labeled new home, is built to the specs that will save a family of four about 50,000 gallons of water a year as compared to a typical home. So that’s pretty substantial, and can be about 600 dollars a year on water, sewer and energy bills, which is taking into account the hot water that it saves by these more efficient products and design factors. 

Alicia: We also designed the verification program and system to mirror ENERGY STAR and IAP, so that you can use – as long as your home energy rater has the affiliate, is affiliated with a WaterSense license certification provider, they can also do the inspection at the same time they’re doing the ENERGY STAR and IAP inspection as well. So, they need to, your provider, or your rater, needs to contact RESNET and find out about becoming a WaterSense provider as well and then they can partner with WaterSense, and their individual raters which we actually refer to as “water efficiency inspectors,” can then be one in the same and do all of those at once. So that’s really gonna cut down on your inspections and save money when you’re looking to receive multiple certifications. 

Alicia: So here’s a quick glance at where we have WaterSense builders and where there are homes currently. So, the darkest states have the most WaterSense builders or at least have builders that say they build in those states, and some of those are lager production builders like KB and Meritage, but there’s lot s opportunities out there, to be either the first builder in your state to complete a home, or the first Habitat builder in your state and we would love to promote and help give you recognition for all of those factors. So this is a tool that we’re developing for a website upgrade that we’re hopefully gonna have this fall, and once you partner with us, we’ll be able to highlight you and some of your homes on the website as well as you can see, in the little pictures…that’s the first home that was built in North Carolina under our pilot program. 

Alicia: So, alright, now I’m gonna go through a real quick overview of what is involved in the specification and certification aspects of a WaterSense labeled new home. 

Alicia: What’s a little bit different about our spec as compared to say ENERGY STAR, IAP is that we focus both inside and outside the home. We have required items and then some optional items, so if you are installing those optional items, we do have requirements for them, but you are not required to put things in like dishwashers and clothes washers. The required items inside the home really focus on water service pressure, a maximum of 60 psi, obviously we need to check for leaks, and there’s specific leak prevention measures. Basically, anywhere that there can be a WaterSense labeled fixture, it needs to be WaterSense labeled. There’s some other water efficient plumbing fixtures specifications and a hot water distribution system which is probably one of the more difficult aspects, but definitely not impossible, it just takes a little bit of stepping back and thinking about how you design and install your hot water distribution system to make sure that hot water is getting to the hot water using fixtures fairly quickly. So, what really, becomes a barrier to that is the size of the home and I think one of the real benefits to Habitat builders in this way is that the homes you’re constructing usually aren’t really huge, so it can make it a little easier for you to meet this portion of the specifications than say a large builder. 

Alicia: So, I mentioned before this website where we can find all WaterSense labeled products as soon as they’re reported to us, so it’s an easy way to go through on our website whether you’re just putting them in your own home or looking for them or your building projects. 

Alicia: So that was inside the home, and now outside the home. We do have requirements outside the home, and as I mentioned anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of water use at home happens outside. So, there’s two options: one is a water budget tool which I’ll talk about in a second and that’s what we really hope that builders choose because it’s a great way to really make your landscape regionally appropriate and specific. And then there are also is a 40 percent turf grass maximum option as well. We do have requirements for vegetated slopes and mulching and basically that outdoor requirements apply to the front yard and any other improved upon areas. So, if there’s a pool or spa, which I highly doubt in a Habitat home, this would also factor in and usually counts as turf grass, same with an ornamental water feature. We have requirements for irrigation systems that they, it is not required that you install an irrigation system. Though, this is actually one of the places that the cost goes up the most for building a WaterSense labeled new home, but I think there’s great ways to design a landscape that wouldn’t require an irrigation system and probably in many cases, a Habitat home would not necessitate this as well either. 

Alicia: So, this is a screenshot of our water budget tool as it will be very soon. It’s a beta version that will be coming out on the web here hopefully in the next few weeks. Right now there’s an excel based tool and they’re exactly the same in terms of the calculations and formulas, involved, the only difference is this is much more user-friendly, it doesn’t have the scary calculations and formulas right up front that really tend to intimidate people and hopefully this will make it easy for people to calculate and kind of use it as a landscape design tool; basically, the builder will go through and put what types of plants that you’re using, whether or not there’s the irrigation, if they’re high low, or medium water using, and all of those go in to a little calculator based on an, in the end, and it will let you know if you’ve met the water budget allocation. So, we also have tools within in the website currently that you can check out that goes into, you can go on and plug in, you’ll plug in the zip code for the home, where it is, and it’ll help you identify the, high water using month, and the special ETs that are also important to this tool. 

Alicia: So, once the home has been built and landscaped, it needs to be inspected and certified to meet our specifications. The inspector, which is also known in the building industry as the home energy rater, will sign the certificate, and we have a certificate and a sticker available. The certificate is what is needed at every case, but the sticker is optional as you can see, it looks very similar to the ENERGY STAR one and can be exhibited next to that in the home, whatever, wherever place you find is most appropriate. The certificate and the sticker will be signed by both the inspector and the licensed certification provider and then passed on to the builder. Along with a homeowner education manual and any other documents that are needed like a schedule for the irrigation system, product manuals, things like that. 

Alicia: So, just to kind of wrap it up, I want to talk a little bit about what you can do to join WaterSense and bring WaterSense labeled new homes hopefully to your community. 

Alicia: Why join WaterSense? I’ve kind of mentioned a few times that this is a pretty new option, but a probably prevalent and relevant option in your communities especially given all the droughts and water shortages we’ve seen in the news this summer. It’s a great opportunity for distinction in the market or to show that you’re really a forward thinker, which is typical for Habitat builders in your community, and so you’re not only going to be saving water and utility savings for the families living in your homes, but reducing demand on infrastructure and community water demands as well. There’s also recognition from EPA, as a water efficiency leader, we also have partner of the year awards, which we’re announcing ours in early October at the Water…Water Smart Innovations Conference, so hopefully next year, we’ll have some Habitat builders in that mix as well and you’ll join our network of water efficiency leaders and other WaterSense partners. So, great examples of those are Kohler, Moen, Lowes, Home Depot, things like that and many of the local, state and regional governments that can help promote what you’re doing and assist you in finding WaterSense labeled products if needed. 

Alicia: So, very similar, similar to the other two programs that you’ve already heard from, first step really begins with singing a partnership agreement with EPA, you can find that on our website, epa.gov/watersense, the link is the down there at the bottom of this slide. And then you go on to construct the new home to earn the label. Our specification right now is limited to single family homes, townhomes, three stories or less and obviously the home must pass an inspection by the provider in order to receive the label. 

Alicia: We also offer a suite of marketing tools, both for the builders, providers, and local government, and promotional partners to help promote WaterSense labeled new homes in your communities. So there’s press release templates, website language, and promotional labels. We have one specific to builders that says, a little home there that says “we build” and then we have a couple new, general promotional ones …that say “ask about” and “look for,” in addition to all the other ones. So, there’s lots of tools and once you become a partner, you can click around and use them to your heart’s content. 

Alicia: And so, just to kind of wrap things up, we’re gonna come back full circle of why would a consumer purchase or want to move into a WaterSense labeled new home and what it really comes down to is convenience, efficiency, and confidence. They’re gonna know that the hot water will be delivered to them faster and use less energy so that’s less time waiting around in the shower. Their landscaping will be healthy and sustainable, it’ll use less water and hopefully require less maintenance which is a great asset. And WaterSense labeled products, as I mentioned earlier have been tested and certified for efficiency and performance. So, your homeowners can feel great about themselves every time they turn their key and especially when they see their utility bills. 

Alicia: So hopefully that’s what you’ll be seeing in neighborhoods near you.

Alicia: Here’s our information for our website, and if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact either me, my address, my email’s down there at the bottom, or our helpline is always there to respond to your questions. 

John: Ok, thanks Alicia, another great presentation. We’re gonna do two more polls and then you guys are off the hook. These will be dedicated to the WaterSense program, similar to IAP and ENERGY STAR. We’ll see how familiar you guys are with WaterSense and again the types of challenges you think you may encounter. 

John: You have one more poll and this will be the last of it. Again, what do you foresee as the most challenging component to building to WaterSense labeled homes? 

John: Alright, moving on. We’re gonna go to our Habitat for Humanity Metro Denver representative, Mike Amoroso. Mike, if you’re on the line we’ll just jump right into it. We’re running a little short on time, so if you push “star six” to un-mute yourself, you can go right ahead. 

Mike: Alright, thanks, John. So, I’m Mike Amoroso, I’m the construction manager at Habitat Metro Denver. And I’m gonna just try to real quickly go through some of our successes with ENERGY STAR and then I’ll share some of our plans for moving forward in the future as far as partnering with all three of these programs. Habitat Metro Denver began building with ENERGY STAR products and guidelines about 13 years ago and it’s been an institutional change that’s continued to evolve over the past decade for us at this affiliate. In 2010, 100 percent of our homes had been tested by ENERGY STAR and rated. 

Mike: So our inclusion of affordable building techniques and ENERGY STAR products improved the efficiency and quality of our homes over the years. Next slide. 

Mike: A lot of these measures really helped saved homeowners hundreds of dollars each year on utility costs while also cutting down on negative environmental impacts during home construction. And you can go to the next slide. 

Mike: And then the next slide as well. 

Mike: A lot of these photos I’m just tryin’ to scan through just so you can kinda see some of the techniques that we use in our homes and many of ‘em should be standard for people that are already building ENERGY STAR. Kind of a quick quantitative snapshot of our ENERGY STAR compliance up to date would be that in 2010 alone we built 32 homes to E STAR standards, all 32 were verified and tested by the end of the year, and each one of those are consistently averaging about 57 per HERS rating, representing about 43 percent improvement in energy efficiency over a standard code built home in our area. All 32 homes and really all of our homes at this point contain E STAR products, such as the refrigerators, the front load washers, CFL bulbs and everything, and we focus very heavily on our building envelope and insulation values here. Average month, monthly utility bills are estimated to be between 46 and 80 dollars a month depending on the size and type of the house that we’re building and these costs are estimated to be about 30 to 40 percent less than the same house with conventional features, saving our homeowners, 10 to 35 dollars a month. And about 120 to 420 per year. You can go to the next slide. 

Mike: To date we’ve built at Habitat Metro Denver approximately 300 homes to E STAR standards over a 30 year period, those homes have emitted more than 27,000 fewer tons of CO2 than the equivalent home with conventional features. Over the same 30 year period, those 300 homeowners collectively will have saved between 900,090 and 3.5 million dollars in utility bills, so it’s obviously a substantial savings across all of these families. Next slide. 

Mike: We’ve promoted energy efficiency for more than 13 years as a vital way to guarantee a long term affordability of our Habitat homes. In addition to low income families, in addition low income families definitely have, tendency to have chronic health issues and so forth that are related to their living environment and tend to be quite costly for direct treatment. You can go to the next slide. 

Mike: But, by providing properly insulated, sealed and ventilated building, low VOC finish materials and closed combustion appliances, we’ve been able to provide consistent safe, healthy environment for our partner families across our affiliate. Next slide.

Mike: As we look to the future here at this affiliate, we really are trying to spend a lot of time reviewing our past projects. We’ve been involved in a lot of projects over the years, such as specific solar projects as you saw on some of the previous slides. We’ve done zero energy houses. This here was our first and actually only to date LEED Platinum building and granted those programs are all, excellent programs and I think there’s a tremendous amount of value in all of those programs after we’ve really gone through this process we’ve realized that it’s not necessarily the best solution for our partner families, and I think that many Habitat affiliates would probably agree with that. Given that most affiliates really spend a lot of effort trying to build consistency across all of their projects to make the projects more volunteer friendly and much more homeowner friendly, and it just...it’s just a little more efficient from a cost standpoint to be consistent as well. Next slide. 

Mike: And then actually you can bounce right through probably three more slides if you’d like. 

Mike: Over the last few months we’ve been communicating quite extensively the EPA and we do however feel that the combination of ENERGY STAR 3.0, WaterSense and Indoor airPLUS is probably the best program out there that we know of and that we’ve experienced that could potentially work for our partner families. We found through a lot of our local research that we can obtain all the necessary products and fixtures that we need in the same price point that we’re in currently, so it’s very interesting for me to see, but it’s not actually a surprise that cost and compliance with 3.0 and compliance with WaterSense were some of the main concerns that the other affiliates on the call have, have mentioned, because, this was obviously our concern for a long time as well. But because these are becoming a lot more common in the industry, there’s a lot of manufacturers out there that are getting up to speed and realizing that they need to provide good quality products that comply with these programs but also reach out to all price points. So these are, there’s definitely products out there that we can use for Habitat homes. We’re also working with Energy Logic, which is our local rater here in the metro area and they’re all over a good portion of Colorado actually and, hopefully by working with them, our intention is we can streamline this rating process and combine all three of these inspections and reporting requirements together to make this a pretty easy process and transition from where we are right now. You can go to the next slide. 

Mike: These are kinda our basic energy efficient standards and we include these standards on every home that we build and we have done this for a number of years now, gradually, addressing changes as we need to from year to year. But, currently, as I said earlier, we’re scoring in the mid 50’s with our HERS ratings for these…you know, building at these standards and in comparison with these standards and comparing them to the standards to comply with these three programs it’s really a pretty short jump for us to be able to move into this pilot. You can go on to the next slide. 

Mike: So, next month we will be celebrating a groundbreaking ceremony at 718 and 720 Iowa street in Golden, Colorado and this will be our first project using the combination of all three ratings. The vertical construction on the home will start in January, but this is just kind of a real basic rendering, it’s just a small two bedroom, one bath, duplex and fairly common of our smaller models that we build in this area and our intention is that we’ll pilot this program, we’ll work with Energy Logic here locally to work whatever bugs we may find in the program out and then our long term intention is to combine these three programs and ratings on every house that we build in the future, and I truly believe through the research that I’ve done and that we’ve done at this affiliate that from Habitat’s standards in keeping the families best interest in mind, there’s really not a better program out there. As far as saving the homeowners money, on a monthly and, and annual basis, keeping them in a healthy home and also being a good steward to the environment as well. So, I really look forward to partnering with Energy Logic and the EPA and all these programs and I really do encourage, especially those affiliates that have concerns regarding costs and compliance, I really think that you should do some research in your communities and talk to your raters, coordinate trainings, we actually are coordinating a training that’s with our rater next month that’s actually a Habitat specific training to make sure we really truly understand what it’s gonna take to reach, E STAR 3.0 but then also combine these other programs. That’s really all I have. I didn’t ….include a slide with my contact information, but if folks do want to contact me with construction related questions, about how we comply with these standards you’re certainly welcome to email me. And my email address is just mike@habitatmetrodenver.org. Thank you very much. 

John: Thanks, Mike and thank you for taking the time and educating us all with that. That was really great. Ok, we’re coming to the end of our presentation now. I lied before, you guys do have another poll ahead of you. 

John:  We do have a couple of questions that came in throughout the course of the webinar. First question is for Brian. An attendee has asked that they do not provide AC and they use steel combustion direct vent NG boilers for hot water baseboard heat. There’s no ductwork involved. Do they still have to have a certified HVAC, H-V-A-C rater? So, Brian if you want to take that question? 

Brian: Yeah sure, it sounds…it sounds like this person could probably skip a lot of the items on the HVAC Quality Installation Checklist, because the reasons they mentioned in their question, but they still do need to fill out… have the HVAC Checklist filled out and completed because there are some requirements that are in the Checklist that are not really impacted by the fact that there’s no AC or the fact there’s direct vent, natural gas boilers mainly, there’s ventilation requirements that have to be met for ASHRAE 62.2, so that means that they would still have to work with a credentialed HVAC contractor and then fill out that HVAC Checklist. 

John: Gotcha. Very good. Ok. We have another question…this one is for Alicia regarding WaterSense. Is there a WaterSense Checklist available on the website to download?

Alicia: Yes, sorry, I didn’t talk a whole lot about the public site, but if you go again to epa.gov/watersense and look in the section that right now is called “spaces” there’s a new homes section and within that you can find quite a few of our technical resources, including the Checklist as well. That section will probably be redone in the future, but that’s where they are right now. 

John: Ok, we do have one more poll that we’re gonna throw up for your goes. If there are any additional resources that would make it easier for you to incorporate these programs, we have a couple of options for you to select. Select which one you feel would be the most helpful for you. 

John: And we do have one final question that’s come in regarding these three EPA programs. Obviously, the, the, the… question goes, obviously they are for new buildings only, new homes are just a small portion of this individual’s work nowadays, is there anything available, are there any programs for rehabs? And I will open that up to all of the speakers if anyone would like to chime in. 

Alicia: Well, this is Alicia, for WaterSense. Currently right now, because such an integral portion of our specification is that hot water distribution system, if that was going to, if you were doing a rehab project, you would probably have to gut the home in order to design it to meet the specification. So, if you’re doing a complete gut rehab, that would probably work just fine. But other than that, you can’t necessarily earn label for a rehab project, but we do have a full bathroom suite of labeled products, so you can kinda do a bathroom rehab, there would be no label recognition there and you can use our tools that are available for everyone for the outdoor landscaping and things like that. 

Brian: This is Brian. Kinda the same thing for ENERGY STAR. There are individual ENERGY STAR labeled products that you could retrofit using individual product categories, like replacing refrigerator or HVAC system. There is also a whole house retrofit program called Home Performance with ENERGY STAR which is a whole house retrofit program involving an initial energy audit upfront and then as a result of the audit you get a list of improvements, the homeowner decides which improvements they want to make and pay for and then an energy audit is done at the end to make sure the improvements were done correctly. You can get more information on that at Home Performance off of our website at energystar.gov. 

John: And EPA is developing indoor air quality guidance for energy upgrades in existing homes. That’s currently in the works. I’m sorry was that Rick?

Rick: Yeah, (stutter) 

John: Go right ahead. 

Rick: Yeah, for the most part, it aligns with everybody else, if you’re doing a gut rehab it’s a lot easier to reach the IAP specification, but if you’re just doing a simple rehab, the IAP mark can’t be used for the home. 

John: Ok, it looks like that’s the end of our questions. If we want to go to the second to last slide, we have everyone’s contact information. We’ll leave that up for a few seconds. Mostly emails. If you do have any other questions please feel free to get in touch with our speakers, very knowledgeable, more than happy to help you guys in any way and we’re all very happy that you guys took the time out to attend this webinar. Hopefully, you found it informative and we wish you luck in your future endeavors. 





25