EfficiencyPA's 2011 Green Home Hero Awards

And the winner is…

These days, green can mean many things.

According to EfficiencyPA’s Program Manager John Horchner, who created the Green Home Hero awards program being run as a promotion at the Allegheny County Green & Innovation Festival on September 24th, “it helps if it’s backed up with some hard science.”

EfficiencyPA is using the Department of Energy’s new Home Energy Score program as one of 10 organizations nationwide who are testing the software as part of a pilot program. The software is being used to measure the energy efficiency and carbon output of fifteen homes who were selected as possible candidates for awards from more than 100 entries.

“Being part of the DOE’s Home Energy Score pilot has been great,” Horchner stated. “It is the perfect fit for our Green Home Hero awards.”

EfficiencyPA is using the Home Energy Score as a way to quickly and credibility evaluate homes and provide valuable homeowner education.

“In our case, we were looking for homes that had already done the energy audit and work,” Horchner said, “but I could see it working the other way.”

“My wife is a doctor in Pittsburgh, and she’s done blood pressure screenings as part of her outreach at fairs and festivals. Is the patient getting a full physical? No. Are they picking up valuable information and in some cases is she really helping people? Yes. I would compare the Home Energy Score to that. It could open the door to a full energy audit in homes that really need it.”

The Home Energy Score is often compared to a miles-per-gallon rating, similar to the one used for cars.

“That’s right, it’s a rating and it’s not meant as a replacement for a full energy audit,” Horchner said.

“Obviously when you limit the data inputs and the amount of time to an hour or so, you don’t get the level of detail that you can gather in the four hours it takes to do full energy audit,” he said. “Even still, the fact that the score is being administered by BPI certified professionals, means you are able to communicate concepts like combustion safety and minimum ventilation standards. Homes that are tighten beyond the standard should have continuous mechanical ventilation.”

Horchner said he was happy that over 100 people applied to participate in the pilot program in Western PA since this year’s program ran on very little funding.

“This was just a test for us, but next year I would like to see 1000 homeowners in Pennsylvania participate. I think homeowners like the fact that the software is backed by the DOE {Department of Energy}”, he said.

Duquesne Light and People’s Natural Gas added a pledge for prizes for this year’s program.

“The Home Energy Score gets you asking the right questions that lead to real energy savings,” Horchner continued. “It usually becomes pretty obvious what the home needs.”

The software ranks the recommendations and gives an annual dollar savings amount and payback for each suggested measure.

“Even among the qualified homes, we got a wide variation in scores,” Horchner said. He said there were several homes where the software could find no additional recommendations.

“I would call those homes very serious contenders.”

The software’s recommendations are currently limited to a 10 year pay back, so measures which would be nice to have for the benefit of the environment or homeowner, but cannot be show to have a provide ROI of less than 10 years, are currently not included.

“In one case where the software could find no additional recommendations, the homeowner did not appear to fully appreciate how energy efficiency their home actually was.”

The Pittsburgh home, designed with input from building performance gurus at Pittsburgh based IBACCOs, was one of the most efficient surveyed.

“They said they bought the home for other reasons.”

Maybe that is how it should be, energy efficiency just humming along quietly in the background.

Contact: John Horchner, Program Manager, 412 428 9533 john@efficiencypa.com