[Update, 8/18/10: The Home Star Energy Retrofit bill has been included in the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Bill of 2010 (S. 3663), now pending in the Senate.] You
may have heard of the Home Star program that will provide rebates and financing
to homeowners for energy improvements on their homes - if it passes Congress.
The proposed federal legislation (the Home Star Energy Retrofit Bill of 2010,
H.R. 5019) passed the House of Representatives May 6. The Senate bill (S. 3177)
is now in the hands of the Senate Finance Committee.
President
Barack Obama highlighted the Home Star program in a June 12 letter to Democratic
and Republican leaders in the House and Senate, encouraging its passage.
Matt
Golden, co-founder and president of energy-efficiency/home remodeling firm
Recurve, believes the legislation is in a “very good position”
to pass the Senate and be signed into law, “because we have such a broad
coalition.” Golden’s company is part of the Home Star Coalition, and he has
spent much of his time working to get this piece of legislation passed.
Proponents
of the legislation include business leaders, construction contractors, building
products and mechanical manufacturers, retail sales businesses, environmental
and energy-efficiency groups, and labor advocates.
So
what exactly is Home Star, and how will it help contractors?
Home Star Basics
If
passed, the legislation will make $6 billion in rebates and financing available
to homeowners for energy-efficiency improvements. There are two ways to do
this:
1. Silver Star level. This
level offers rebates for the purchase and installation of energy-saving
equipment such as boilers, water heaters, tankless water heaters, heat pumps, HVAC
equipment, etc. It also includes home improvements such as insulation and new
windows.
Depending
on the type of project, homeowners will receive matching funds from $250 to
$1,500 (not to exceed 50 percent of the cost), with a cap of $3,000 on rebates.
2. Gold Star level. This goes
a step further by providing incentives to retrofit an entire home. A home energy
audit is performed by a certified professional, who will work with the
homeowner to design a customized retrofit plan and calculate the energy savings
that will result from the recommended improvements. Third-party inspections
will be required on a percentage of all jobs.
Homeowners
will receive $3,000 for projected savings of 20 percent, plus $1,000 for each
additional 5 percent of energy savings, with matching incentives of up to
$8,000.
Home
Star will also allocate up to $200 million to states to be used as credit
supports or interest buy-downs, which will help make low-interest financing
available to homeowners to cover part of the retrofit costs.
Once
the bill passes, the Department of Energy has 60 days to get the rebate program
in place, Golden says. The House bill limited the Home Star program to two
years; the Senate bill tacked on an additional two years.
Home
Star rebates can be used with existing local, state or federal incentive
programs.
Contractor Training And Certification
One
of the cornerstones of the Home Star idea is to create jobs in the construction
industry. Nearly 2.1 million jobs have been lost in the construction trades
since 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Coalition members
estimate that the Home Star program will create 168,000 jobs in construction
and related industries over the course of the program.
According
to material from
Efficiency First, a nonprofit
trade association for the “home performance” workforce, Home Star is “designed
to create construction jobs fast by leveraging existing programs and sector of
the economy that is currently underutilized.”
Homeowners
looking to replace equipment at the Silver Star level are encouraged to hire
licensed and insured contractors. No additional training is required, so
plumbers and mechanical contractors could get started right away.
But
contractors wanting work at the Gold Star level will have to be certified in
home performance work, which may require additional training. Those who do not
have the required certification could wait about a year before they are able to
begin Gold Star work, Golden explains.
Four
organizations currently provide the required training and certification, Golden
says, although the DOE can add more groups to the list:
The
legislation requires the DOE to keep a Web site database of all certified
contractors for the Home Star program. There is a small amount of funding for marketing,
Golden says, but the construction industry will be mostly responsible for “selling”
the idea to homeowners.
It
has been difficult to get the industry engaged in energy-efficiency retrofits
until recently, Golden notes.
“HVAC
systems are the heart and soul of home performance,” he says. “Weatherization
is fairly easy, while HVAC is the hard part. But when you combine the two, you
get a happier customer and a more profitable business.”
For
up-to-date information on the legislation, keep checking our Web site at
www.PMmag.com.
