SMUD Home Performance Program: Neighborhoods Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) THE PROGRAM Q) What is the neighborhood program in a nutshell? A) The Neighborhood program is a simple, low cost, retrofit program that offers bulk discounts through the use of predetermined home energy improvement packages. The packages are developed based on specific neighborhood characteristics which are gathered through energy audits of a small sample of volunteer neighborhood homes. This program will be offered in selected neighborhoods that can sign up a minimum of 25 homeowners in advance to take advantage of bulk contractor pricing. The more homeowners that opt into the neighborhood program, the lower the cost will be. These energy improvements will reduce homeowner s monthly utility bills, provide improved comfort and value to their homes and save valuable energy resources. The program administrator, ConSol, and SMUD select neighborhoods that have the greatest potential to save energy and are most likely to be interested in participating. Three to five homes in the neighborhood are tested and analyzed to develop three packages of energy efficiency improvements for the homes in the neighborhood which will include cost and energy savings estimates. The homeowners association for the neighborhood will host an orientation meeting that will explain the program and packages to the homeowners. Interested homeowners sign up for one of the packages. Based on this information, a bid solicitation or Request for Proposals (RFP) is released to SMUD participating contractors. ConSol will review and select a contractor based on qualifications, previous work, references, and their ability to provide bulk discounts. The selected contractor will visit the homes of each interested homeowner to review the package, verify the work that will be needed based on a visual inspection of the home, and adjust the desired improvements and pricing as needed. The homeowner will sign a contract with the contractor. The work is performed and the home tested to ensure it meets energy efficiency performance targets. The contractor submits the rebate paperwork to ConSol for completed jobs; Consol validates the payment requests; and SMUD s rebate administrator and the gas utility s rebate administrator send the rebate checks directly to the homeowner. Homes are selected randomly for quality assurance testing.
Q) What is home performance? A) Building performance or home performance is a comprehensive whole-house approach to identifying and fixing comfort and energy efficiency problems in a home. Q) What is building science? A) Building science is the collection of scientific knowledge that focuses on the analysis and control of the physical phenomena affecting buildings. It traditionally includes the detailed analysis of building materials and building envelope systems. Q) Why neighborhoods? A) Similar construction techniques and home features including age and condition of insulation and heating/cooling systems mean many of a neighborhood s homes should benefit from similar energy retrofits. Audits of select homes confirm the unique features and help determine cost-effective energy improvement packages. Q) What is a Neighborhood Energy Advocate? A) A Neighborhood Energy Advocate is a neighbor who volunteers to help promote the neighborhood concept to his/her neighbors through word-of-mouth, fliers, doorknob hangers and/or other available promotional opportunities. The more neighbors that participate in the program, the lower are the cost of the packages. It behooves everyone in the neighborhood to be an energy advocate! Q) I live across the street from the neighborhood boundaries. Can I still participate? A) The Neighborhood program is confined by the association boundaries. However, the neighborhood program will be expanding to other neighborhoods and may come to your neighborhood in the near future. Check with SMUD on the availability. Or you may choose to participate in SMUD s Home Performance Program for individual homes. Q) What is the program goal? A) SMUD s main program goal is to create public awareness on the principles of the home as a system, where each individual part builds to create a home which could be more comfortable, safer, and more energy efficient. Q) What is the source of the rebate money? A) On Feb. 13, 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 at the urging of President Obama, who signed it into law four days later. A direct response to the economic crisis, the Recovery Act has three immediate goals: Create new jobs and save existing ones Spur economic activity and invest in long-term growth
Foster unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency in government spending SMUD received just under $20 million THE PACKAGES Q) How were the three packages determined? A) Similar construction techniques and home features including age and condition of insulation and heating/cooling systems mean many of a neighborhood s homes should benefit from similar energy retrofits. Audits of select homes confirm the unique features and help determine the most costeffective packages. The packages are based on building science principles which look at the house as a system. The Good package aligns with SMUD s prescriptive program requirements which improves air leakage problems in the duct system and the envelope, and insulates the attic as well as the hot water heater and pipes. The Good package also ensures safe air quality by requiring testing of combustion equipment, and installation of a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm as needed. The Better package, which includes the Good package, concentrates on the systems: high efficiency air conditioner, high efficiency furnace and a new water heater. The Best package includes the Good and Best packages, and adds replacement windows and solar (solar thermal and/or solar electricity). Q) What is the difference between prescriptive and performance packages? A) A prescriptive option ( Good ) focuses on installing a basic pre-set package of improvements. A trained home performance professional will assess your attic insulation, air infiltration, duct system performance and conduct a safety inspection of the combustion appliances. The performance packages ( Better and Best ) assesses how improvements to all of your energy-related components and systems can work together to give your home greater energy savings, comfort and safety. Q) What if I recently replaced one item in the Good package? To receive the $1,000 utility rebate for the Good package, a homeowner must have the following measures: air sealing; R-38 attic insulation, and duct test and seal. If you have recently had any of this work done, you will not qualify for the rebate for the Good package. In this case, you will be encouraged to consider the Better or Best packages with their larger rebates and more substantial predicted energy savings. Q) What if I want the Better package, but I just purchased a new air conditioner? If a homeowner has recently purchased equipment that would normally be part of the Better package, he or she will simply alert the performance contract chosen for the neighborhood of the purchase and negotiate a new price for the remaining items in the package.
Q) The Best package calls for solar thermal and/or solar electricity. What is the difference between them and will a General Contractor have the credentials to install solar? A) Solar thermal technology harnesses solar energy for thermal energy (heat). Solar thermal collectors are defined by the USA Energy Information Administration as low-, medium-, or high-temperature collectors. Only low- and medium-temperature collectors are used in residential. Low temperature collectors are flat plates, generally used to heat swimming pools. Mediumtemperature collectors are also usually flat plates, but are used for creating hot water. Solar electricity or photovoltaics (PVs) convert solar energy directly into electricity. Q) Why aren t whole house fans part of the program? A) Whole house fans are not included as part of the packages as ConSol has strived to make the measures in the packages universally applicable to homes in your neighborhood. However, please note that SMUD has a rebate for whole house fans (http://www.smud.org/en/rebates/documents/whole-house-fan-fact- Sheet.pdf) and that the contractor may add that on to your contract at your request, separate from the package of improvements you choose as part of the SMUD Home Performance Program: Neighborhoods program. Q) Why isn t geothermal part of the program? A) The neighborhood program was developed for the masses. Geothermal, though a highly efficient system, is too expensive for the general public. Q) What if I want to get my own contractor to do the work can I still get rebates? A) The SMUD Home Performance Program requires that the contractor be a SMUD participating contractor on the SMUD Home Performance list in order for the homeowner to get rebates. If you use a SMUD participating contractor, you can choose the program fits your needs. However, in the neighborhood program, your contractor will be chosen by ConSol. Q) I ve been hearing that homes can be sealed too tightly. What if my home is sealed too tightly? A) Your home will have a health and safety exam to make sure it is not too tight. If it is, though unlikely, measures will be taken to mitigate it. FINANCING Q) What are the financing options? A) SMUD is providing financing options and those can be found at http://www.smud.org/en/rebates/documents/residential-financing-form.pdf Other possibilities are energy efficient mortgages (EEM), a 203K (http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/203k/203kabou.cfm); cash; credit card; line of credit; contractor provided financing or home equity loans. Q) What is the payback on the packages?
A) Payback is the wrong investment measure to look at how much you re spending compared to how much your saving is the best way to determine if a package is a good investment for you. THE REBATES Q) What are the rebates based on and how much are they? A) There are two types of retrofit improvements that can be chosen by the homeowner, each has its own rebate level. The prescriptive level of retrofits and rebates align with the Neighborhood program s Good package. The Good /prescriptive package receive a flat rebate of $1,000. The Better and Best packages fall within the performance level of retrofits and rebates. The rebates for performance retrofits are based on the modeled (computer analysis) energy savings which will result from a set of improvements. To qualify for a performance rebate, the improvements modeled and implemented on the home must render a minimum of 20% energy savings. The 20% savings receives a $2,000 rebate and each additional 5% of savings increases the rebate by $500 to a maximum rebate amount of $5,000. Q) Is it possible that I could have the work done, and not qualify for a rebate? A) The SMUD participating contractor should be able to provide an estimated energy saving before the contract gets signed as far as performance goes. There does remain the possibility that the savings won t make 20% performance depending on the work scope and energy consumption. Q) How are the rebates paid? A) Combined rebates are available through SMUD and the gas utility. Each of these rebates will require separate applications. The rebate checks go directly to the homeowner and will come from the appropriate utility. Q) Are there rebates available beyond SMUD and the gas utility? A) The California Energy Commission currently has rebates for appliances (including air conditioning, furnace and water heater) on a first-come, first-served basis. A proposed federal program, Home Star, could provide additional rebates if approved. The contractor should be well versed in all the available rebates, but you can keep abreast by visiting http://www.dsireusa.org/, which lists energy rebates by state. THE CONTRACTOR Q) What qualifications and requirements are necessary for the contractor who will do the work? A) Current General Contractor s License (B); current certificate of insurance; clean record with Better Business Bureau; Building Performance Institute (BPI) certification; two references; past projects/history; flexibility; and current workload detail. ConSol selects the contractor based on the best combination of qualifications, quality and price.
Q) How can one contractor do all the work in a neighborhood? A) The chosen contractor will be a larger contractor with the ability to do multiple projects. He will have a Class B License and will likely hire subcontractors to do certain aspects of the work. As part of the contractor bid solicitation, the contractor will be required to lay out a rough schedule of when work will be completed, including major milestones (50% of homes complete, etc.). ConSol will also be using its industry knowledge and its experience working with contractors for over 25 years to verify the chosen contractor s capacity to complete the work in a timely fashion. Q) Will the contractor be present through my entire job? A) No. The contractor will likely be hiring and overseeing subcontractors to complete some of the work as part of the packages of improvements. However, as the BPI-certified general contractor, he/she will be responsible for the quality of all work completed. Q) What is Building Performance Institute (BPI) certification? A) BPI is a national standards development and credentialing organization for residential energy efficiency retrofit work providing training through a network of training affiliate organizations, individual certifications, company accreditations and quality assurance programs. As an independent, not-for-profit organization, they bring together leading building science experts from across North America to develop standards using a consensus-based methodology. Contractors spend a good deal of their time, effort, and money to become trained with quality, safety and durability in mind. www.bpi.org Q) If a contractor defaults, is the liability on SMUD? A) The contract is between the homeowner and the contractor. Neither SMUD nor ConSol is liable. Every effort will be made to fully vet the chosen contractor before work begins. Q) How long will the work take? A) The amount of time required to perform the work depends on the package selected. It would not be unexpected that the good package could take five days, and the best package may take over a month if parts had to be ordered and engineering required. Q) How do we know that the contractor won t use inferior products? A) The contractor will be required to use ENERGY STAR products when applicable and the quality of his work will be fully vetted before construction begins with quality assurance throughout construction. Q) How can the contractor provide bulk discounts without cutting corners? A) The contractor receives multiple leads as part of the neighborhood program. This dramatically cuts the contractor s cost of sale. Since the homes are in one
area, it also decreases operation costs through efficient scheduling of labor and equipment and reduction of transportation costs. The contractors are required to use ENERGY STAR equipment where applicable. Q) How do we know the contractor will not change the price when we go to sign the contract? The contract between you and the contractor will reflect the size of your home and other characteristics that the contractor will review during his/her visual audit. All participating contractors will be required to go through a number of classes and certifications to be included in SMUD Home Performance or Home Performance: Neighborhood programs. In addition, ConSol will be conducting quality assurance on a sample of homes to verify work quality and will be reviewing rebate applications including costing. The access to SMUD rebates and inclusion in SMUD s list of contractors, plus the time and energy that contractors will need to invest just to become part of the Home Performance program will motivate contractors to conduct business in the most transparent way. Q) What can I expect from the contractor s first visit? A) He will perform a visual audit to verify your current equipment and make sure there is easy access to areas he will work in to make the most efficient use of his time. He will discuss financing options and rebate availability. He will give you the final pricing based on the visual audit and provide you with a scope of the work to be performed and a contract for you to sign. Once the contract is signed he will then schedule the work. Q) What if the contractor finds something else I need that is not in the three packages or what if I want something that is not in the three packages? A) The three packages of improvements have been designed to improve or upgrade the most common energy efficiency problems that we have found in homes in your neighborhood. As such, the packages are not exhaustive of all work that can or might be done on your home. It is anticipated that homeowners will have work that they would like the contractor to perform on their home which is outside of the scope of the packages of improvements. In that case, you will negotiate the cost for work directly with the chosen contractor. Rebates and financing for said improvements will also need to be negotiated outside of the Neighborhood program. Items which do not directly increase the energy savings percentage will have no effect upon the rebate. Those items may not be added into the project as far as SMUD finacing is involved, unless SMUD currently offers financing for those measures. Q) What is the process if I am not happy with my contractor? First, work with contractor directly. If the issue is not resolved, contact ConSol or the State Contractor License Board http://www.cslb.ca.gov/
CONSOL Q) Who is ConSol and how are they involved in the program? A) ConSol has been in the energy consulting business for over 25 years integrating building science technologies into existing and new construction. ConSol has calculated tens of thousands of energy analyses, performed tens of thousands of energy audits, and has been US Department of Energy (DOE) Building America team lead for over seven consecutive years. Part of the DOE contract requires ConSol to pilot a neighborhood approach for energy retrofits. ConSol is in partnership with SMUD to deliver this approach. SMUD does not pay ConSol for its services. ConSol will be providing energy efficiency analysis and building oversight, contractor selection, marketing, and ongoing monitoring and testing. For more information on ConSol, visit www.consol.ws