Charity and Practicality Combine with HFOT

I couldn't be happier that HARDI's Impact Committee has chosen the fantastic organization, Homes for Our Troops, to be our primary philanthropic partner. HARDI met them at USGBC's 2009 Greenbuild. Homes for Our Troops does new builds and major retrofits for veterans who return from war with injuries and disabilities, and in testament to the organization's foresight, they do these builds and retrofits to maximize energy savings to keep the monthly operating costs as low as possible for the injured veteran. HARDI distributors have donated HVAC equipment and supplies to a few projects so far, and I'm estatic that we've got three members- Virginia Air Distributors, East Coast Metals Distributors, and Ferguson Enterprises- who all donated to Homes' 100th build starting this weekend in Fredericksburg, VA. Click here for more info on this build, and be sure to find any way you can to support Homes for Our Troops anywhere in the US.

Energy Star Version 3 out Friday 11/13

News from the GREENBUILD session where Sam Rashkin, Director of Energy Star for Homes, announced that the ENERGY STAR Version 3.0 will be released tomorrow, Nov. 13 by EPA. This is the update to "Energy Star for Homes 2011." In order to maintain "vintage labeling" for the homes they are switching to the use of "versions." Included in Version 3.0 are three major requirements: 1) thermal enclosure; 2) Quality HVAC Installation; and3) Water managed Construction.

It is important to note that Version 3.0 has prescriptive Checklists and are NOT ratings like previous versions. There was a lot of discussion around the training aspect of HVAC installers requirement. The checklist responsibilities for this will fall on the builder as well as the rater. EPA intends to produce web-based training for each of these groups to help them understand their role. Also, while the requirements are to be met by Jan. 2011 as the start of the performance methods, there will be an additional twelve-month window to give the HVAC industry time to train.

(An interesting side note, a speaker earlier in the day suggested that between 40-50% of the trained HVAC workforce will be eligible to retire in the next decade.)

Check out the full ES Version 3.0 (which supposedly includes improvements based on the 300 comments they received from the first announcements) at the EPA website: http://www.energystar.gov/homes.

Recovery Through Retrofit report - 30-day comment period

“Spending Federal Green on Green,” a session at GREENBUILD, mentioned that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) just launched an online forum to receive public ideas and comments on the Recovery Through Retrofit report which was released on October 19 (see Talbot’s blog of 10/26). The report identifies three barriers that have prevented a national market for home retrofits from taking off. First, consumers don’t have access to reliable information about retrofits. Second, the upfront costs of home retrofits can be high but consumers don’t have access to financing. Finally, there aren’t enough skilled workers to serve a robust national retrofit market.

The report is the result of an interagency process and lays the groundwork of a self-sustaining home energy efficiency retrofit industry. Public comments on the report can be submitted on the CEQ website by Dec. 4.

Also at this session one of the panelists, a high-level spokesperson from the Office of Management and Budget was put on the spot with a question regarding the confusion over the “Buy American” requirement for products supplied to green projects funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Apparently, even if component parts for a U.S. manufactured product are made overseas it puts the entire project at risk. Unfortunately, there is not a clear answer coming from the federal government on this and the speaker actually suggested interpreting it yourself. We’ll keep you posted when we hear more about this.

Some Green Facts & Figures

Some facts and figures that might surprise you from GREENBUILD: 27% of all global venture capital is currently invested in green technology. In 2005, $7 billion was spent on green market products in general in the U.S.; this moved to $12 billion in 2007 and is predicted to hit $60 billion in 2010. Many of today’s presentations started talking about retrofitting green as opposed to focusing only on new construction for energy and dollar savings. As the President and Founding Chair of the USGBC, Rick Fedrizzi, stated: “Going Green no longer needs to be proven; it just needs to be implemented.” From the several hundred presentations delivered this week showing real projects across the world with some amazing cost and energy saving stats, it would appear we are well on our way.

Al Gore speaks at GREENBUILD

Big night at GREENBUILD– Al Gore spoke to the 28,000 attendees gathered at Chase Field (Diamond Back Stadium). He said never before has the U.S. had three crises coming at us simultaneously, namely economic, climate and security and they all have a common thread, i.e., dependency on carbon-based fuels. He was also quick to point out that we have all the tools and the people we need to solve 3 or 4 climate crises with the possible exception of political will. And he stressed “shared purpose” with other countries. He was preceded by eleven representatives from Green Building Councils in countries from Australia, to Italy, to Taiwan each giving a 60 second update on the state of resource saving steps being taken in their area. I was struck by the rep from London, England who said they have a mandate for zero carbon emissions in all new homes construction by 2016. He remarked that this short time frame has created an “unprecedented level of innovation” in the built environment.

Greenbuild is huge

I’ve only gotten through one of the two convention center buildings in Phoenix housing the over 1000 exhibitors at GREENBUILD. Apparently it’s quite difficult to get into the show as an exhibitor – you have to be reviewed and approved. More importantly you have to commit to balancing the carbon footprint you create in coming to the show with the purchase of carbon credits. Despite all we hear about virtual life, social networking and “kicking the tires” in person seems to trump the day in connecting with 25k+ people. GreenBuild is a massive show and education program – they do a good job. People here are seriously committed to conserving resources. And why not? A speaker mentioned that “50% of the houses needed by 2030 have not yet been built. That’s pretty amazing when you think about our growth projections and this is only twenty years away. So, why not build green if you can. Just think of the impact this will have for our distributor members across North America.

Buildings and Resource Usage

I’m sure you’ve heard the reference from the US Energy Information Administration that buildings are the single largest contributor to global warming, accounting for almost half of total annual U.S. energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Here’s more from the same source: Impacts of US Buildings on Resources: 40% primary energy use, 72% electricity consumption, 39% CO2 emissions and 13.6% potable water consumption. It’s pretty clear this trip that green building can reduce all these numbers dramatically – building by building. More interesting stat from a 2006 study by the Davis Langdon company that “there is no significant difference in average costs for green buildings as compared to non-green buildings.” This study concentrated on design and construction costs. We’ll see if that holds up over time and carries over to providing “green” equipment as well.

Green I Am

Green I am. It’s hard not to be here at the GreenBuildConference in Phoenix, AZ. With over 25,000 people and counting it is obvious that the “green movement” is now mainstream. Yesterday I learned a lot about the history of the US Green Building Council which has no federal agency connection despite its name. USGBC started back in the early 90’s and is particularly known for its LEED program (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design). While the LEED designation is targeted to buildings, there are basically 6 elements that make up LEED. That’s where HVAC/R can participate. Our equipment can lend credibility to the point system used to designate LEED structures esp. in the areas of energy, water efficiency and indoor environmental quality. Yesterday’s speaker, an architect, is working with a hospital in CA to recapture 75% of the condensate from its HVAC systems cooling towers and using it for irrigation. There is definitely a role for our industry but I heard the word “collaboration” as the marching cry yesterday. Building design and development has always been a joint effort of architects, engineers, equipment providers and operations people. The new effort of “green collaboration” is meant to bring in all these people at the beginning of the process in a true collaborative approach before any foundation is even poured.

Check Out HARDI's Commentary from Greenbuild 2009

HARDI's Director of Education, Patricia Kutt, is on her way to Phoenix this week for the U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild 2009. Patricia will be blogging from this massive event recapping the sessions and workshops she attends and the products, applications, and opportunities she sees there for the HVACR industry. All posts from this year's Greenbuild will be tagged "greenbuild 09" so you can follow everything from Phoenix with this link. You can also see last year's Greenbuild '08 commentary here.