Those of you who have been following my blogs know that I keep talking about the ease by which new and existing homes can be modified to achieve a vastly reduced energy “footprint” while improving comfort, at a cost that is much lower than following most existing HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Cooling) design and installation practices. No new or exotic technologies or design techniques are required, everything can be implemented using off-the-shelf equipment and well-known design practices. Unfortunately, installations and retrofits rarely follow known best practices.
The questions I keep wondering about are: Why are good practices not followed and what changes are necessary to achieve excellent results? The potential savings to the user (home and small business owners) are far in excess of the costs of the necessary work to achieve them. Since there is almost always a reduction in the cost following existing (wasteful) practices, there is no “payback” time – correct installations can be achieved at an immediate savings over doing it wrong. There is no “payback” associated with savings from the cost of doing what would have been done.
My observation is that correct designs are not implemented because there is no one available to do the designs. Most HVAC contractors are not prepared to do the necessary designs because of a number of reasons. Foremost is that they don’t have the mind set to do that sort of work. They do things, they seldom design them. Sitting down to a computer to create a detailed design is just not in their wheelhouse – they are tradesmen, not engineers. They learn some “rules of thumb” that always result in systems that have enough power to “work” – their approach results in systems that can heat and cool a house. Not very efficiently, and probably not very comfortably – but they work. A second major problem is that designing an efficient home is more than just installing a high SEER HVAC system – it is a “system” problem, including more than just the HVAC unit. It includes selection of lighting fixtures, appliances, windows, air sealing, ventilation management, insulation, outdoor shading features and many more. A house is a complex system, one that falls outside of the scope of effort of any one type of subcontractor. The work falls under the umbrella of a general contractor, but their job isn’t to figure out what to do – it is to do what has been figured out by others.
The third big stumbling block is that there is no place to find a person or firm skilled about designing energy efficient homes and small businesses. There are engineers, and engineering firms, which do this sort of work for large buildings – but very few doing this design work for smaller buildings (at a fee that is affordable). It is possible to affordably do this work for small buildings, but most energy engineers prefer to work on the much larger, and more lucrative, multimillion dollar projects.
I have come to the conclusion that in order to change the culture of energy efficiency through the design of new, retrofitted or repaired systems there needs to be a way for building owners to get good designs and advice that they can take to their construction team – rather than the construction team bringing solutions to them. Currently, if you ask an HVAC contractor to install a new HVAC system, or replace parts of a failed system, they will follow their habitual rules of thumb – that is the only option that most of them have. They are usually quite willing to follow a design, but don’t have the skills, available time or desire to be creative.
I have been thinking that perhaps I could create a non-profit business offering design, education and inspection services to building owners, so that they can then use this information to select the necessary contractors. It seems that perhaps my new firm could offer these services for a reasonable fee, providing detailed design specifications that can be used by contractors during the bidding process. My firm would be totally independent from the contractors to avoid any sort of selection “bias” in the design effort. Perhaps the government could help fund this sort of effort since it is all for the general good by reducing dependence upon energy, thereby reducing the CO2 and global warming impacts worldwide. I think governmental assistance could be in the form of loans to the building owners to be paid back by their eventual savings. Once the process gets underway it might be able to be self-sufficient. However, to get started will take an investment in the business. Offices will need to be obtained and equipped, employees will need to be hired and trained (since very few engineers know how to do this work), test equipment will need to be purchased – and the early stages of the high cost of starting a new business funded.
However, the other day a new idea crossed my mind. Perhaps this work isn’t best performed by an independent entity such as the business that I have been contemplating, perhaps there is already an entity already in place that can do this better , and more efficiently, than I have been contemplating. Perhaps the utility companies are in a better position to provide this service, for free, to the building owner.
Perhaps the services necessary for providing design assistance can be funded through the Public Purpose Programs* portion of the power bill. In California, this charge already funds a wide variety of educational programs aimed at teaching contractors, homeowners, building officials and others the details of how to achieve highly efficient buildings (both residential and large commercial buildings). They already have the staff, facilities, curriculum, and experience for providing the educational aspects of the process. The inspection parts are already being done through a combination of efforts by the local building departments and third party “HERS” (Home Energy Rating System) inspectors. The combination of the building department and the HERS inspections have the capability for ensure that energy installations meet the appropriate design standards. The California Energy Code (Title 24) already contains the basis for achieving an excellent and efficient home energy system.
The part that is missing is a cost effective means of linking the training, regulations, system designs, installations and inspections to achieve excellent results. All of the basic parts have been accomplished, but there is nobody in place to tie it all together into a working whole. Someone needs to engineer solutions – the contractors can’t do it, very few engineering or architectural firms have the capability to do this work, and those that do change so much that it makes the process seem unrealistic.
A couple of days ago a friend of mine called to ask for advice on how to get a good solution for his upgrade to his old and failing HVAC system. He is aware that I have experience designing and installing systems for some of our neighbors (I am an engineer and a general contractor), achieving near net-zero energy performance for their older “tract” homes for a cost similar to what local HVAC contractors bid to replace their failing systems with “high efficiency” units that would have resulted in almost no improvement in efficiency. He knew that I retired a few years ago and therefore not willing to take on his project. He was asking me for a recommendation for a firm that might do the system level designs that I used to do, thereby minimizing costs while greatly cutting his energy bill. Having been in the business, and recently hiring an HVAC contractor to install a new HVAC system in a house I am renovating, I realized that I don’t know of any local contractors, engineers or others to do this work. I couldn’t find anyone for my renovation (and I was just too busy to do it), and I don’t know of any within a hundred miles that might be able to do the work. I know of a person in the far end of northern California and another in the Sierra Foothills – but that it is. I suppose there might be few others, but I don’t know how to find them – or trust them.
My friend knows about what is needed, is hoping for find someone to do that work properly, and is looking for assistance – but isn’t able to do so. By the way, the contractor I hired did just what I expected – he installed a bunch of equipment that “does the job,” but is far from “optimal” from the efficiency and comfort point of view (and did some major structural damage to my house in the process because he couldn’t recognize what parts of the building structure are necessary and which aren’t. He cut out some critically important structural elements).
What we both needed was access to an organization that could assess the energy needs of our buildings, offer energy improvement options, and provide a detailed HVAC design that would achieve good energy efficiency. By the way, the idea of “energy efficiency” in a building is a bit different from what is normally discussed in the engineering world. It isn’t so much efficiency in the sense of the most amount of energy out for the least amount of energy in. Rather, it is providing comfort and utility for the least amount of energy in. Insulation is an example of what I mean. Good thermal insulation doesn’t exactly improve the efficiency of any equipment, but it does result in a building that maintains comfort with less energy.
I am currently convinced that the major energy suppliers are in the best position to provide the range of services that I am suggesting. They have the staff, the knowledge and a funding source. Perhaps the Public Purpose Program fee will need to be increased a little bit to fund this sort of initiative, but a program such as this could provide an incalculable benefit to the “public” good – locally, nationally and globally.
*The Public Purpose Programs are listed as one of the line item fees on electrical bills. These fees are used to fund many energy related efforts such as support for low income individuals and many training programs.