Home Revival

Results are in….

    406 Reetz Ave is a winner. This home has been posted-tested and shown terrific results. The MaGrann report is filed for download within the left column below. We cut air changes by 60% and have modeled energy use to be just 1/3 of the consumption that had been burdened upon the previous owners. These are big numbers in any scenario. Testing staff has offered that they rarely see numbers of this magnitude in any home, much less a 70 year old shell.

    As of this writing the open house tours are underway. The comments are strong about reviving a home, design improvements, enhanced street scape, and pointing the way for the neighborhood. The testing and demonstration phases in home performance are on-going but ready to move to the “big show” of consumer acceptance and demand. Energy bills are shaping some impetus. Make no mistake this effort is nothing short of building a new industry around mainstreaming home performance. The road-map I see is “remodeling” the remodeling industry to ramp up skills of analysis, pre- and post- testing work, and delivering on promised performance results. It is reshaping consumer thinking from “first cost” to life cycle and operational costs being a higher priority. The goal line of reduced consumption, without sacrificing comfort and lifestyle, is an immense societal goal. This effort must succeed. The alternative, of a diminished lifestyle, is not the promise offered to future generations. We all must act now to push this energy consumption / life style equation to actionable results or the next generations will pay with lifestyle contraction.

    We will continue to monitor the home with Apogee software and continue postings and observations.

     The team on board for “Home Revival” has delivered in spades on the project objectives. We are all acutely aware of the importance and challenges of work ahead on home performance contracting.

Moving Home Performance to Millions of Homes

    An adage that I use regularly that helps in scheduling and delegation is "Do anything you can now that lets others get to work."

    • Get all calls and notices done first. (These are fast and efficient to mobilize troops.)   
    • Get any ordering done now and put tasks in others hands (Authorize plumber to get fixtures, electrician to get missing ones.)
    • Get work prepped for others (Get the tile down pronto so the plumber can finish, get the garage door header in pronto so the subsequent trades can work.)
    • Bring in help where it frees your time at less cost  (Numerous outsourced services are inexpensive.)
    • Lastly, do your own work.

     In order to move the energy retrofit of millions of homes we all need to do our part getting others working first. Consumers need to be educated to life cycle and operations costs, beyond our cultural “first cost” fixation.  Trades need their skills to be enhanced so the work output has some performance basis beyond our “looks good” measurements. Regulators need to understand the barriers that exist to innovation and execution--there are many. These are ingrained, institutionalized and often blockages to our collective best interests.  A series of files are posted to the lower left authored by David Listokin of Rutgers University. His work is precise and professional.  To best plan how to move forward, we need to understand the barriers ~ and then dissolve them. 
    I hope this is a helpful perspective in crunch time for both our demonstration home completion, and our preservation of assets for America.

It Takes a TEAM

      It is always great to build and work with a team. It is mandatory to do so when creating a safe healthy home environment.  The project engineering partners at Therma stor and Panasonic have brought years of air control expertise to homes across the land. There are interactions within the home that need to be managed, both with occupant behavior and technology.  The following link from Therma stor will assist with understanding moisture issues.         

          http://www.thermastor.com/pdf/WinterMoisture.pdf .  

     The Whisper^tm line of Panasonic fans and energy recovery ventilators www.panasonic.com  are more tools to align comfort through technology.  These products are best applied with pre-testing the home. MaGrann Associates reports, found below, and their suggestions point the way to how best to tackle the issues at hand. They will be post testing our work on April 25^th with a report out in time for the Home Performance Conference and posted here.  Please register for the conference www.aci.org and attend if you have not already. The process of testing, design, modeling, execution, and post-testing is a simple formula to insure better results in homes.  Visit the links of our team to see the web presence for the best in the business, then come to the conference and hear their message live.  It takes personal growth and education to grasp the home as a system. Both are available in Pittsburgh April 7-11.

Energy Efficient Homes are Worth More!

  In a long established, but underutilized, study the Appraisal Journal has evidenced an increase in Rational Market Valuations for Home Energy Efficiency. The full report can be downloaded from the files on the lower left. The technical jargon aside, there is about a $20.00 return on sale for every $1.00 saved per year in energy consumption. Were you to achieve a $100.00 / month savings, that $1,200 annual savings would produce a home value increase of $24,000.  This tidy sum is more than enough to recapture prudent investments in energy savings and yield comfort along the way. This same valuation shows through in the return on investment (ROI) on rental properties.  If the building costs less to operate, the savings drop to the bottom line, increasing net operating income (NOI). Income producing properties are generally valued as a multiplier of their NOI, hence a higher income will create more value on sale of the property.

    Do the math, energy efficiency pays.

The Financial Case for Green

   I have had the opportunity to work with some of the finest housing engineers in the country. Together we have produced a number of demonstration homes. Invariably the question arises, “does ‘green’ make financial sense?” There are three levels of response. Each is different.  Does “green” make financial sense to the owners, to the builders, or to communities?

  A builder can certainly ramp up his skills to provide a package of products, enhanced skills, and performance verification to produce a more effective building, whether delivered in an existing shell or from the ground up.  Supplying this niche skill set to a market certainly can enhance business opportunities. Amending your business plan to accommodate a wide range of green solutions is a worthy business goal.  The public has interest, and the skills are not widely mastered. I think there is market opportunity for those with a better grasp of building science, and the ability to deliver value to the owners who will buy these services.

  Owners looking for a high return on investment and lowest first cost are likely to be disappointed in their search. Higher skills and performance likely will increase the scope of work details and therefore cost more. The savvy buyer will look to the decision tool on the lower left and weigh operating cost reduction, durability, and a lower carbon footprint as a high value target. To these long term investors the investment in higher performance, comfort, and durability is worth every first-cost penny.

   The impact that better-performing buildings can have on a community, and yes, on society overall, can change the global political balance.  This is a tall order for what may be some caulk and insulation, but the fact is that 39% of domestic energy consumption is in buildings. This consumption is even more than all our transportation energy consumption combined. Abraham Lincoln said in 1863, “The strength of a nation can be seen in its housing.” No doubt that as we strengthen our homes for the next generation, the lowered dependence on fossil fuels can only help in keeping America on the front edge of global leadership. Continued dependency on fossil fuels is both unproductive to our economy and nation, but fills the coffers of many who would relish our continued dependence on these fuels.  This demonstration home is neither zero-energy nor free of the grid. What it is, however, is smart housing solutions well-delivered to a market need for clean, affordable residences.  Delivering on this premise, we all win.   

The Learning Curve to Profitability

There have been studies for decades about increased income correlated to college and advanced education.  It is true for the trades as well.  Intellectual enhancement can produce economic advancement.

I set out to prove this a few years back and completed a 18-month review of contractor buying trends at a local supply yard while providing business content, an in-depth learning experience, and a strong component of mentoring.  The results were stunning:  a 19% increase in sales to the sponsoring supply yard, a 36% decrease in returns, a 57% increase in transactions per month, and a whopping 30 days accelerated cash flow in paying their bills.  The final report, produced by Peter Viechnicki of the University of Chicago, is down loadable on the lower left.

To the trades, income and stability increase with enhanced competency. To the supply chain, an increase in sales and a decrease in accounts receivable will result with a more educated customer base.  The magic of our relationship based industry is we all have a chance to become smarter and work with better contractors, not by replacing the existing pool, but by educating them and nurturing success.

ACI is bringing the content to Pittsburgh in April. BPI is sending training across the land and measuring it. I would urge contractors to attend. I would advise the supply chain to build an attendance plan now and execute in the coming months to bring your customers to the learning opportunities of the Home Performance Conference. There IS a correlation between learning and earning.   

   

 

A process for making decisions

I have long thought we as a society fail to teach people a process for making a decision. We do teach yes-no, black-white, on-off absolutes, but the fuzzy edges are often left in limbo. The absolutes are Boolean logic. The discussion and tool at hand are fuzzy logic, wherein the not so clear answers are illuminated. Please open the file titled Home Performance Decision Tool from the column of files on the left. There is an instruction page, a sample form representing a water heating question, and a blank "homeowner" form.

This Excel file is founded on the premise that there are three components to a decision: Your criteria, your weighting of those criteria, and a scoring of all your options. When put together the yield is your decision. This process is critical to solving questions from the mundane to those life changing quandaries. Everyone's criteria is slightly different, and surely weighted to each personality. We'll be back to this topic again; understanding that buyers' decision-making criteria vary is critical to making a sale, and every solution sold by the green advocates may not be right for you.  Spend a few minutes with the Decision tool.

Media Partner Steps Up

Qualified Remodeler magazine, a division of Cygnus Business Media, Fort Atkinson, WI has been selected to be the official media partner of the Home Revival project. Editor in Chief Patrick O'Toole has a long career of helping remodelers with business solutions. This project carries a professional commitment to contractor education and skills enhancement.  Qualified Remodeler will cover the story throughout construction and follow with a full report on completion.  Home Revival is proud to embrace the readership of QR.   

Selling Consumers on Advanced Technology

Download this Power Point from the left sidebar. Thisis the question bouncing around the industry: "Is green a niche, a fad, or a fundamental shift in consumer behavior?" The jury may be out on the answer, but each contractor needs to master the technical skills to produce better buildings or suffer a business death of irrelevance. The knowledge exists to do so, and I know of no consumers who say "I want a worse performing building." Selling these performance characteristics (tighter homes, less energy consumed, more comfort, more durability) is often an up-sell with consumers fixated on first-cost as their criteria. The incentives of personal satisfaction, pride, and social responsibility cannot be imposed on others who may only ask "how much?".  Every home owner will have slightly different motivation.  Exploring their motivation, and helping with their decisions, will lead to more improved buildings.      

Download selling_consumers_on_advanced_technology.ppt

Milo Orsini

A search of local contractors generated a gem of a find in Milo Services . Milo is reputable, hard working, and eager to accumulate knowledge in the home performance arena.  One of the tasks of this demonstration project is an educational component  attempting to enlighten contractors about the enhancement of homes.  Milo has a great attitude towards learning and brings experience and creativity to the table.  The content of Affordable Comfort combined with the delivery of the Building Performance Institute offers a solid path to raising the bar in home performance.

Milo and his dad, Clyde, working the job site.