Email to Local Home Builder

Dear Local Home Builder,

Energy Star homes are usually 20% to 30% more energy efficient than the 2004 International Building Code, not 40% as your radio spot advertises. In fact 15% would be acceptable as long as the Thermal Bypass Checklist is compliant.

When your ad says that your homes are "Up to 40%" more energy efficient this is a statement that is hard to make. To meet this criteria your home would on average need to be:

1. R-16 in the walls
2. R-49 in the flat attic ceilings
3. Basement slab insulated
4. Basement walls insulated even above grade to subfloor
5. 97% HVAC efficiency
6. SEER of 13 AC
7. Programmable Thermostat
8. Reflective roof sheathing
9. Tank-less Water Heater
10. All Windows wrapped and tapped
11. Manual J calculations performed on each floor plan you build with consideration taken regarding site
12. And finally, monitoring the actual energy bill of the home to reflect the HERS certificate, which clearly states a numerical amount of money that is to be saved on energy costs. (Although this is of course not a requirement of the EPA and Energy Star officials).
13. As a matter of CYA principle, I would also thermal image the entire home if I was the builder. (Again not required by Energy Star).

You may be doing some of this already. However, because the HERS Ratings are purely subjective (in that a human being is involved in the input of data into software known as REM/Rate) your company is in essence "Green Washing" the public and could subject your company to litigation and challenges in a court of law.

"Up to 40%" implies to a consumer that it is 40%, not that it could be a range from 30% to 40%. The Consumer Protection Act of Ohio has some pretty good language concerning this issue. Even so, I doubt if your homes consistently rate close to 40% given my expertise in the many variables that can fluctuate the scoring, or the mistakes that can be made by a human being when entering in the purely subjective numbers. For example, does your company provide cubic square footage of each home to your inspector, or just two dimensional square footage? Does your company do a Manual J calculation on each and every floor plan, even the ones with bump-outs? How far away is the probe placed from the HVAC unit when conducting a duct blast test? Does your inspector test to ensure that all windows are actually low-e glass coated, even the tempered glass units? Who at your office is actually making sure that the "Corrections Needed" entries on the Thermal Bypass Checklist are actually fixed? Do your superintendents have training in Energy Star compliance?

I can go on and on with the hundreds of variables. Now lets examine the differences between inspectors and their training. If four inspectors from different companies rated the home is the HERS Score going to be the same? Probably not. Proposed changes by the Department of Energy and EPA are to go to a range in 2011, not a single HERS Score anyway. So quantifying a HERS Score or quantifying to the public a percentage of energy savings to an exact number like "up to 40%" is GREEN Washing.

For more information go to www.EnergyFraud.com. I invite your management to contact me.

Regards,

Bruce Wingfield

Book to be Published Soon!

Although I survived a nasty Trojan Horse attack this weekend, I wanted to notify everyone that the book entitled "Home Energy Fraud, When GREEN is Oversold" will be out soon and available on Amazon. Thanks to some Russian Anti-versus software my personal computer is up and running again. Hey aren't most of the world's virus hackers in Russia? So if you are like me and love defending a PC from all comers, then ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 is for you.

It's like energy efficiency, once that large gas bill comes in you find ways to defeat the problem. My recent gas bill for one of the worst winter months on record was only $160.00. Big difference from the $338.00 I received two years ago!!

Letter sent to United States Senator

The Energy Policy Act of 2004 allowed home builders of new homes to deduct $2,000 per home from their taxable income if the homes were constructed as energy efficient. This energy efficient criteria was established by the EPA based upon the 2006 Mortgage Industry National Home Energy Rating Systems Standards published by RESNET, also known as energy efficient mortgages. Energy Efficient mortgages are virtually never used in today's market and were not much of a tool used by lenders. When contacted a Vice President of Wells Fargo could not remember the last time his company participated in energy efficient mortgages.

RESNET is a non-profit corporation established in Arkansas who has a monopoly on all inspections of Energy Star labeled homes in the United States and whose organization has a patent on the HERS Rating System or Home Energy Rating System wherein a HERS score of from 100 to 0 is obtainable. This scoring is done by a member of RESNET known as a Rater or Provider using a software program called a REM/RATE. The rater or provider inputs into the software various information in order to have the software calculate a HERS score as to the energy efficiency of the home being inspected. The process also involves the rater/provider making certain visual inspections, measuring square and cubic footage of the home being rated, and providing numerous subjective information in order to obtain a HERS score.

However, as in any subjective computer program, garbage in means garbage out, or in some cases garbage in and fraud out. One home received FOUR different HERS ratings from FOUR members of RESNET.

This is one reason the EPA has decided to go to a HERS Range instead of a single score. One home had thirteen errors that had been entered into the software fraudulently in order to achieve a HERS score of 63, when in reality a score of 76 or 78 was accurate.

RESNET's own web site posts the Annual Report of 2007 it states the following: Staff also determined that there was enough evidence of non-compliance with the standards during on-site visits to warrant a more rigorous approach to monitoring.

In conclusion, as a tax payer I seriously question the validity of any tax credit based upon the subjective analysis of a program that appears to be seriously flawed and prone to outright fraud and deception. Tax credits for new windows is something that can be seen. A subjective analysis of how well a home is supposedly well insulated can be manipulated and fraud can become a factor. As a tax payer I would submit that thousands upon thousands of homes have received fraudulent tax credits based upon the Energy Star program and it's subjective approach.

Regards,

Bruce Wingfield