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