Let’s face it, energy efficiency is not a “sexy” topic that has people jumping to make home improvements. Yet, energy efficiency for homes and buildings is the fastest and least expensive approach available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With buildings responsible for 76 percent of power plant-generated electricity and roughly half of the carbon emissions in the environment, this sector is a prime place to start.
Needed: a market mechanism
What’s required is a market mechanism that can motivate people to change their energy behavior and make those energy upgrades. An Energy Performance Score (EPS) – like a miles-per-gallon sticker for your home – is one system than can motivate people in several ways, while ensuring a growing awareness of carbon contributions in our environment. How would this work?
Energy and Carbon scores
Qualified energy auditors using specialized software assess your home based on an extensive audit and testing, looking at square footage, windows, heating and cooling equipment, the utility companies you use, and many other factors. The result is an energy scorecard that indicates your score for both energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with operating your home; the lower the score the better, for both categories. The scorecard also indicates where your home stands on a relative scale, in relation to other similar homes in your state or city, or to a similar home built to current code.
The Energy Performance Score, when listed on public databases such as the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) or in city records, serves a number of functions and provides several benefits. First, it offers homebuyers a comparison tool between homes, just like a miles-per-gallon sticker, so buyers will take energy efficiency, lower utility payments, and carbon emissions into consideration when buying a house.
Changing behavior
Second, it provides that motivation for the homeowner to make energy improvements that can increase the value of his or her home and lower the EPS score. The homeowner may also be motivated by seeing what scores other comparable homes have achieved, or simply by wanting to make the home more competitive on the resale market. When coupled with new technologies such as smart meters and home energy use displays, homeowners may seek even greater efficiencies through changes in their everyday habits.
Going forward, the EPS offers an additional benefit. As other related sectors in the industry see increasing use of EPS, the score can become a commonly used metric: for banks to evaluate energy improvement or mortgage loans, for insurance companies to offer lower premiums to greener, more responsible homeowners, and for government agencies to validate the results of retrofit funding.
Equally important, a growing database of EPS scores across multiple regions can provide a carbon emissions baseline for cities that can assist in emissions planning and development of urban growth requirements.
The Energy Performance Score, developed by Energy Trust of Oregon and conceptualized by Earth Advantage Institute in collaboration with PECI, CSG, and other industry partners, is available for pilot programs in states and municipalities across the U.S. to spur adoption of this vital performance metric.
