FROM: Ostroff Associates

DATE: November 10, 2020

RE: CAC Energy Efficiency & Housing: Builders, Installers and Designers Roundtable -
Single Family Housing
Lee Byers: Apollo Heating, here to learn more.
Blaine Fox: CMC Energy Services, we deliver energy efficiency conservation programs.
Kerry Quaglia: Home HeadQuarters, build new homes and do rehabs, have a robust lending
program to finance energy retrofits, priority would be using incentives to level the playing field
when it comes to using new technologies.
Scott Short: RiseBoro Community Partnership, develop affordable housing and provide community-
based services, policy priority would be finding strategies to reduce rate disparities between
natural gas and electricity.
Brian Baer: Elevated Studio, disaster partner, use design to amplify social and economic inequities.
Amanda Schneck: WaterFurnace, manufacture geothermal and water source heat pumps, want to
update building code to mandate new buildings to have electrification for heating, cooling and hot
water.
Yoselin Genao Estrella: Neighborhood Housing Services of Queens, work to ensure low to moderate
income people have tools to buy and maintain homes, need strategies that ensure stability, and that
low-income home owners need resources available to them for energy efficiency.
Lewis Dubuque: NYS Builders Association, policy priority is that housing affordability is taken into
account.
Christie Peale: Center for NYC Neighborhoods, protect homeownership, priority is to increase
funding for the 1-4 family stock for energy efficiency at large, to increase access to weatherization
resources and make sure there is consumer education and protection.
Josh Stack: Northeast Green Building Consulting and Stack Resilience, priority is how to utilize
energy towards broader goals of health, equity and resilience.
Jay Best: Green Team Long Island, implement energy efficiency, renewable and electrification
projects, priority is low interest financing for all income levels to get projects off the ground.
Dave Stapleton: Builder in Buffalo, priority is figuring out how we pay for “it.” Keeping things
affordable has been a problem.
Jennifer Keida: Standard Insulating in CNY, deliver products and services on insulation and HVAC
side of residential and commercial, existing and new constructions. Priority is addressing lack of
support for initiatives being looked at, and elevating the workforce as well.
William Tuyn: David Homes, new technology is critical, needs to be affordable.
Devin Kulka: Kulka Group, education at the labor level is a priority.
John Barrows: Builder, involved in National Association of Homeowners and their sustainability
work, priority is looking at things from a performance standpoint rather than a prescription
standpoint.
Jeff Flaherty: Wise Home Energy, low interest rates and focus on retrofits and dialing down on
blower doors would be priorities.
Vanessa Ulmer, NYSERDA, Background Presentation:
Best: I mentioned low interest financing as a barrier, for example NYSERDA did an experiment in
the late spring and offered a 0% interest rate for their energy efficiency retrofit programs they
oversee. They stated it would last up to 6 months and after 15 days it was sold out. From that, I
learned a lot of people want to move forward with energy efficiency projects and they are looking
for opportunities. Babylon has a residential PACE offering, through that program, we are able to
offer improvements to homes for energy efficiency no matter someone’s economic situation.
Barrows: We’ve had a lot of increases in the energy code over the last decade, the stuff being
proposed now is increasingly expensive. Looking at the impact of the code changes, studies have
suggested new construction is only contributing 3.7% to GHG emissions. If we can look to
incentives for existing homes, we could have a bigger bang for our buck. Market acceptance is
another issue.
Fox: Existing housing stock is a major barrier to the adoption of heat pumps. Should be focusing on
condition of the shell and on the duct work modifications necessary so it doesn’t increase energy
burden. Prevalence of natural gas is another barrier.
Stapleton: In new single-family homes, natural gas alternatives are a problem from a marketing
standpoint.
Peale: Weatherization resources for both solar and electric and heat pump systems – have found
2/3s of homes we work with have insulation that is basically air and wood. Need families to have
resources for weatherization work.
Baer: While it’s important to recognize sustainability of the structures we’re working with, we’re
also looking at how resilience plays into homes. Weatherization shouldn’t be the end all be all to
making the home more affordable.
Baer: Have noticed homeowner education is a barrier, they don’t know what opportunities are out
there and what they should be doing. Should look at providing educational forums for property
owners and residents.
Estrella: Need to make resources more accessible and be able to offer homeowners a whole
package, or let them take small steps towards energy efficiency.
Peale: Integrating consumer protection to help folks understand what they are getting into. Having
housing counselors is critical. People deserve to know risks, rights, and responsibilities.
Quaglia: Have to include education of contractors. Contracting community really hasn’t accepted
new technologies.
Short: Operating costs are a critical piece of the overall financing, there is a big discrepancy between
natural gas and electricity – electric costs 4x as much as natural gas. We should create a special rate
class for all electric buildings and for affordable housing as well.
Schneck: Until we signal the marketplace that we are going to electrify, there are going to be too
many choices.
Best: There is a lot of turnover of heating systems over time, most homeowners have a gas boiler, it
breaks and they think they need a new gas boiler.
Tuyn: Would push back on the idea that we should focus on new construction. Also have to
understand the role new construction plays in the American economy. Electrifying raises the price
of new homes. The house is now more expensive, and assessed value is higher, so tax bill is now
forever higher. Policies should hit the whole market, old and new.
Byers: There has to be a carrot and a stick, as an HVAC contractor I can tell you pushing this in the
winter will not work. If someone’s boiler goes out in winter, we won’t be putting on solar panels in
the middle of winter so there has to be an off-season push.
Peale: An easy thing to think about is making sure all programs have applications available online.
Need to think about basic accessibility.
Fox: Have been looking at opportunities in the air quality space. When you focus more on
ventilation, you can increase energy efficiency.
Best: We are implementing a lot of remote assessment practices. We’ve seen people much more
home-focused than before.
Stack: Standards for single-family housing are based on an acceptable ventilation standard, so when
you start to size your ventilation against energy efficiency, there is a higher energy required, so
when you start looking at COVID-19 research - we really need to start looking at HVAC. Most super
spreader events have happened in places with insufficient ventilation.
Short: In regards to air quality, one way to tackle that is through energy recovery ventilators.
RiseBoro is a big proponent of that.
Tuyn: One of the things the residential construction industry did was develop a National Green
Building Standard, it’s program that quantifies the level of “greenness” a home is built to. NYS has
put in programs to have benefits for costumers who elect to a build a home using those
performance standards.
Baer: HUD Green Buildings.
Peale: Energy scores for homes getting sold.
Fox: Need to focus on the technicians and mechanics in the early stages of HVAC training.
Schneck: California has the mandate that all trucks and passenger vehicles be EV by 2035, Denmark
has a no fossil fuel mandate for new construction with retrofits.
Barrows: National Green Buildings Standard is a holistic approach. Have been working with
appraisers and realtors to get recognition.
Best: Virtual audits have been very successful for letting homeowners know what we are doing and
what project would make sense for them.