Efficiency First

Home-performance contracting, a concept that goes hand in hand with the practice of building science, is a relatively new area that is attracting remodelers who want to differentiate themselves and offer a service that homeowners may be increasingly willing to consider.

For those unfamiliar with the term, home-performance contracting usually involves energy and comfort improvements with emphasis on building components as an interrelated system. Typically, before and after testing is employed to identify problems and verify their remediation.

A remodeler looking to include home-performance contracting in his or her portfolio of services should first become thoroughly familiar with the nuances of the concept. Professional associations have always been an avenue for learning and sharing knowledge, and Washington, D.C.-based Efficiency First is one to which a remodeler may turn for information about this burgeoning field.

Public vs. Private

Efficiency First and the home-performance contracting industry occupy a unique position on the public/private continuum. Private homeowners have an interest and constitute a market for energy-saving home improvements while public policy that encourages energy independence and energy conservation to combat global warming is increasingly evident.

The public policy aspect is well illustrated by the soon-to-expire Federal Energy Tax Credits for home energy-efficiency improvements, such as energy-efficient windows, insulation, HVAC and more. Those tax credits, many hoped, would be replaced by a program called Home Star, a national incentive program for residential energy-efficiency retrofits. Home Star also was referred to as Cash for Caulkers after Cash for Clunkers, an earlier program to stimulate new-car sales.

Efficiency First has been one of the organizations advocating Home Star legislation, a measure that was attached to various bills during the past year but has yet to gain enough Congressional support for passage. Although the initial Home Star proposal called for rebates to consumers, Efficiency First Chair Greg Thomas, president and chief executive officer of Ithaca, N.Y.-based Performance Systems Development, thinks it may move ahead as a tax-credit program in the divided House and Senate.

Even if Home Star doesn’t pass, Thomas says the bill created a lot of interest about energy efficiency. “There has been a lot of positive industry activity as a result of that effort in terms of raising the profile and getting it in the news,” he says.

Incentive Programs

Nevertheless, home-performance jobs aren’t solely dependent on incentive programs, Thomas says. He explains: “I wouldn’t say it depends on them; I would say it’s accelerated by them. There are home-performance contractors all over the country. Efficiency First has members in all 50 states and we only have home-performance programs in 10 or 15 states. Members already are doing this work all over the country.”

Efficiency First members include home-performance contractors, energy-audit companies and allied supporters, which are defined as affiliated businesses or services not directly involved in home-performance retrofitting. These include nonprofits involved in promoting energy efficiency and training, local governments, consultants and product manufacturers or suppliers.

There are, besides national programs, a host of state-, local- and utility-sponsored energy-efficiency programs and an extensive body of reports written about them and how to motivate consumers to invest in upgrades. “The programs need to leverage the business activity of the contractor, not the other way around,” Thomas says. “It may be that the program starts off with a higher profile, but fairly quickly it becomes about the contractor bringing the customers in themselves as opposed to the program bringing in the customer.”