A brand new program allows people to get green upgrades now and pay for them later in their monthly utility bill.

Ruth Lahey told CBS 2′s Elise Finch that poor insulation, inefficient lighting fixtures, and a faulty boiler were causing the utility bills in her Westchester County home to skyrocket.

“Our oil bills were very high. One of my kids’ bedrooms was extremely cold compared to the other bedroom, so I knew something was wrong,” said Lahey.

A new state program allows New Yorkers to make energy-efficient upgrades in their homes without paying any cash up front, it’s called the On-Bill Recovery Loan Program.

John Schott of the New York State Energy Authority explains that, “most of the measures that truly save a lot of energy are expensive. Through on-bill homeowners can now take advantage of upgrading their homes through energy-efficient improvements and make their payments through their utility bill.”

Homeowners first agree to a comprehensive home energy audit to identify areas to save energy. The next step is applying for a 2.99 percent loan. If approved the homeowner will be eligible for up to $25,000 to make necessary changes.

The loan is repaid each month through a line item on the homeowner’s utility bill.

Experts say that using the program can save homeowners money.

“Work that is done is actually paid for by the savings they’re going to realize every month,” said Mario Bruni of Bruni and Campisi Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning.

There are no income limitations for homeowners wishing to participate in the program. Participants must have a credit score of at least 640 or a good payment history for both their mortgage and their utility bills. They must also own the property.

New Yorkers who apply now won’t have to start repaying the loan until June.

Link: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/02/13/energy-efficient-home-improvements-could-save-new-yorkers-money/

Created by BPI’s Standards Technical Committee, the Delta Standard specifies a process for the calculation of standardized estimated savings: the difference (delta) between the modeled energy usage before and after an upgrade using approved building energy use simulation software.  The process uses actual home energy bills to estimate savings, and provides a set of standardized operating conditions to be used in the final calculation of estimated savings. The standard applies to residential buildings of 4 units or less.

“The Delta Standard will increase homeowners’ confidence in energy savings projected by simulation software used by home performance contractors for homes that undergo energy efficiency retrofits,” said Larry Zarker, BPI’s CEO. “By using actual utility bills to measure pre-retrofit energy consumption, this approach sets realistic boundaries on estimated savings. This is truly a ground-breaking standard for the home performance industry.”

“This standard also provides contractors with an important alternate approach for evaluating savings in homes where monthly utility data is available, but not of reliable quality,” said Asa Foss, Chairman of BPI’s Standards Technical Committee and a nationally recognized expert in the field of energy conservation.

Click here to view BPI-2400-S-2011: Standardized Qualification of Whole House Energy Savings Estimates.
Comments and suggestions to improve this standard are currently being solicited from stakeholders and the general public until July 21, 2011. To comment on the standard, see: Comment on BPI Standardized Qualification of Whole House Energy Savings Estimates. We suggest viewing the quick video tutorial on using the comment tool.

About the Building Performance Institute
The Building Performance Institute, Inc., (BPI) is the nation’s premier building performance credentialing, quality assurance and standards setting organization. BPI develops technical standards using an open, transparent, consensus-based process built on sound building science. BPI is approved by the American National Standards Institute, Inc. (ANSI) as an accredited developer of American National Standards.

BPI offers the following:

• National standards to ensure top quality, consistent protocols are being followed throughout the home performance and weatherization workforce
• Certification of individuals in building analyst, heating, AC/heat pump, shell/envelope and multi-family designations
• Accreditation of contracting companies committed to delivering quality home performance improvements
• Quality assurance to verify conformance with BPI Standards and provide feedback for continuing improvement
• Affiliation of training organizations that deliver BPI services in their market

For more information on BPI, visit www.bpi.org.

Learn how to save significant money on your energy bills and reduce your fuel use by 30% to 60%. Larry Nissman, Environmental Director for Phoenix Mechanical will walk you through the process, step by step, of making your home energy efficient and how to receive New York State and Federal cash incentives.

Wednesday, July 28, 6:30 p.m. / Mount Kisco Public Library / 914.666-8041 / 100 Main Street, Mount Kisco, NY 10549

The event is free and open to the public.

Dear Senators:

We, the undersigned members of the Energy Efficiency Coalition, represent a diverse group of energy efficiency, public interest, and private companies as well as environmental organizations.

We write to strongly urge you to include the bi-partisan HOME STAR legislation (S. 3434) in the pending Small Business Jobs legislation being considered in the Senate. HOME STAR is a triple-WIN helping some of the hardest hit industries in our economy while simultaneously:

• Rapidly Creating Jobs
• Contributing to Energy Independence
• Lowering Household Energy Bills

To date the unemployment level in the contracting sector remains unacceptably high as one out of every four construction workers is out of work. Now is the time to help this important part of the economy. Moreover, a study completed by ICF International indicates that HOME STAR would generate energy bill savings of $627M – $639M in its first year and an additional $812M to $820M in its second year. Savings from the legislation are expected to continue well beyond the two year lifespan of the program.

HOME STAR is a market-driven, low-bureaucracy program that will create jobs fast by scaling the existing home energy efficiency improvement industry. HOME STAR will use rebates and tax incentives to catalyze more Americans to begin making their homes more energy efficient. Consumers nationwide will embrace HOME STAR because it will be simple, accessible and help them save money on energy bills.

The HOME STAR legislation has bi-partisan support and over twenty-one co-sponsors in the Senate. HOME STAR also has the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

We strongly urge the Senate to move swiftly to include HOME STAR as part of the Small Business Jobs bill.

Sincerely,

• Alliance to Save Energy
• American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
• Building Codes Assistance Project
• Conservation Law Foundation
• Conservation Services Group
• Council of the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association
• Danfoss
• Direct Energy
• The Dow Chemical Company
• Efficiency First
• Environment America
• Environmental and Energy Study Institute
• Green Strategies
• Knauf Insulation
• Lockheed Martin
• Masco Corporation
• Masco Home Services
• National Association of State Energy Officials
• National Association of Energy Service Companies
• Natural Resource Defense Council
• Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association
• Recurve
• Serious Materials
• Siemens
• Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance

Last week, the U.S. Senate began considering a legislative package targeting job creation in the small business sector. Efficiency First is trying to ensure that the proposed HOME STAR energy retrofit program – with over 1,500 small businesses as part of the Home Star Coalition – will be included as part of this important legislation.

What You Can Do

You can learn more about this very important development regarding Home Star on the Efficiency First website at http://www.efficiencyfirst.org/home-star.