www.energystarhomesamerica.com

Vol. 01, Issue 10

December 22, 2003

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Implementation of the New 2004 Energy Star Requirements
by Maci McDaniel, National Marketing Director

As most of you already know, the 2004 Energy Star Program Requirements have changed, raising the bar for Energy Star in the State of Texas to a minimum HERS score of 86 + 15% above the IECC. What some of you may not be aware of however, is the implementation of these requirements. The EPA intended that any home certified after January 1, 2004 will have to meet the new Energy Star requirements. This includes homes started in 2003. However, GWSSI contacted the EPA and arranged a conference call to present the serious problems with this implementation and communicate that these requirements were never disseminated to the raters or the builders effectively. We were all under the impression that any home started in 2003 would be grandfathered under the 2003 program requirements and the new requirements would be effective on starts beginning January 1, 2004.

The intent of the conference call was to reach a compromise that our builders could live with. We asked for a grandfather period for homes started in 2003 until June 30, 2004. The EPA received pressure from the utilities whose incentive programs (i.e. load growth reports) would be hurt by the grandfather period in 2004 and compromised with a grandfather period until March 31, 2004. This means that any home started in 2003 under the current Energy Star requirements will have to be certified (finaled) by March 31, 2004. All homes started after January 1, 2004 will also have to meet the new 2004 Energy Star requirements.

What does this mean to you? It means that most of your homes started in 2003 will not be affected by this change. However, based on your build cycles, some of the homes that have started in late November or December may not be completed by this March deadline. In this case, these homes will need to have change orders issued to install the upgrades required to pass the 2004 requirements. In most cases this means changing out water heaters and reducing duct leakage. The other situation you should be prepared for is dealing with spec/inventory homes. Sometimes these homes are not finaled until they are sold because equipment or doors are not installed to avoid theft problems. These homes will all have to be certified prior to the March 2004 deadline if they are not going to be retrofitted for the new requirements.

We realize this is not the ideal solution for any builder but it is better than the alternative. Please contact your Market Manager if you have any questions or need help determining how to implement this into your current programs. GWSSI will try to accommodate you in any way we can. We look forward to working with you in 2004 on your Energy Star Homes Program!



Inspector’s Corner
Looking Back at 2003 and Looking Forward to 2004
by David B. Walker, National Operations Manager

As we close out the year of 2003, I thought it would be good to express my thanks to all of the readers for the kind thoughts you forwarded us concerning our newsletter. It has indeed been a pleasure bringing you our thoughts and information concerning what is taking place in the energy efficiency and building science industry, especially from the inspection department.

I thought that in this year-ending article from the “Inspectors Corner,” I would share with you what our objectives are for the year 2004. First, we will continue our weekly training and continuing education program for our inspectors and technicians. As stated in an earlier article this year, training and education are what we emphasize. Without this, we would not be able to service you, our valuable customers and friends, with the concise and professional service we provide. Our operations employees will have several opportunities to attend various conferences and attend certification courses that will enhance their capabilities in the field. As always, we have stepped-up our agenda for 2004 with more training courses within the operations department to keep each individual aware of the advances made within the industry. With the many changes concerning energy efficiency, it is our desire to stay up-to-date with every new discovery and each new advance concerning diagnostic equipment. With this kind of dedication, we will always be in a position to provide the best service possible to each of our clients.

We will, as a company, make the greatest of efforts to take advantage of every opportunity made available to us as far as certifications, conferences and training courses are concerned. We believe in continuing education, because through this process we become more valuable to our customers. These educational opportunities will give us the knowledge to provide even more testing procedures than we are currently offering. No two houses are alike; therefore one house we encounter may need more diagnostics than the other. Finally, it takes dedicated people to make any operation work successfully. I would like to take just a moment to thank the dedicated men and women of our operations department for their effortless professionalism and dedication to be the best. They are the best and without them we would be unable to provide our customers with the service they need. Many days have been long and we have run across many diverse situations, but in the end we have persevered. Likewise, I want to thank all of you for allowing us to serve you. Thank you for giving us this chance to help you build better, safer, healthier, more energy efficient homes for your valued customers. We look forward to the New Year, and we look forward to the new expectations it brings.

Efficiency Updates
Manual J 7 Versus Manual J 8
by Kelly Parker, P.E., President

Difference less than 5%? Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) released Manual J 7th Edition in the mid 1980’s. It enabled the user to have a field estimate of the home’s heat loss and gain.  A large number of assumptions and simplifications were embodied into it.  During the ensuing years, new research and investigations in building science have led to a better understanding of residential loss and gain mechanisms. Manual J7 also led to the interactions that envelope, equipment sizing, comfort, weather effects and building practices have on the load calculations. During the same period, the market place developed new residential equipment building products and construction processes.  Manual J7 is no longer applicable in today’s broad market place, particularly in the new housing construction.

In October, the Florida Building Commission approved a change to the state building codes that will require the use of the 8th Edition of ACCA Manual J after January 1, 2005. In a filing before the commission, ACCA addressed the issues dealing with adopting Manual J8. In this report submitted to the commission, which can be found at www.manualj.com, Guaranteed Watt Saver submitted a side-by-side comparison of six homes using Manual J7 versus Manual J8. The percentage difference in this study was:: 

Average of the six homes
(Difference (MJ8-MJ7)/MJ7 *100%)
Sensible Gain-1.9%
Latent Gain-2.9%
Total Cooling-2.1%
Total Heating4.5%


This was written by Kelly Parker with research performed by Mike Fick, EIT, Scott Makintubee and Donney Dorton, engineering and plan department associates at GWSSI.  GWSSI has calculated different inputs for Manual J8 on actual design plans and compared the results with previous MJ7 inputs on the same house design. Based on our studies, Manual J 8th Edition directives and GWSSI empirical data for thousands of houses, the specific inputs were developed.  These inputs predominantly have to do with internal gains and glass inputs. The biggest difference noted between Manual J7 to Manual J8, is the requirement to input every specific component of the home and to have sensitivities to these variables. These variables range from elevation to window covering to ground reflectants (glass or concrete.)  Specifically, the biggest and largest contributor to the loads of a home is the internal shading or window coverings that are assumed in a load calculation. If one were to assume no window coverings in Manual J7 and assume no window coverings in Manual J8, the load for a 2,000 square foot home could vary as much as 1 ton in certain climates such as Houston or Dallas.

What we now have is a comprehensive set of inputs that are developed by a consultant to the builder. This consultant would know the building envelope tightness, the duct tightness, the type of windows and the assumptions that would not otherwise be known such as window coverings, etc. At GWSSI we are this HVAC consultant for the builder. These inputs must be derived and published by each builder so if there are issues dealing with comfort complaints that everyone in the system from the builder to the superintendent to the heating and air contractor to the technician on the job has these inputs available to them and these inputs do not change from year to year or contractor to contractor. You can log onto www.manualj.com and see the inputs that are used by GWSSI.  These inputs are meant to be distributed to the HVAC contractors for discussion with the builders.

Our recommendation for builders is to adopt this set of guidelines for the HVAC contractor to calculate the loads. These standards would be adopted and practiced by all parties.  This will help eliminate callbacks and reduce comfort complaints by using a third party consultant such as GWSSI to compare HVAC loads with your contractors.

The load calculations are now a collaborative effort between the builder, the HVAC consultant and the HVAC contractor. They are no longer just a set of guidelines and ambiguities adopted by individual contractors.