The Honorable Dave Camp                                         The Honorable Sander M. Levin

Chair                                                                            Ranking Member         

Committee on Ways and Means                                  Committee on Ways and Means

U.S. House of Representatives                                  U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515                                            Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Pat Tiberi                                             The Honorable Richard E. Neal

Chair                                                                            Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures              Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures

Committee on Ways and Means                                  Committee on Ways and Means

U.S. House of Representatives                                  U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515                                            Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairmen Camp and Tiberi and Ranking Members Levin and Neal:

As you begin your review of tax extenders, we urge you to support extension of the New Energy Efficient Home Credit (Internal Revenue Code Sec. 45L). At a modest cost to the American tax payer, this incentive promotes the construction of highly-efficient new homes that create jobs in America’s housing industry while saving homeowners money on their energy bills.  We collectively represent businesses, non-profit organizations, states, and energy efficiency and environmental organizations that support this critical tax incentive. 

Congress enacted the New Efficient Home Credit in 2005 with strong bipartisan support, but it expired at the end of 2011. Over the years, the New Efficient Home Credit has proven to be incredibly impactful at a modest cost.   The incentive provided a $2,000 credit for builders of homes that use 50 percent less energy for space heating and cooling, relative to the International Energy Conservation Code’s (IECC) 2004 supplement.  It also provided a tax credit of $1,000 to manufacturers of ENERGY STAR-qualified manufactured homes.  The incentive was therefore based on a new home’s energy efficiency performance.

This performance-based tax credit has been successful in transforming the new homes market. As shown in the table below, the total number of new homes eligible for the credit grew four-fold between 2006 and 2009, despite the fact that total new home construction decreased and the credit’s high efficiency requirements. Before Congress enacted the incentive, less than 600 homes had come even close to meeting this level. Additionally, energy-efficient homes gained a greater market share, as the number of homes eligible for the tax credit rose to 11 percent of new homes sold in 2011.

This tax credit has effectively lowered energy costs for American homeowners putting more money into local economies and making homeownership more affordable. It is critical that Congress extend the New Efficient Home Credit to increase the market share of new homes meeting the efficiency criteria of the incentive as the new home construction market rebounds from the recession.

Source: Residential Energy Services Network (2012)

Note: The number of homes dropped off in 2010 because the tax credit was not in effect when the builders were making decisions on energy efficiency; the incentive was only extended retroactively.

The New Efficient Home Credit has been highly effective in bringing innovative, high-efficiency homes into the marketplace. These homes save valuable energy and lower pollution at the same time. Homeowners then have much more money to invest in their communities, creating local jobs and improving local economies. For these reasons, we urge you to extend the New Energy Efficient Home Credit.

Sincerely,

The Alliance to Save Energy (ASE)

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE)

Blow In Blanket Contractors Association (BIBCA)

Conservation Services Group

Environment America

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI)

Institute for Market Transformation

National Association for State Community Services

National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO)

National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

At the Forefront with Affordable “Standard Green”

Achieving efficient, super-tight homes for first-time buyers

When it comes to production green building, Utah’s Garbett Homes stands out for both its unique HERS-specific green marketing and the affordability of its standard green features.

The epiphany for Garbett came three years ago when its marketing analysis and projections told the company that first-time home-buyers were the niche that would help insulate it from downward pressure on the broader housing market. Garbett also decided that standard, money-saving green features would be the differentiating factor between itself and similarly-priced competitors.

“With first-time buyers, they’re coming out of rental units, and with rates where they are, they’re able to get into a brand new home with little or no money down for essentially the  same monthly payment as rent,” says Rene Oehlerking, director of marketing at Garbett Homes.

“What’s really been a motivating factor for them are the lower utility bills. When the average monthly bill in the Salt Lake City region is around $250 to $300 for power and gas, we’re able to bring them into a home where they’re spending about $20 a month – that’s a car payment they’re saving each month right there.”

HERS Scores, the Power of “Deconstruction”

Garbett builds about 300 homes a year, most priced in its sweet spot of $150,000 to $250,000. It plans to have all of its homes come with an energy rating under HERS 40. A very potent marketing tool for Garbett has been its ‘deconstruct’ models where prospects are able to see the location and operation of efficient and sustainable products.

“Nothing is mocked up. We built the home and we stripped the walls, basically taking parts of the home and peeling them back so people can see the actual application. Everything in our deconstruct is a standard feature,” Oehlerking says.

“Our buyers’ interest is huge. It’s absolutely mind-blowing for them. They are drawn in when see how they get smaller utility bills through lower HERS scores, increased insulation, tight air sealing and other factors. We’re seeing them for the first time gravitating toward understanding what’s really in the home.”

Critical Sealing

At these HERS scores, Oehlerking notes, insulation “is critical, especially sealing.” With the deconstruct model, sealing applications become a forefront item, exposed as an important factor. Garbett uses Knauf Insulation’s EcoSeal^™, a water-based elastomeric sealant that carries GREENGUARD for Children and Schools^SM certification for low emissions and is designed for use with the full line of fiberglass products offered by Knauf Insulation.

BIBS in the Mix

EcoSeal, with the ability to penetrate gaps as small as 1/16”, is used on Garbett’s sill plates, top plates and cracks and gaps in sheathing, while fiberglass BIBS^® applications are used with 2x6 construction. For Garbett, this solution and others like solar photovoltaic/thermal, geothermal and tankless hot water that are standard depending on the Garbett model, all come back to HERS and realizing that the lower the HERS score, the more environmentally-friendly the house will be. “And the less money you will spend on keeping the house running every month,” Oehlerking summarizes.

“What we like about EcoSeal is that it’s very green, it’s water-based and the application of it is green as well. It has some very nice properties that are better than spray foam. It’s a tighter seal and you can install it in areas where you can’t really use spray foam properly because of its expansion and lack of effectiveness in small areas,” Oehlerking says. 

Before discovering EcoSeal, Garbett had been using open-cell spray foam for sealing and insulation. “It gave us a nice tight building envelope,” Oehlerking says, “but we found that when we combined it with blown-in fiberglass along with Knauf’s new EcoSeal, we could actually get improved R-value in our interior wall cavity. The result is standard R-44 insulation - that’s at $5,000 less than using the spray foam alone that gave us R-22 or R-23.”

Life-changing

Garbett homes also have features like drip irrigation, low-flow plumbing fixtures and double-pane insulated windows. “Our homes are priced pretty similarly to competing homes of the same size in the market, but what we’ve been able to do is essentially give our buyers a ‘Prius’ for the price of a Toyota ‘Corolla.’ What they get as a standard feature is a very tight home that uses less energy and allows them much smaller utility bills each month,” Oehlerking says.  

“We understand the critical importance to Garbett Homes of getting the most bang for your buck with energy-efficient green solutions,” says Chris Brown, business development manager at Knauf Insulation. “Like other builders, they’ve been able to reduce costs and also add speed to their sealing and insulation versus previous methods. We have a direct effect on HERS, which is more and more a huge selling point with green-focused builders like Garbett.”

In their adaption of EcoSeal, Garbett Homes’ estimator initially discovered the product at Greenbuild, later testing it out and installing it in the deconstruct model. “He was very impressed and loved the ease of application. He bought a $3,000 sprayer and started doing applications himself and was also able to instruct our superintendants. It’s a small rig and it’s nearly as simple as spray-painting,” says Oehlerking.  

“In comparison, he couldn’t install spray foam. And with spray foam, you have to all your subcontractors out of the house for the day and it’s a very big job. EcoSeal dries quickly and can be installed while other subcontractors are working at the same time.”

Garbett’s Oehlerking says the economics of green homes are a life-changer for their buyers. “Once you’ve driven a Prius,” he notes, “it’s pretty hard to go back from 60 miles per gallon to 20 miles per gallon. Our buyers are really going to define the market, and I think, change home building forever.”

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The Blow-In-Blanket Insulation System (BIBS) will work well under your hydronic heating tubing, but to get the maximum efficiency from the under floor insulation you will need to install a foil or aluminized paper facing directly under the heating piping.  BIBS is an excellent thermal barrier, but the foil will provide a better reflective layer than the fiberglass alone can provide. Several companies make foil-faced paper just for the system you described. Check with a Blow-In-Blanket contractor in your area , or the plumber installing the system.

BIBCA Technical Team

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I work as a building inspector and am trying to determine the proper installation of soffit dams for blown in insulation for CMU construction. The only illiustrations I can find are for wood frame construction and require that insulation covers the top plate. Does the insulation also need to be installed onto the top of the block wall to ensure that there is proper insulation at the joint where the wall and ceiling meet?

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