DOE's Savings Calculator

The U.S. Department of Energy has released a new Energy Savings Calculator, which is intended to encourage local agencies to adopt the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

The DOE also generated a Cost-effectiveness Analysis for adopting the 2015 IECC for each state.  For Wyoming, adopting the 2015 IECC (vs. the 2009 IECC) will save a homeowner $455.42 per year in energy costs.  The simple payback period for adopting the 2015 IECC (vs. the 2009 IECC) is 4.4 years.  More details are available through the link above.

Big picture: the 2015 IECC sets the bar a lot higher. 

Also of note: the Wyoming report includes this data about the state's existing housing stock.

This confirms that Wyoming does not have a clear 'standard' preference regarding basements.  We've designed the Frontier Zero homes to accommodate any of these types.  But the choice does affect energy use.

See also: SWEEP blog about DOE Energy Savings Calculator

The Billionaire Battle to Own the Sun

In Bloomberg Businessweek, Noah Buhayar recently wrote about the differing agendas of Warren Buffett and Elon Musk pertaining to the solar energy market.

Musk owns SolarCity (and Tesla); Buffett's company owns NV Energy, a major utility in Nevada.  They disagree about how much net-metering should be 'subsidized' in the state of Nevada.

Buffett's company owns 7% of the country’s wind generation and 6% of its solar generation.

Link to article

The Future HVAC Workforce

BERG's Frontier Zero houses are designed with Heat Pump HVAC systems in mind.  We believe these systems will be key to next-generation energy-efficient and Net-Zero homes.  But is the HVAC industry equipped to work with these new systems?  A new scholarly paper (from the UK) says large-scale retraining is needed.  Here's an excerpt:

Meeting European emissions targets is reliant on innovative renewable technologies, particularly ‘renewable heat’ from heat pumps. Heat pump performance is driven by Carnot efficiency and optimum performance requires the lowest possible space heating flow temperatures leading to greater sensitivity to poor design, installation and operation. Does sufficient training and installer capacity exist for this technology? This paper situates the results of heat pump field trial performance in a socio-technical context, identifying how far installer competence requirements are met within the current vocational education and training (VET) system and considers possible futures. Few UK installers have formal heat pump qualifications...

link to paper