January 1st marked the end of some attractive tax breaks for homeowners who sought to make their homes more energy efficient.

While there certainly were perks for taxpayers, the $858 billion tax bill signed by President Barack Obama in December extended but dramatically cut the dollar amount of tax credits available for energy-efficient home retrofits.

Instead of the maximum tax credit of 30 percent of a project, or up to $1,500, the 2011 credit is 10 percent of a project, or no more than $500. Other restrictions apply, too, like a flat $200 limit for new windows and a $300 limit for the installation of a new water heater. There’s an additional piece of bad news for consumers who were making energy improvements to their homes in phases: Homeowners who already took advantage of the program aren’t eligible for another tax credit.

“The $1,500 was really something that piqued people’s interest,” said Jamie Peters, program manager of the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. “If I was a homeowner and really got into this in 2010, it’d be disappointing that I couldn’t do anything else in 2011.”

A 30 percent tax credit for major projects like the purchase and installation of solar or wind energy systems or geothermal heat pumps continues until 2016, so that segment of the green building market is still on solid ground. In fact, 5,000 to 6,000 solar energy systems are being installed nationally each month, and that momentum is expected to build as the cost decreases, said Mark Burger, president of the Illinois Solar Energy Association.

Others say they think momentum for smaller projects will continue to build as well, despite the smaller tax perks, because the media attention and product manufacturers’ marketing of the tax credit did much to introduce more consumers to the idea of making their homes more energy efficient and less costly to operate.

As the new construction market climbs out of the grips of the recession, it is still fighting a glut of existing homes that are priced to move. The element that is being used to level the playing field is home efficiency, and pending legislation that would help make it more affordable. It’s a ray of light for HVAC subcontractors who want to offer a true value proposition in the new home market. It could mean the cost of an upgraded HVAC system could be written into the home’s mortgage.

Lisa Marquis Jackson is vice president of John Burns Real Estate Consulting, Irving, Texas. She said that although the market is still very broad (with “a ridiculous amount of business models whose result is always to create a profitable home”); “this whole issue of energy efficiency, green, and home automation” is moving forward. In the not-so-distant past, it was more the domain of a custom home buyer. Now, “It’s migrating more to the mass home builder, who is offering more that can be touted as energy efficiency. They recognize the importance of it,” Jackson said.

The key for some customers is to promote energy efficiency rather than green; “Green can even have a negative connotation,” she said. “When you say energy efficiency, it’s a private benefit versus a public benefit.”

Read The Rest Of This Article

QUINCY, MA The state declined to grant a variance for a heating-system replacement project for Quincy public housing because the new heating units do not comply with a new energy code that took effect July 1.

The state Board of Building Regulations and Standards rejected the Quincy Housing Authority’s variance appeal after a hearing last month, the authority’s director and Quincy’s inspectional services director said.

The appeal was filed after Jay Duca, the city’s inspectional services head, denied a contractor permits to install more than 400 heating units because they cannot be programmed to turn on and off at preset times. That programmability is a requirement of the latest International Energy Conservation Code, which took effect July 1 in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, some residents of public housing in Quincy have been without heat for nearly a year.

The units that were to be installed – gas-powered, direct-vent wall furnaces similar to ones found in hotel rooms – are made by Rinnai America Corp. of Georgia.

Quincy Housing Authority officials want to use them to replace old, leaky and mold-prone steam radiators. The radiators often malfunction, leaving residents of Snug Harbor in Germantown and West Acres in West Quincy without heat.

Andrea Lindo, a Snug Harbor resident, told The Patriot Ledger that her heater has been broken since February and that the housing authority placed three standalone space heaters in her apartment. Lindo’s neighbor said she hasn’t had heat since 2009.

Housing Authority Director Jay MacRitchie declined to comment on specific tenants’ circumstances. He said eight of the authority’s 436 apartments are currently without heat, and that the authority spends about $50,000 annually to replace boilers.

MacRitchie said if the stimulus money does not come through, the authority will replace boilers as it customarily does – a short-term fix.

“It will be like saying, ‘We know you’re going to get a new car, but we’re going to replace the transmission,’” he said.

The $2.5 million for Quincy is a portion of $25 million in federal stimulus money that the state doled out for public-housing heating upgrades.

The state Department of Housing and Community Development, which approved the Rinnai system, “is still continuing to work with all parties to replace those old heating systems,” spokesman Phil Hailer said.

Hailer said if appeals of Duca’s denial are exhausted, the agency “will consider the feasibility of an alternative, comparable, conforming heating system.”

Asked about the standstill, Christopher Walker, spokesman for Mayor Thomas Koch, said the mayor “doesn’t overrule his inspectors.”

Duca and Quincy’s fire chief have criticized the proposed system as inadequate to heat multi-room apartments. The system requires wall fans and gaps in doorways to circulate hot air. Duca said no system of its type has been approved for use in Massachusetts.

The Board of Building Regulations and Standards voted on May 5 to grant the Quincy Housing Authority a variance to use the heating system under the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code.

Shortly thereafter, the city granted permits to install 10 of the heating units, a test run called for in the housing authority’s contract with Rinnai. When the company returned in September for the rest of the needed city permits, it was turned down because the new code had taken effect.

The Board of Building Regulations and Standards agreed, declining to grant the authority a second variance after an Oct. 19 hearing.

“You’ve got to meet today’s codes,” Duca said.

Washington, DC – Since its launch in 2000, the LEED green building certification program has been recognized internationally as the leading benchmark for buildings that are designed, constructed and operated sustainably. The new LEED International Program furthers the global reach of LEED by emphasizing global consistency, enabling a regional approach, and providing local outreach and support.

The increasingly global nature of the green building movement – and its unrivaled potential to effect real economic and environmental progress worldwide – is at the heart of the Greenbuild 2010 International Forum, being held in Chicago Nov. 16 in conjunction with the annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo. The International Forum is also your first chance to learn more about the LEED International Program from representatives of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the nonprofit organization that develops the LEED rating systems and hosts Greenbuild. Learn more at www.greenbuildexpo.org/international.

“For years, the leaders of the global green building movement have looked to LEED as the benchmark for what it means to build green,” said Scot Horst, Senior Vice President of LEED at USGBC. “The LEED International Program allows us to work collaboratively to bolster the power of LEED to transform the marketplace in communities worldwide.”

Over the years, the green building community has found many innovative ways to adapt the LEED rating systems to locally and regionally specific needs. Under the LEED International Program, a globally consistent set of LEED rating systems will ensure that LEED certification represents the same level of rigor no matter where a LEED-certified building is located.

This global consistency depends on the ability of LEED credits to be applicable regardless of geographic or climatic region. Under the LEED International Program, this does not require a fundamental change in LEED or a rewriting of the credits; instead, alternative compliance paths will offer country-neutral ways to reach a credit’s intended outcome, allowing teams a non-country-specific option by which to earn the credit.

The regional approach of the LEED International Program will incorporate global perspectives through the LEED International Roundtable, with representatives from green building councils and leadership organizations around the world. The roundtable will provide regular feedback on the non-country-specific options and the LEED International Program in general.

“The LEED International Roundtable enables us to collaboratively identify common solutions to regional issues,” said S. Raghupathy of the India Green Building Council, a LEED International Roundtable member.

And because all green building occurs locally, the LEED International Program will provide resources, tools, education and other outreach to help advocates and project teams find on-the-ground success with LEED. This will include some translation of LEED materials into difference languages.

by John R. Hall

One of the most glaring inconsistencies in the HVAC contracting trade is the array of licensing requirements across the 50 U.S. states. The disparity is evidenced by the number of states that have no licensing requirements at all — 22. Of the other 28 states, some merely require a business to be registered or to work on projects in excess of $50,000.

The HVAC trade isn’t alone among the many service trades when it comes to license requirements, but the lack of uniformity has made the HVAC contracting trade an easy target for criticism over the years — by the mainstream media and consumers who believe that HVAC contractors are less than scrupulous – thanks to publicized stings and media “hazing.”

Read The Rest of This Article

By: Todd Woody

The United States is on the verge of a solar boom that could provide 4.3 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2020, according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

There’s just a 12-figure catch: Investors need to put $100 billion into the solar industry to keep the generation of solar electricity growing by 42 percent a year for the next decade to expand capacity from the current 1.4 gigawatts to 44 gigawatts.

“Policy measures such as tax credits, capital expenditure grants, generation incentives and renewable electricity credits will remain a key driver of solar uptake in the U.S. for at least the next three years,” according to the report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research and consulting firm. “The current drop in solar costs is taking place just as such policies are being implemented by the federal and various state governments, which is expected to lead to rapid growth in commercial, utility and residential solar power.”

Over the past two years, solar module prices have plunged by 50 percent as low-cost Chinese manufacturers expanded production and entered the U.S. market.

“Policy, rather than sunshine, will remain the U.S.’s greatest solar resource for the next few years,” Milo Sjardin, Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s head of U.S. research, said in a statement. “By the middle of this decade, however, the U.S. retail solar market will be driven by fundamental, unsubsidized competition, which should transform the U.S. into one of the world’s most dynamic solar markets.”

Exhibit A for such a phenomenon is Germany. With about as much sunshine as Maine, the European nation became the world’s solar stronghold through policies that rewarded homeowners, businesses, and farmers for generating their own electricity.

Such policies are needed in the U.S., according to the report, given that solar electricity remains four times as expensive to generate than coal-fired power.

Of course, the failure of Congress to pass national climate change legislation and the current attempt to kill California’s global warming law shows that progress on green energy issues is not guaranteed in the U.S. And Congress’ habit of offering short-lived tax incentives for renewable energy and then dithering about extending them when they expire has played havoc with the industry and investors.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts photovoltaic panels will account for 30 gigawatts of the 44 gigawatts of solar electricity generation by 2020, with 14 gigawatts coming from solar thermal power plants. Solar thermal farms deploy huge arrays of mirrors to heat liquids to create steam that drives electricity-generating turbines.

That might be a conservative estimate, if the California and federal officials’ rush to green light big solar projects in recent weeks is any indication. On Monday, for instance, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved a 1,000-megawatt solar thermal power plant to be built in the Southern California desert.

By year’s end, nearly four gigawatts of solar thermal projects are expected to be licensed. Just 10 gigawatts to go until 2020.

International Energy Agency (IEA) calculations based on preliminary data show that China has now overtaken the U.S. to become the world’s largest energy user.

China’s rise to the top ranking was faster than expected as, according to the IEA, it was much less affected by the global financial crisis than the U.S.

For those who have been following energy consumption trends closely, this does not come as a surprise. What is more important is the phenomenal growth in demand that has taken place in China over the last decade; also prospects for future growth still remain incredibly strong. Since 2000, China’s energy demand has doubled, yet on a per capita basis it is still only around one-third of the OECD average.

Prospects for further growth are very strong considering the country’s low per-capita consumption level and the fact that China is the most populous nation on the planet, with more than 1.3 billion people.

China’s demand today would be even higher still if the Government had not made such progress in reducing the energy intensity (the energy input per dollar of output) of its economy. It has also very quickly become one of the world’s leaders in renewable energy, particularly wind power and solar energy, and paved the way for a big expansion of nuclear power.

The worldwide implications of these new trends will be assessed in the upcoming World Energy Outlook 2010 to be released on 9 November 2010

ALBANY, NY – National Grid is helping customers reduce their environmental impact and their energy bills with the renewal of its residential natural gas energy efficiency program that provides rebates for energy saving equipment in the home.

Due to the overwhelming response to this program last year, National Grid exhausted its funding for the initiative last spring, but has received additional funding to renew the program.

“As a result of last year’s response to this program, we have established a rebate reservation list this year,” said Lisa Tallet, manager of residential energy efficiency programs for New York State. “Our web site will update so customers can see how much funding is available in the program when they apply.”

All customers must reserve incentive funding by completing the online rebate reservation.

“National Grid is committed to providing its customers efficiency programs that can reduce energy usage and energy costs,” Tallet said. “These programs are one way the company is providing unparallel customer service and supporting the state’s overall commitment to sustainable and efficiency energy future.”

There are some changes to the rebate programs from the programs that were offered late last year and early this year:

• $140: High-efficiency natural gas furnace (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency 90% or greater)

• $280: High-efficiency natural gas furnace (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency 92% or greater) with an electronically-controlled motor

• $420: High-efficiency natural gas furnace (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency 94% or greater) with an electronically-controlled motor

• $350: Water boiler (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency 85% or greater)

• $560: Water boiler (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency 90% or greater)

• $350: Steam boiler with electric ignition (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency 82% or greater)

• $70: Boiler reset control (Installed by a contractor at the time of a qualifying boiler installation.)

• $210: Indirect water heater (Installed by a contractor at the time of a qualifying boiler installation. An indirect water heater uses the main boiler to heat a fluid that is circulated through a heat exchanger in a water storage tank.)

• $18 for a programmable thermostat installed by a contractor. Limit for this rebate is two per customer.

• $420: Duct sealing (Installed by a contractor at the time of a qualifying furnace or boiler replacement.)

National Grid has a 20-year track record of providing award-winning energy efficiency programs throughout its U.S. service territory that help customers use less energy and reduce their energy bills. Recently, National Grid introduced the 3% less energy campaign which enables customers to join National Grid in pledging to reduce energy consumption by three percent every year for the next ten years. Customers can take the 3% pledge, participate in a free energy evaluation, and learn more about the company’s energy efficiency programs at www.powerofaction.com.

Funding for this program is limited and the program is subject to close when all funding has been awarded.

These rebate programs are being offered in accordance with the New York State Public Service Commission’s (PSC) Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EEPS) efficiency programs for natural gas utilities across the state. The programs are funded through the systems benefit charge appearing on all natural gas customers’ bills.

National Grid is an international energy delivery company. In the U.S., National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and manages the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). It is the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. National Grid also owns over 4,000 megawatts of contracted electricity generation that provides power to over one million LIPA customers.

Geauga County Common Pleas Judge David L. Fuhry dismissed a class-action lawsuit from owners of all-electric homes against electric companies.

Fuhry said that only the Public Utility Commission of Ohio, not him, had the authority to oversee the matter.

The lawsuit stems from FirstEnergy’s rate increases earlier this year.

Previously, the company had offered reduced rates to those with all-electric homes, electric hot water heating systems or electric load management systems. First, the electric company said it would abandon the reduced rates. Then, after homeowners protested, the company decided to gradually phase out its reduced rates during the next eight years.

State Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chester Township, filed a lawsuit in February on behalf of those who were affected by the rates change.

He claimed that FirstEnergy, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. and Ohio Edison Co. breached their contract with homeowners.

When the suit was filed, Mark Durbin, a spokesman for FirstEnergy, said nobody had promised that the preferred rates would last forever.

However, Fuhry’s decision to dismiss the case did not hinge on whether FirstEnergy had a commitment to maintain the reduced rates or if a contract had been breached. Instead, he concluded that he did not have jurisdiction over the decision.

“Ordinarily, this would not be an issue because the Court of Common Pleas is a court of general jurisdiction,” Fuhry said in his decision. “As such it is generally empowered to hear all types of disputes including declaratory judgments, breach of contract, as well as fraud and injunctive actions.”

Fuhry noted that there were exceptions to that authority, and one of those exceptions was PUCO’s jurisdiction of matters involving public utilities.

Fuhry said that PUCO had jurisdiction over utility rates and services, citing state law and previous decisions by the Ohio Supreme Court.

To further complicate matters, PUCO’s exception has an exception. If the accusation does not involve rates or service issues, then it is considered a “pure” contract or tort, and Fuhry could rule.

But the judge ultimately decided the suit did pertain to rates.

“The dispute between the companies and the plaintiffs is over the rate increases. There is no separate rate ‘contract’ between the utility and the plaintiffs,” the judge said.

Fuhry dismissed the suit, adding that the plaintiffs could still take their case to PUCO or the Ohio Supreme Court.

DANBURY, CT — A contractor who investigators said hired unskilled labor for his chimney repair business, gave workers minimal training and turned them loose to prey on elderly homeowners made an appearance in state Superior Court here Wednesday.

Marc Anthony, 44, didn’t enter a plea on an array of felony and misdemeanor counts, including larceny and attempted larceny, which were filed against him last month after an investigation by Danbury police and inspectors from the state Department of Consumer Protection.

Anthony is a co-owner of CT Builders LLC, a company based in Long Island. He was represented in court by attorney Kevin Black, of Wilton, a former assistant prosecutor in the Danbury State’s Attorney’s Office.

The investigation began in March after two of his employees were allegedly found to be installing chimney liners without obtaining building permits from the city and without having the state licenses required to perform the work.

Police said the employees — Gary Roth, 20, of Farmingdale, N.Y., and Christopher Koharek, 19, of Levittown, N.Y., — convinced a 94-year-old Danbury man and an 88-year-old city woman that their chimneys needed repairs costing from $1,600 to $2,000 because of the danger of fire and carbon monoxide leaks.

In both cases, the homeowners agreed to have the work done, but subsequent inspections revealed the liners had been installed improperly and were making the situation worse, police said.

The inspections also raised questions about whether the repairs had even been necessary, according to court documents.

Both Roth and Koharek told police they were being paid off the books and learned all they knew about chimney repairs from Anthony.

Roth said he got the job through Craigslist and had been working for the company for only a few weeks, while it was Koharek’s first day on the job, police said.

Both told investigators they were to be paid bonuses based on the amount of work that customers agreed to have done.

Koharek was charged with two misdemeanor counts and was granted accelerated rehabilitation in July, but Roth faces both misdemeanor and felony counts, including second-degree larceny and attempted larceny.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges on Tuesday.

Anthony is also listed as the owner of Pro Safe Chimneys, a company that has previously been investigated by the Department of Consumer Protection for work that wasn’t done properly, authorities said.

Anthony is due back in court Oct. 18, when he is expected to enter a plea on the charges.