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.”

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By: Todd Woody

Four months ago, General Electric fired up the imaginations of would-be entrepreneurs tooling away in garages everywhere when it offered up $200 million as part of an “Ecomagination Challenge” to crowdsource smart grid and renewable energy ideas.

On Tuesday, the global conglomerate announced the first set of winners, a dozen startups that collectively will secure $55 million in investment from GE and two venture firms collaborating with the company, Foundation Capital and RockPort Capital Partners.

The winners hail from everywhere from Silicon Valley to Sweden. Most are developing technology for the smart grid.

Others are focused on smart buildings. ClimateWell of Stockholm is making heating and cooling systems designed to operate not on electricity, but on solar-heated hot water. Soladigm of Milpitas, Calif., meanwhile, manufactures windows that incorporate electronics that allow them to darken — keeping buildings cool during sunny summer months. In winter, they lighten to trap the sun’s heat.

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By: T. Boone Pickens

The Congressional Independence Day recess is here. The amount of time available to pass substantive legislation before both houses adjourn is dwindling.

Between the end of the July 4th Recess and the August Recess, Congress will try to pass the financial reform bill, and the Senate will fulfill its Constitutional duties on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. With all that, the single largest unfinished piece of business for the 111th Congress remains the adoption of a comprehensive energy bill.

I have been around this business for a long time, and I understand that an energy bill is likely to contain a great deal of compromise on key issues. That’s the nature of the system — you have compromise to get the things you really need and serve what you believe to be the greater good. The debate surrounding the balance between our environmental and energy polices, while important, should not delay us from adopting legislation to reduce our dependence on OPEC oil.

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The U.S. Department of Energy probably didn’t know what it was getting itself into when it announced an interpretive rule in early June that would effectively ban multi-head shower systems.

Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors – National Association has called on its members to strongly protest a DOE proposal that would ban multiple head showers. DOE proposes to interpret the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, as amended, to mean that a showerhead is anything past the mixing valve. That would mean that all fittings could not spray more than 2.5 GPM combined.

“Without advance notice to stakeholders, the United States Department of Energy has issued an interpretive rule defining showerheads which will have an impact on the installation of higher-end bathrooms such as spas and showers that have both a showerhead and hand shower or shower towers,” PHCC-NA said in its alert.

DOE interprets that a showerhead is all components that are supplied standard together and function from one inlet (i.e., after the mixing valve) forming a single showerhead for purposes of the maximum water use standards.

Using this rule, DOE will find a showerhead to be noncompliant with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act’s maximum water use standard if the showerhead’s standard components, operating in their maximum design flow configuration, taken together use in excess of 2.5 GPM when flowing at 80-psi, even if each component individually does not exceed 2.5 GPM.

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By: Michael Newport

As we face serious environmental and economic ramifications from the Gulf Oil spill, more people are taking a closer look at the benefits of natural gas. Obama’s hotly anticipated climate change bill by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will include tax credits for natural gas fuels for trucks and manufacturers. Is natural gas America’s savior or a transitional fuel source that will tide us over until we become a cleantech nation awash in viable wind, solar and biofuel solutions?

The development of natural gas properties in the United States ensures our country’s greater energy independence from geopolitical strife and provides high paying energy sector jobs and prosperous communities. As the CEO of an energy company that is actively tapping our country’s natural gas reserves, even I don’t think natural gas is the answer to all our country’s energy needs. I simply believe that natural gas is a great, long-term bridge energy solution that provides an important part of our country’s energy equation.

America is awash in natural gas discoveries including Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale and new fields in Mississippi, New Mexico and Wyoming. As we engage in fruitful drilling of our natural gas resources, we should also build up our renewable and alternative energy technologies. Why? While our country has enough natural gas reserves to fuel Americans for many generations to come, we need to keep our eye on the ultimate prize — creating environmentally sound energy solutions that are not tied to natural resources. Americans needs to take a leadership role in developing alternative energy solutions.

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