The Low Down On Green Living
April 24th, 2009
Berkeley Considering Requiring Home Energy Improvements
Stumble it!
The City of Berkeley is always progressive (perhaps that why some call it Berzerkeley). They are taking a very strong stance on limiting their city’s contribution to global warming. In November 2006, Berkeley voters marked their concern regarding climate challenge by overwhelmingly endorsing a ballot that set a bold but simple mandate: reduce the community’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. The ballot measure passed with 81 percent of the vote. The measure directed the Mayor to develop a Climate Action Plan to reach that target.
City staff have drafted a 145-page Climate Action Plan which includes several proposals for home-owners to make energy-efficiency improvements to their houses. The plan covers such broad topics as advocating trash reduction, growing vegetables at home, and making energy upgrades to homes. You can read the chapter on Building Energy Use Strategies here.
This past Tuesday evening, things got pretty exciting at the Berkeley City Council meeting. Public comment on the proposed requirement for home owners to have energy audits performed on their homes and then make upgrades (e.g., insulation, caulking, etc.) was quite harsh. Understandably many citizens are not able to spend cash on home upgrades– especially in this economic climate. The Council voted to delay a vote and will meet again on May 5.
What do you think of the idea of cities requiring their citizens to improve the energy-efficiency of their homes? We admit we really like the idea of requiring home energy audits– they are relatively inexpensive and provide a plan that homeowners can follow to save energy and money. Some of the upgrades proposed will be inexpensive (window caulking, furnace filter changing, insulating hot water heaters, etc.) and some are more expensive (e.g., solar panels, tankless water heaters, etc.) We think homeowners should have the right to choose what changes they want to make to their homes — but that requiring them to at least know how they rate on efficiency and to learn what their options are is a great idea.
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Comments
Virginia
April 28th, 2009 at 8:59 am
It seems to me that Berkeley should offer home auditing services free, with a simple application to set up an appointment (perhaps servicing a neighborhood at a time, starting with the poorest, since they could most benefit from money-saving changes like better insulation). I’m sure for such a big contract they could get substantial discounts on each home audit. Especially in the craze for “green collar” jobs this would be a great way to employ more local “green collar” workers. If the auditors did their job correctly and convinced homeowners that energy-saving changes are also money-saving changes, I think the program could make a big difference in Berkeley (perhaps even getting sponsorship to offer some products, like window caulk, at a discount or even free).
Josh
April 28th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
i am for the idea of requiring the home energy audits. Obama should take note of this and make it a federal regulation. i know here in Nebraska where i live the lower income families can get assistance with home audits and efficiency/weatherization projects through the department of energy, and can amount to almost $6,000 in improvements. that’s definitely enough to make a difference if it were made mandatory rather than voluntary. plus think of all the career opportunities it would create.
Jasmin
April 30th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Austin, TX is already doing this. Beginning this summer, home owners will have to add energy inspection to the list of inspections required when selling their house. Upgrades are not required, but the energy audit information and related cost estimates must be given to the new owners. This has created a high demand for energy auditors in the area.
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