The basis of the proposed Home Star program is in developing a network of accredited contractors to assist home owners with improving the energy and water efficiency of their homes. More than simply spurring the sales of hot water heaters and geothermal systems, the program allows contractors to work with the home owner to model the most efficient pathways possible to reduce energy. 

The “Cash for Caulkers” program is a two-tiered program with incentives up to $8000 for materials and systems that can demonstrate energy and water efficiency improvements. Consumers are able to collect these incentives if they work with contractors who have been certified by the Building Performance Institute and can meet detailed qualitative standards of the program.

The glaring concern with the proposed Home Star program is the necessity of the modeling process as the yardstick for success. Contractors are able to demonstrate adherence to the standards through energy audits and the use of energy “simulation” software. Having worked for years in the commercial construction industry on numerous modeling projects, it’s a foregone conclusion that the costs of producing detailed energy modeling far out pace any incentives available through the Home Star program. So if the general and less detailed modeling tools are used for bench marketing, how accurate can they be?

With a virtually unlimited variety of home designs, layouts and orientations, the ability of generic modelling tools to give accurate information on solar heat gain and expected heating and cooling loads is severely limited. The basis of Energy Star, reviewing monthly electricity costs and comparing these to expected reduced energy loads for appliances, is different than reviewing the sun angle of incidence for a bank of south facing widows.

Without project specific modelling tools, the Home Star program has a chance to erode into a simple process of selecting a set of Energy Star products with no thought given to holistic or green design.  Critics of the LEED® program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) are quick to point to this as the great failing of LEED. Once you have established a playbook of solutions that can meet the LEED standard and is certified, the temptation is to go back to the same plan again and again and never push green design any further along.     

At present, the Clean Energy Jobs Act has gone back to Senate debate as part of a joint bill with the Oil Accountability Act. Given the relevance of the off shore disaster with BP, there is a strong chance that some version of this Bill will pass in 2010. More information about the Clean Energy Jobs Act and Oil Company Accountability Act 2010 is available in PDF here.