Program Update as of February 15, 2006
Delta-Montrose
Electric Association
Home Energy Makeover Contest
From Ed Thomas, Market
Development Group
Program
Description:
 The immediate, measurable
achievements are:
In 2005, Intermountain Energy developed and
implemented a Home Energy Makeover Contest to educate Delta-Montrose Electric
Association (DMEA) members about the value of "whole house" home
energy improvements by awarding packages of improvements to selected DMEA
members. All DMEA members were eligible to enter, and the 10 Contest Finalists
with 3 winners were selected by criteria approved by a DMEA Peer Review Ad Hoc
Committee comprised of DMEA staff and Member Advisory Committee representatives.
DMEA’s
Program Goals were:
-
Demonstrate measures that a
homeowner could do that have a positive cash flow for energy savings
-
Demonstrate how to conduct a whole
house energy analysis and communicate the results to homeowner, contractor and
financier.
-
Model a collaborative process for a
home performance general contractor supported by other energy-related
product/service providers.
The immediate, measurable
achievements are:
-
30,000 newspaper inserts
distributed in all area daily and weekly newspapers and shoppers.
-
130 contest entries
-
10 contest finalists with 3 winning
homes
-
14 home improvement product and
service providers participated with in-kind donations of promotional support,
home analysis expertise and contest prizes
-
1 workshop co-presented by DMEA and
contest co-sponsors that was attended by about 50 DMEA members
-
Identification, installation and
training for DMEA staff and contest co-sponsor representatives of a
state-of-the-art home energy analysis software tool
-
Launching of a Home Energy Makeover
Guide of web-based tools to help DMEA members conduct their own analysis of
potential home energy improvements
To implement the Contest,
Intermountain Energy partnered DMEA with the Colorado Energy Science Center and
several area businesses to present a contest in which DMEA members had the
opportunity to win up to $25,000 in energy-related home improvements. Ten DMEA
members with higher-than-average home energy bills were chosen from among 130
contest entries received online and via mail.
The member with the greatest potential to demonstrate home energy savings
was awarded over $25,000 in energy-related home improvements. The two
runners-up received up to $10,000 in energy-related home improvements. The
seven remaining members receive a comprehensive energy analysis of their home
with specific recommendations on how best to cut their utility bills.
The home improvement bundles
were determined based on an extensive energy evaluation of the home and other
criteria.
Contest entries were
accepted from July 1 to August 31, 2005. The
finalists were selected by a Review Team comprised of DMEA Energy Use Dept.
staff in consultation with the Colorado Energy Science Center and the contest
co-sponsors. Consideration was based on an analysis of the homeowners’
total energy bills (i.e. electricity, gas and propane) over the last 12 months,
and other criteria such as which homes would provide the best showcase of a
complete, cost-effective energy efficiency retrofit.
-
Outreach to ENERGY STAR, Building
Performance Institute and other national providers of whole-house energy
improvement advice and certification
-
9 workshop attendees expressed
interest in paying $150-$300 each for a “Home Energy Performance Analysis with
Improvement Package Recommendation” similar to that conducted for the Contest
Finalists.
Contest entry forms and
rules are distributed in local newspapers on July 1 and 6. DMEA, Alpine
Bank, West Star Bank and other local businesses distributing the entry forms and
contest information in their lobbies as well. Contest details were
available online at www.homeenergymakeover.com
with links to www.dmea.com and www.energyscience.org.
Allies from the local home improvement industry were invited to co-sponsor
the contest in return for promotion consideration. Intermountain
Energy recruited 14 reputable companies to provide in-kind donations for the
winning homes. Contest co-sponsors included:
Energy Outreach Colorado, Certainteed Windows with Whitey’s Home
Improvement, Accent Windows, Climatemaster with Intermountain Energy, Marathon
Water Heaters with Olathe True-Value, TCP Lighting with House of Lights, GTS
Energy Star Home Sealing, Excellent Insulating Systems, Best Appliances, Alpine
Bank, Master Touch Living Systems, Energy Seal Insulation and Dennis Hughes
Insulation.
Each Contest Finalist home received an extensive energy use analyst
with a blower door test and data input into the TREAT software application used
by the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR programs in New York and elsewhere.
The software allowed Intermountain Energy to model the home’s total energy use
based on the building shell and appliances, then “true up” the model using
the homeowner’s 12 months of actual use and local weather data. Then, we
input local contractor bids to determine which cost-effective improvements that
we might “package” into good (up to $2,500), better (up to $10,000) and best
(up to $25,000) groupings.
A workshop on Saturday,
November 12 was presented with direct invitations to the all the contest
entrants as well as promotional announcements to the general public.
About 50 people attended, including the 2 contest runners-up and one of
the other contest finalists. The
workshop turned into a group presentation as the contest co-sponsors who were
present talked about how they are improving the Winners’ homes and what the
Review Team recommended as improvements in the other Finalists’ homes.
Before the workshop, each of
the 10 Contest Finalists received a customized report titled “Home Energy
Performance Analysis with Improvement Package Recommendations.”
At the workshop, DMEA introduced the Home
Energy Makeover Guide, a web-based suite of self-audit tool developed by
Apogee Interactive and made available to DMEA through a master licensing
agreement with Tri-State Generation and Transmission. It doesn’t take
the place of the much more extensive site visit, but it was intended to
introduce the value of home energy use analyses that could lead to the
exploration of a comprehensive Home Performance with ENERGY STAR initiative
using TREAT software and Building Performance Institute certification on the
Western Slope in the future.
The Home Energy Makeover
Contest was approved by the DMEA Board for turnkey implementation by
Intermountain Energy as 2005 Core Initiatives to support the “energy
efficiency leg” of DMEA’s “3 legged stool” vision. The contest supported
DMEA’s long-term goal first stated in 2000 to help members reduce their
overall energy bills by 25% by 2010.
05/23/2008 |
Ten
DMEA members with higher-than-average home energy bills were chosen from among
contest entries received online and via mail. 