2013 Federal Residential Energy Efficiency Tax Credit

Here are links and summary statements compiled for my weatherization customer 2013 federal tax preparation:

The Rules:
http://energy.gov/savings/residential-energy-efficiency-tax-credit 

The Form:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5695.pdf 


For each customer, I provide a number, retail cost of attic, crawl space and wall insulation:
(The general statement from Form 5695, Line 19a)
Insulation material or system specifically and primarily designed to reduce heat loss or gain of your home that meets the prescriptive criteria established by the 2009 IECC

I multiply my discounted cost by 1.5, as retail cost, delivered.

The tax credit for this is entered at Line 21, 10% of the Line 19 items total.

An Example:
A customer In Damascus, Oregon, illustrates that the tax credit, like associated rebates, wrongly emphasizes the adding of insulation. Incentives should rather promote the work that may have greater energy savings and that becomes far more difficult and perhaps unaffordable, by adding more obstructive insulation. In the example, 90% of the savings achieved are not by adding insulation, but rather by removing all insulation to start over.

Here is a summary of insulation costs:

I will report a retail insulation expense paid, of $1613. This is for professional materials, perhaps sold only to professional installers. Most materials were Johns Manville brand, which is sold at Lowe's stores; however "consumer" items include none of these used. A major shortcoming of consumer materials is that they commonly are kraft faced, preventing intimate ceiling contact and often allowing wonderful mouse habitat. Kraft-faced batts lose most of their value where with common misunderstanding, "stapling flanges" are set to joist sides, not faces, absolutely permitting attic air to flood ceilings. I only use kraft facing where batts top up joists, over dirty loose-fill that would contaminate batts. There, the kraft facing is never harmful to intimate fill. I use a stack of materials for very good reasons, and only a bottom layer added, may have a vapor-barrier facing in following a Two Thirds Rule. A 50% markup from warehouse cost is very fair in professional installation, for the tax credit calculation.

This customer will be eligible for a federal tax credit, where there were no other claims since 2010. The total credit that may be claimed in all tax returns of 2011, 2012 and 2013, is $500. This customer will enter the number $1613 at Form 5695 Line 19a. The credit is calculated at Line 20, 10% of $1613, amount $161.

For a big picture of this job, please consult its Paid Invoice, and a sampling of captioned photos in a Picasa Web Album, titled Vermiculite Ruin Of Batt Insulation, 2013. 

In the rebate application document Paid Invoice, I show that despite near-complete placement of R19 batt insulation, found floor insulation R-value was less than 6. Great crimes of misunderstanding and omission under the batts needed difficult correction. All insulation had to be sent to a landfill, as the batts were contaminated by the vermiculite. Removing the vermiculite, tested safe for disposal, of itself adds much value to the home.

To deal with attic overheating, I had to access, enlarge and protect all soffit vents, my first call to this job. All soffit vents had been completely closed by foolish placement of roofing felt paper and attic insulation. 

Adding R19 insulation, if that found had been R19, would have saved this customer $76 per year. Done properly, as every installer must, savings will be $737 per year. This home is an important example to weatherization contractors, advocates and home owners everywhere, that it is the prep that is needed to save energy now and on into the future. Blindly adding insulation, usually with no preparation, precludes the majority of potential savings.

I hope some will read on in this, as example in their own homes, and/ or as model for need of reform in weatherization programs. Links that follow are to pdf albums at Google Drive. Please know that photos are best viewed by downloading the documents.

Damascus Attic Clean-Out 
Damascus Attic Prep 
Damascus Attic Insulation and Decking 

Damascus Attic Lights This has been available at this blog for several months, through this post.

Fighting The Lies Of Home Performance, In Public Forums

Upon opening, please know this post has a really good following. Readers: let us please talk to each other. This is important. What shall we do to restore sanity in a lively new campaign to work really hard on the low fruit in existing homes, absent any greed? Work certainly to include rental properties, residential and commercial, now generally neglected. We need real training in the needed hard work, done safely and including full treatment of safety matters as in old wiring. We need a many-fold quick increase in the number of workers employed. No moats to be crossed by throwing money to BPI. Acceptance that blower doors are rarely part of the solution, and most opportunities are in small bites of up-front financing. Tilt the pendulum away from grand and wasteful projects for a very few.


One public forum engaged is that of Saturn Resource Management, SRMI, in Helena, Montana. SRMI is an honest and affordable source of training for those who submit to BPI Certification, under the intense pressure of a mad national "industry."

SRMI maintains a Public Forum, where my entry is the last word on thread "air leakage."  
In summary:
A blower door can not guide or measure consequences of weatherization. It is never "home performance" testing.

Readers at SRMI might want to prove me wrong. They can't.

I was introduced to SRMI about four years ago, and own and have studied, their textbooks. Chris Dorsi, then a principal of SRMI,  spoke at Earth Advantage Institute, in Portland. I admire his integrity, and wish we could talk again. He will be in Portland in the first week of December, 2012, throwing credibility to nemesis Energy Conservation Training Company, ECONTC. I can't attend the conference. Who can afford $1095 for the fruitless stew? Yes I know, there is much fat in the skimming of weatherization, for and by, a privileged few.

At 12/23/2012, I remember to report here that the Habitat X 2012 Portland Conference was cancelled without fanfare. That fact is not evident in my Google search now. I blame Portland sponsors for, among many other things, letting the cost be so great. I have asked Energy Trust of Oregon to explain the event failure, and get no response. My question is charged, where I infer sign of deserved collapse of HPwES.

I am grateful to site InspectionNews, for sharing on many topics that concern me, with contribution mainly by professional home inspectors. I have contributed to threads on attic areas, including this:
http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_inspection/attic-areas-home-inspection-commercial-inspection/30867-attic-stair-insulation.html 



The lies of home performance are addressed in this blog, a public forum offered through the kindness of Google.

Energy Conservation How To: HPwES Origin

Jul 21, 2012

HPwES is not accepted in all states. We CAN drive it away, by alternative development in resistive states. I think few nations will follow our bad example, in telling lies about what a jerk can do with a blower door, in a clean ...

http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/

Energy Conservation How To: What is Home Performance with ...

Apr 28, 2012

But, never while lies persist, that they are needful. Trained eyes find every problem, where I have done the hard work of developing attic access. In every case where I have followed a HPwES tester, I find large savings ...

http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/

Energy Conservation How To: Fresh Air Is Free

Oct 04, 2012

Tell lies, and then go on to commit fraud through conflicts of interest and the can of foam trick, evidently taught and sponsored by the HPwES program developers. The HBA News lie is expressed verbatim in a release by ...

http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/

Energy Conservation How To: PACE Up-Front Weatherization Funding

Apr 27, 2012

Good contractors like me excluded from the delivery, where I declare a lie the notion that that weatherization can be guided by blower door testing, and must be aggregated under home performance contractors, HPwES.

http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/

Energy Conservation How To: Playing The Game: For Shame

Feb 14, 2012

All who participate in "performance-based" weatherization, the game in question, tell a lie. The lie is that the prep work for upgrade of residential insulation must be guided "scientifically," with a blower door. The participant player sets this nylon garment into your front door, with a clever aluminum framework that seals it ... To be continued. Posted by Phil Norman at 9:23 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook. Labels: BPA, HPwES, Policy Revision ...

http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/

Training The Green Workforce, Whole House Air Leakage Control

Feb 17, 2012

Training aims are based on the lie that weatherization boils down to "Performance," measurable in reduced readings in blower door tests. Beware of any program described with this P-word. The installer(s) will demonstrate ...

http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/

Energy Conservation How To: PTCS Air Sealing? I Sold My Blower ...

May 22, 2009

As author of the post, I have been troubled by the accusation of lying, deliberately giving false information. With knowledge that my service of ducts for consumers is quite mature, as demonstrated in an especially thorough and ...

http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/

Sharing Information

Gaining information worth sharing is hard work, and I have been engaged in this as an engineer and technical writer, down and dirty in attics and crawl spaces. At age 68, I will continue indefinitely to do the dirty work, where there are things to be learned or demonstrated. I need to move on, increasingly, to the harder work of sharing.  In the previous post , I suggested the sharing will move to a new venue much like book publishing. A first inspiration is in the remarkable work of David J. C. MacKay, available for free online, or purchased as a hard-cover book.
(Image Credit) 

An inventive customer brought this to my attention four months ago, with this link:
Energy saving measures from the point of view of an English physcist who thought a lot of what people were saying was BS.

http://www.withouthotair.com/Contents.html

The link for the book, for-free as pdf, is:
http://www.withouthotair.com/download.html 

Read it online:
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sustainable/book/tex/sewtha.pdf 
With Errata:
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sustainable/book/tex/Errata.pdf 

I am overwhelmed and humbled by this work. I do all of my writing in appropriate software for such publishing, little-appreciated and poorly marketed by Adobe, FrameMaker. Hacked to look like any other hostile and arcane Adobe product, off-shored to India for further development, I have no interest in expensive versions newer than mine. v 5.5.6, of 1998. Wikipedia informs us of FrameMaker history. FrameMaker professional users talk at Framers List, joined through http://www.frameusers.com/. There is increasing grumbling among these users. 

In a future where many novices with valuable information publish, rather than blog or post web pages, competitor software is needed. Enter, Google? Such software will be needed too, if work quality assurance shifts to third-party verification by writer professionals, as in Diligence Reports. The software, and its usage, might be in the cloud.

More Freshly-Minted Building Science Professionals

I am able to recall and report something that offended me yesterday, with help of Google. Search "bpi certification 100% Pass".

There it is:
http://www.environmentalenergyconsultants.com/BLOG.html

Congratulations Jan. 2012 Dual Cert class held at John Logan College, Carbondale, IL for a 100% written exam pass rate for both certifications!!!!!!!!! 10 students - 20 exams - 100% !!!!!!!


Maybe ten extraordinary wits, though dumb enough to pay $40 per hour for the fruitless knowledge-stuffing, twice the hourly rate of competent state university education.  The diploma mills are everywhere. The high pass rates are everywhere, evident in other findings of the Google search. So much money pouring to BPI.

Training The Green Workforce, Whole House Air Leakage Control

Follow links on training of the green work force, and end up at this document:


Residential Building Envelope Whole House Air Leakage Control Installer Certification Scheme Handbook (RBE-WH-ALC)


Training aims are based on the lie that weatherization boils down to "Performance,"  measurable in reduced readings in blower door tests. Beware of any program described with this  P-word.



The installer(s) will demonstrate their abilities to reduce uncontrolled air movement by creating
continuous durable air pressure boundaries in attics, side attics, crawl spaces and other accessible buffer zones by installing and connecting appropriate materials in a durable fashion.
This work includes:

• preparation of attic spaces and crawlspaces including confirmation of air sealing completeness before the installation of loose fill, blanket, or rigid board insulation

The scope of this certification scheme is limited to existing buildings, which are not greater than three stories and does not include:

• sealed flexible mechanically attached membranes, such as the belly wrap under mobile homes or water resistive barriers behind siding
• interior and exterior finish details and more complex housing types
• work scope development or alteration, health and safety analysis, including mechanical ventilation, combustion system analysis or alteration
• installation of loose fill insulation (mineral fiber, fiber glass, cellulose)
• installation of batt or blanket insulation in open walls, attics, or floors
• installation of rigid board insulation
• installation of spray polyurethane foam insulation
• installation of damp spray, wet spray, or insulation blown behind net
• installation of membranes, such as belly wrap under mobile homes or water resistive barriers behind siding in mobile home cavities
• interior and exterior finish details and more complex housing types
• roof vent and gable vent installation or replacement
• access techniques to key framing junctures and limited clearance areas
• skills required to complete all types of insulation in all types of residential construction.
• commercial construction air sealing skills or certification requirements including carpentry, roofing, siding, plastering and drywall, and standard insulation; nor requirements of licensed specialty trades or advanced installation techniques requiring instrumented diagnostic testing or analysis

This certification scheme is not an installation standard, an application standard or standard work specification.


Nothing of any value to a home owner is included. This is not a typo. The "not include" list items are of course not taught in a classroom or in lab-time play with a blower door. BPI and its followers shall not be sued for misrepresenting the shabby instruction of their Certified Professionals. Certified Professionals may at times be desperate persons with real skill, just buying work with a large and wasteful investment. The only value is in hoarding of work against anyone foolish enough to let honesty limit his income.

Weatherization and a State Bank, in a Mayoral Race

I see a weatherization core in the politics of a mayoral campaign in Portland, Oregon. Our sitting mayor, Sam Adams, escaped recall thanks to voter lethargy, after lying to avoid losing his election in 2008. Our city has suffered malaise through his term. Sam Adams has wisely decided to not seek reelection, creating an early vacuum for a good array of candidates to move in.


I attended two rallies in the Portland mayoral campaign, last evening, January 26th. The first was in promotion of candidate Eileen Brady. The best part of that event was a talk by Paul Hawken, surprising in the clarity of a call for an Oregon State Bank, as a channel for keeping finance through our savings, local. Off Wall Street. Not gone to who-knows-where and maybe doing ourselves harm. The State Bank is a central focus of the new Oregon Working Families Party, and did not fare well in the Oregon Legislature 2011 session. I bet it is not a matter of passion, to Eileen Brady. Paul Hawken will remain an honored adviser, and will not expect much environmental or finance innovation through Portland's Mayor, whoever is elected. 


I left the staid Brady event after an hour, for more-urgent attendance at a Jefferson Smith Party, a really joyous event. The Smith campaign makes no promise on the State Bank issue, yet it was Jefferson Smith who stood up for a State Bank, at a major Working Families Party event in Portland, February 1st, 2011. That attendance has earned my loyalty, to my State Representative. I was generously given opportunity to speak up in a Smith Town Hall Meeting in my neighborhood, on March 30th, 2011, before the dawn of the current mayoral opportunity. I will work very actively for the election of Jefferson Smith, to nurture whatever seed I have planted in a weatherization cause. 


At the Eileen Brady event, I also wanted to study a relationship between Ms. Brady, and endorsers present, Jules Bailey, and Derek Smith, the City of Portland employee who elevated himself to run a new private business spending public funds for weatherization, Clean Energy Works Portland (now Clean Energy Works Oregon). More on this below. 


I have my own view on utility of an Oregon State Bank, and see it has not before been posted here. It is as stated here in a May, 2011 email response to yet-another customer who declined my weatherization bid, for lack of up-front savings:


I imagine a radical escape from commercial banking, serving weatherization. A new Oregon State Bank could shuffle money for the work. The work with rapid payback gets done, and draw on the savings commences, in sustained higher utility bills or other repayment contract, with closeout at house sale. The contractor could draw from a liabilities account as needed, maybe leaving a lot in a retirement account. I  see the important things we must do to survive, getting harder with each new catastrophe. This could apply not only where large energy savings are possible, but  where hazards risk house destruction, as with faulty wiring or a failed roof.

By chance yesterday, I stopped in at the Portland Metropolitan Workforce Training Center,  a facility of Portland Community College. I remarked to an attendant, that  I work as a business owner in weatherization, with skills hard-won. Would someone talk with me? I had a wonderful half-hour meeting with the center's Director. We confirmed that no training is happening at the Center.

I reported that none is happening through money funnel Energy Trust of Oregon, per their online calendar. 

I find no credible training in weatherization, anywhere except ECONTC. A well-meaning person in Portland, seeking to participate in "green" activities for needful employment, is abused in this. The cost now is $2995 for forty hours of dreadful misguidance, paid always by our federal or state tax dollars in some foolish grant. Some of the "BPI Certified" wannajobs do find work, in the abuse of home owners.

BPI certification and resolve to do weatherization "performance-based" are prerequisite of contractors who align with Clean Energy Works Oregon, CEWO, the only hope in Oregon for home owners who NEED the up-front financing of work that was promised in Oregon's HB2626 of 2009, feather in the cap of Rep. Jules Bailey, and should-be pride to the State of Oregon, that surpasses our first-in-USA Bottle Bill. CEWO takes taxpayer money justified by HB2626, and hands it out in big piles, usually to those with no need, and always with spillage to the privileged play-along contractors. I do better work always, than any of those on the take. My customers are never punished where I am not in the program, but very often my bids fail because work is not affordable. People just stay cold in Winter, with loss of productivity and consequence to health.

I think such status-quo inaction with weatherization is common. Federal stimulus money never made it out, thanks to BPI greed in trying to rig programs.

Oregon might yet lead the nation in weatherization, not subvert it through energetically supporting Home Performance With Energy Star. Really finding the public financing, and sending it where it really is needed, is key. For this, we need our State Bank. Every state might need a similar bank. We need to see weatherization and home preservation in general, as suitable investments in a State Bank portfolio. Portland might move the ball some, in wise selection of its next mayor.

Free Access to Codes

In a previous post, I expressed my wish that all public regulations important to my safe workmanship, should be available for free online access. I am pleased to find that the National Electric Code, maintained by NFPA, the National Fire Protection Association, can be read online. You only need to register for access. There is no cost. I wish it were word-searchable and printable. If it were pdf, I could readily enlarge for less challenge in reading.

Now, how about building codes?

PTCS Air Sealing? I Sold My Blower Door.

The meaning of the acronym PTCS, is Performance Tested Comfort Systems. This resides at ptcsnw.com, which is maintained in Portland, Oregon, by Ecos Consulting. PTCS has been a bugaboo to me. Oregon Department of Energy has delegated its training responsibility for weatherization contractors, to ptcsnw/ ECOS. That responsibility currently is carried out by instruction through Energy Trust, in sealing HVAC ducts, and installing heat pumps. These classes are motivated for a large number of weatherization contractors, by Energy Trust of Oregon rebate requirements (see end of this post). Useful skills will be taught in the classes, but they should not qualify anyone and everyone, to work as HVAC specialists. I would not ever compete for that work, but would refer a real specialist that I trust. I don't want to invest in the HVAC instruction, for a couple of reasons:

First, there is substantial cost of about $1000, my time of two full days in class, and a $400 tuition. If the instruction really is important to people I serve, the tuition should be rebated somehow as reward for my unpaid dedication to my community. My costs are in the thousands of dollars, for unrewarded bid visits and telephone advice, often surpassing what a paid auditor offers a homeowner. I think the knowledge of PTCS that should matter to me as I make attics useful, whatever it is, is in the public domain, and should be accessible online. All paid people are ultimately funded by taxes, here a 3% addition to natural gas and electricity bills. Anyone, not just paying contractors, should get back more than one-time rebates for conservation measures. There should be no obstacles between public-domain knowledge, and the public, anyone, who might have use of that knowledge. The gripe is similar to what I feel about codes turned over to publishers, to make a profit. I will pay for nicely-bound code documents, but expect to find them in online pdf form, for free download. There should be no barrier of access, to things in the public domain, that I need to know.

Second, I know that the instructor of Ecos/ ptcsnw duct sealing classes, has stated in a Home Energy Magazine article here, that duct sealing with wrap-and-goop is objectionable to many workers, and that foil-faced double-backed butyl tape I have reported finding useful, is good. 2009 Energy Trust Specifications , at DS 1.5, ban the foil tape except on air handlers. I can not accept that I have done wrong in my employment of Polyken Foilmastic 367-17. I have protested the Energy Trust rule. One application I am absolutely proud of, is the joining of flexible heating ducts to a steel collar insufficiently smaller than the duct ID. I have achieved secure coupling in several homes, where ducts were detached, by slitting the duct in 120 degree sectors, applying 367-17 to the ID tightly-smoothly-generously, to form a bell. I then wrapped the improved duct and collar in OD application of 367-17. I challenge anyone to do this repair with wrap-and-goop. If I am in rebellion, I can not attend the class.

I have not invested in the tools of real HVAC professionals, including a duct blaster and other more-complex equipment. I bought a blower door last August, but just sold it. I only bought the blower door, to support customers with air-sealing-achievement rebates. Thankfully, such rebates have been eliminated in Oregon. I do not wish to compete dishonestly with the real HVAC professionals, or with professionals engaged daily as Home Performance testers. Home Performance testing demands daily practice, and investment in all tools, including all elements of Energy Conservatory products, and infrared thermography equipment. I am sad that my buyer, a general contractor like me, intends to delegate testing work to an employee, also not a dedicated professional, and to snag general contracts through the aura of holistic treatment of a home. General takes cuts on Subs. I don't do that. I want the homeowner to independently choose best contractors for all work. No cuts out of the homeowner's pocket. Home Performance testing is a summary task, after obvious things have been fixed. Get a greenness score for real estate purposes, and be sure a home is not too tight. One need not do testing, to imagine big measures of weatherization, HVAC upgrades, thorough crawl space ground barrier sealing and radon mitigation including heat-recovery ventilation.

There are strong emotions, perhaps mostly relief, in selling the blower door, though it had been sitting idle in my living room, tying up capital. I had been refused an air-sealing rebate in an oil-heated home subject to Oregon Department of Energy rebates, for want of PTCS certification. In the job, I patched visible, large holes, including a car-bashed garage wall, not found through another contractor's blower door test. That was not work for an HVAC professional. I promised to sell the blower door, if ODOE would not deal with this irrationality. Another bump to emotions over blower-door irrationality is in performance testing as a BASIS for duct sealing. (The PT in PTCS, taken to excess.) Energy Trust allows a rebate for duct wrapping, only if the ducts have been tested (with a duct blaster). Duct sealing and duct wrapping rebates hereafter apply only to work done by PTCS-trained HVAC technicians. In many homes, the entirety of a home's HVAC ducting is visible in a crawl space or attic. An insulation installer can know that ducts are intact, and could wrap them with opportune timing, but that is banned.

HVAC ducts should not be allowed to leak, but Energy Trust allows leaks to be deliberately maintained, if needed to achieve minimum fresh-air exchange, 7 ACH or greater at 50pa. See the requirement here , at AS 1.62. If one wants more fresh air, do it intelligently, with an HRV installation! Other absurdities are brought in, with the campaign to sell PTCS training. I will be out of this business, until it is fixed. If I find a detached duct, I will assuredly re-connect it, and will use appropriate UL 181 tapes. Shame on me. No rebate. None deserved. Failed to test? Punish me.