Comments on: Forget the People — A Home Energy Rating Is an Asset Label

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:19:39 +0000

Sean: I
Sean: I haven't used it yet, but I think the EPS actually does both. On the home page of the Energy Performance Score website, they write, "The EPS allows for comparisons of one home's energy use to another, without the influence of varying occupant behavior." That's the definition of an asset label.

Nate A.: The two kinds of people are those who divide everything into two groups and those who don't. :~)

Ken B.: Now there's an idea - Let's do color codes for energy efficiency!

wd: There's a lot of work going on with the type of benchmarking and use of utility data you mentioned. REM/Rate allows for comparison of HERS results with utility data, and the advent of smart meters is allowing much more.

By: wd

wd — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 10:47:27 +0000

The terms 'asset label' and
The terms 'asset label' and 'operational label' are new to me as is the 'Energy Performance Score' idea. I like the attempt to make a statement about the "energy mileage" of a building.

It seems to me we have another way to navigate to similar knowledge but we seem to shy away from it. The Utilities have a HUGE amount of data. If they did BENCHMARKING they could determine which houses were using less energy for a given size of home. The survey would establish a 'norm' for a given house size which would be an asset label as I interpret it. It would also spot accounts that used less than expected energy. That would create an operational label bit of information. The next step would be to inquire of the better performers (on a voluntary basis) what projects or practices led to their low usage. The lessons learned from such a study would provide insights for the rest of the population to consider if they wanted to use less energy to get the job done, whether it is a NET ZERO objective or just a DO BETTER objective.

The means described in the article seem to be based on a mathematical modeling approach. The benchmarking et al is perhaps best viewed as a statistical approach with a little detective work thrown in. Both have legitimacy it seems to me.

By: Ken Bailes

Ken Bailes — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:42:41 +0000

Well put, bottom line most
Well put, bottom line most people want to know what affects the wallet/pocketbook in the end. The good news this is actually easier to understand than the old homeland security threat level, lol.

By: Nate Adams

Nate Adams — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:21:04 +0000

Allison, thanks for making a
Allison, thanks for making a very important point: you can get 12 MPG in a 20 MPG car. You can also get 25 MPG in a 20 MPG car. It's still a 20 MPG car from the EPA, it just depends how you drive it. Same goes for a house. It's an important distinction, thanks for making it so well!

On another note, what are the 2 kinds of people?

By: Sean @ SLS

Sean @ SLS — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 04:44:42 +0000

Sorry Ryan but having used
Sorry Ryan but having used & been through the training for it - EPS is an "operational" type program just like other programs based on the "simple" algorithm or whatever they wish to call it.
If memory serves me correctly - that it is not an asset based program is listed specifically in the training under the differences between HERS & EPS

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:44:34 +0000

Ryan S.:
Ryan S.: Great point! I agree that having a metric based on actual consumption is important, too. I wrote about the difference between energy conservation and energy efficiency a while back. It's about time for me to dig into the EPS now. Thanks for the comment!

By: Ryan Shanahan

Ryan Shanahan — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:38:29 +0000

One exciting development I've
One exciting development I've had the pleasure of working on is the Energy Performance Score (EPS). Like a HERS score it is an asset label but the EPS is a number than represents annual energy consumption vs energy efficiency. The best way to illustrate the importance of this metric is that a 1,000 sq ft home and a 5,000 sq ft home could have the same HERS score but drastically different EPS'. If we stick to the MPG analogy the 5,000 sq ft "efficient home" is just a hybrid SUV. I think it's important to rate buildings based on annual consumption vs energy efficiency if we are all chasing the same end goal: NET ZERO.