With gas prices topping $4 a gallon families and businesses are facing a real burden. But we can take action to ensure the American people don't fall victim to volatile energy costs over the long term.
And with 40 percent of America's carbon emissions coming from our buildings, one of the most important steps is building and retrofitting homes to cost less to power, heat and cool.
That's why nearly a third of HUD's Recovery Act funds can be used for "greening" America's affordable housing stock.
With these funds, we are on track to provide 245,000 affordable homes with a range of energy improvements, while another 55,000 receive green retrofits that will save up to 40 percent in energy costs.
Dozens of those homes can be found in the San Francisco Bay Area at Eden Issei Terrace, a 100‐apartment residence for low‐income seniors in Hayward, California. Using $750,000 in Recovery Act funds, Eden made energy upgrades that are already cutting utility costs by a third. Just as important, this investment has created good-paying jobs that can't be outsourced.
Properties like these have proven that investments in green housing pay for themselves.
Our challenge now is to catalyze that change on a transformational scale - driven by the massive private investment we need to win the future.
That's why I went to Eden Issei Tuesday to launch Green Refinance Plus - a new Obama Administration initiative that builds on Recovery Act investments to unlock the private capital we need to retrofit thousands of affordable homes.
A joint effort between the Federal Housing Administration and Fannie Mae, Green Refinance Plus will help owners of older affordable multifamily properties be among the first to go green while refinancing their mortgages at today's historically low interest rates.
While FHA provides additional insurance coverage, Fannie Mae will provide loan underwriting that will generate additional loan proceeds to make green improvements.
A typical development will be able to access a loan that is 5 percent larger. For a $5 million loan, that means an additional $250,000 will be available to support green systems and appliances -- saving owners and renters money, while reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Green Refinance Plus provides real bang for the buck -- and another jolt to our economy, which has already added 2.1 million private sector jobs over 14 consecutive months.
Over the next four years, the green building industry will support nearly 8 million jobs and generate more than a half trillion dollars in economic activity.
Together, these efforts reflect a fundamental belief of President Obama's: That when we invest in clean energy, we invest in a new generation of professionals, ready to build, install, repair and maintain clean energy technologies.
That greening our homes is one of the keys to the 21st century economy -- and to out-innovating our competitors.
And that real change requires leadership, solutions and capital from the private sector.
Driving that change is what Green Refinance Plus is about -- and why I was proud to unveil it this week.
Follow Shaun Donovan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@HUDnews
Moving most of the glass to the south side of the house. Designing the roof overhang to shade the glass in the summer, but not in the winter. Moving the porches to the west side.
Next I recommend open cell spray foam insulation. The cost has come down in our area to be just a little more than standard insulation. The small extra cost is offset by the savings of a smaller heating and air conditioning system. I do not recommend high efficincy HVAC systems because they do not save enough to justify the costs when we are applying these other principles. Of course each project is unique and we can only apply these principles at varying levels.
More on next post.
The tenants, or landlord depending on how the units are metered, might save money on energy and lose it in additional principal and interest.
It makes far more sense to show average homeowners how they can lower their heating/cooling bills by about 30% for less than $100 by simply cutting architectural sheathing--the styrofoam stuff they put on the outside of buildings before the siding is installed--to fit all their windows.
The sheathing goes up at night when it is either hot or colder than they like and during the day on windows which get full sun in the summer (or don't in the winter.) It can also go up in all windows during the day if no one is home. Making sure all windows can be open in good weather also helps.
Planting deciduous trees which shade the South and West facing walls and windows of the house also greatly improves savings. An attic blanket. energy star appliances, hot-water-on-demand systems, CFL lightbulbs and a Florida heat pump (deep thermal) complete the array.
We have seven years experience. Energy costs for a total electric house our size, age and construction average $400-$600 per month. Our bills are $100-$200. And our trees are just beautiful!
Locally a nonprofit I'm working with is trying to start a program to weatherize all the low income housing that the county pays the utility bills. We can put people to work, teach them a good trade, reduce the county tax burden, and publicize how going green can help solve the government budget problems. We are looking in to this new program to see if combined with refinancing it could cover the costs.
We can also take your tree shading idea further. If all homes were designed to absorb winter sun and shade summer sun by good window and roof overhang design, energy costs can be reduced a lot without spending extra construction money.
I live in the South. Until the 1940's almost all houses had wide wrap-around porches with deep overhangs. In back, the porch was screened, and it was where you put beds in the Summer--hence the name "sleeping porch." They were painted white and overhung with huge trees on four sides. Inside they had heavy wooden louvered shutters. The only thing remaining today of this style are the shutters which have been re-christened "plantation shutters" and cost a small fortune.
People lived on their porches three seasons of the year because that is where it was coolest.
Every area of the country has an indigenous home design. You don't need to herd people into unattractive, itty bitty box-like apartments to go green. Done correctly "traditional" might actually make a come-back.
But kind of fun.
http://www.brynmawr.edu/cities/archx/05-600/proj/p2/aca/what_is_a_boarding_house.htm
What is a Boarding House?
Go back to bed America your government is in control.
I traded my F150, after closing my farm down, for a Honda Insight ! 15 to 43 mpg.
I put my solar array in three years ago and it makes 120% of my power.
Here in Vermont they passed a new law that goes in effect 1-1-2012 and says the power companies will have to buy my extra power at 6 cents per KWH..
If I can do these things , then you can do something to help, too.
What bothers me is that the government subsidizes oil, nuclear, and coal heavily!
was converting a regular house into a green one.They didn't even add any square footage.
You've created a new industry to service this stuff, but saving money? not much. I bought heat pumps before most people had ever heard of them. I've been thru solar panels.
Believe me, they have limited life spans
1.) The durable improvements (windows, doors, insulation) will be in place long after they're paid off.
2.) Investment risk. First question, do the improvements deliver? They do. Second question. Is cost of energy production more likely to go up or down? Up, the debate is how much and how fast.
3.) Durability and lifespan. I'm a contractor. I'm the guy who skins you for big bucks (I wish!) when water condensation from the lousy window damages the wall framing over time, the black mold from poor ventilation made you sick or the sub floor in front of the door is damaged because the door leaked. My point - Energy efficient houses tend to be "healthier". Fewer problems, repairs and in the case of mold, less stigma at time of sale due to required disclosure.
Green building lacks glamour. Green technology is largely based on a sensible, sometimes pedantic view that focuses on the long term. But then, there's a Lotta burnin' love in those repackaged derivatives!
You're still right. 12 year payback is long even if the home is destined to exist for decades (barring physical or natural disaster). BTW I'm not a "tree hugger"
For every green job created, they lost 2 more. Their economy is even more troubling than ours and progressives want to move to a green economy which MUST be subsidized by GOVERNMENT.
Go to europe, take your train and get it out of your system, they don't pay for themselves.
I must have been Bush's fault!