Home Star is intended to be a short-term rebate program through 2011 for residential retrofits that are designed to conserve energy. Retrofitting with energy-saving products such as insulation, doors, windows, and heating/cooling systems would be eligible. The legislation provides two tracks for short term and long term benefits.
The “Silver Star” prescriptive program would provide up-front rebates for the installation of specific energy-saving products or systems. The House bill mentions the following specific measures and products that are eligible in the Silver Star program:
• Air sealing measures
• Attic insulation
• Duct sealing
• Wall insulation
• Crawl space or basement wall insulation
• Window replacement
• Exterior door replacement
• Heating system replacement
• Air conditioner or air heat pump replacement
• HVAC replaced with geothermal heat pump
• Energy efficient water heater installation
• Storm windows
• Window films
Up to $1,500 for each measure installed, or $250 per appliance, are available as rebates to the homeowner. The incentive cannot exceed $3,000, or 50% of the total project costs (whichever is lower) in rebates under the Silver Star requirements.
An alternative to the Silver Star path is a performance-based program called “Gold Star”. This path in the Home Star legislation rewards homeowners who conduct a comprehensive energy audit of the home and implement a full complement of measures to reduce energy. With specific software accredited by groups such as Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) and Building Performance Institute (BPI), a homeowner and contractor can compare the simulated energy consumption of the home before and after retrofitting. Homeowners participating in the Gold Star program can receive $3,000, or 50% of the cost (whichever is lower) for measures that reduce energy at least 20%. For every additional 5% reduction in energy consumption, an additional $1,000 rebate is available, up to a maximum of $8,000 total or 50% of the project costs.
What makes Home Star different from previous federal incentives is that this program is not a tax credit or tax deduction. Instead, it is a rebate awarded to the homeowner. The legislation is currently authorized at $6 billion. According to the federal government, the Home Star program will allow three million families to retrofit their homes and make them more energy efficient. Consumers are estimated to save $9.2 billion on their energy bills over the next 10 years from the retrofits made during this program. And the bill is expected to create 168,000 new jobs in the construction and manufacturing industries.
Before you get too excited, remember that only the House of Representatives has passed their version of the Home Star legislation. On the Senate side the Energy and Natural Resources Committee offered a set of amendments to the House version. The Senate has not yet taken up this bill but Sen. Bingaman (D-NM), the original sponsor of Home Star in the Senate, recently struck a deal with Sen. Snowe (R-ME) that proposes a revision to the House bill and improves the chance of passage.
Sen. Snowe favors performance-based energy efficiency tax incentives. The deal that is reportedly in place would use $1 billion of the authorized $6 billion for Home Star to fund a performance-based tax credit for efficiency retrofits. The rebate levels would remain the same for Silver and Gold Star. The tax credit is a minimum of $3,000 for a whole home retrofit that meets a HERS score of 100 for buildings constructed before 2000 and a score of 85 for buildings constructed after 2000. The tax credit would be capped at $8,000 or 50% of project cost and is intended to begin after the Gold Star program expires. Thus, the Senate’s tax credit proposal would extend the length of the stimulus program in Home Star.
So where does the energy efficiency of cool metal roofing fit into this? The Silver Star program does not list any type of roofing product in their eligible Energy Savings measures. However, the language in the Gold Star track does mention roofing. To be eligible for the Gold Star rebates, a homeowner must demonstrate whole house energy savings using any of the Silver Star measures and... “any other energy saving measures such as home energy management systems, high efficiency appliances, highly reflective roofing, awnings, canopies, automatic boiler water temperature controllers, mechanical air circulation and heat exchangers.”
What does “highly reflective roofing” mean? Many agree that this is poor language to use in federal legislation since it is not defined anywhere else in the bill. That leaves it open to interpretation. One could argue that since Home Star is aimed at lowering energy consumption in homes we would presume that “highly reflective” refers to a high solar reflectance value. But how high? Under what rating system? As accredited by what organization?
We can only hope that this loosely worded phrase can be better defined when the Senate takes up the bill for consideration. Otherwise, we will be subject to the interpretation of the IRS and/or other government agencies to help define what type of roofing materials are considered “highly reflective”.
And if this legislation sounds good to you, you’ll be happy to learn that a similar bill that would offer incentives for energy saving retrofitting of commercial buildings, known as Building Star, was already introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR). One of the incentives in Building Star reportedly includes low-interest financing options for small businesses working to reduce energy consumption. The metal construction industry remains hopeful that energy efficient metal roof and wall systems will be eligible for the incentives in the Building Star legislation. And we hope that the eligible measures in Building Star will be defined better than “highly reflective roofing”.