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Insulation is one of the highest payback improvements you can make to a building -- at both new construction and remodeling time. Radiant barriers are a new approach with additional heat resistant benefits.

Heat Transfer

Conduction

Direct heat flow through a solid object like a roof, wall or ceiling.

Convection

Heat movement through air that occurs when air is warmed. Warm air expands, becomes less dense and rises.

Radiation

Movement of heat rays across air spaces from one warm object to another less-warm object. Wood stoves give off radiant heat, for example.

We hear about radiant barriers in applications such as the heat shielding ceramic tiles on NASA shuttles. And the aluminum foil used on baked potatoes. Those are "radiant barriers" that keep heat in... or out.

Heating air is expensive! Cooling air is also expensive -- so it makes sense that if you don't have to condition air as much, you'll save on your utility bills.

Insulation and radiant barriers are used in buildings to keep heat in during the winter...and keep heat out during hot periods and seasons. But most buildings weren't optimized for energy efficiency in both hot and cold temperatures.

Radiant Barriers for Buildings

The bright aluminum surface of radiant barrier products provides insulation properties in two ways:

• The reflective surface reflects long wave radiant heat that strikes it -- up to 97% of all radiant heat.
• Close contact, but non-touching, allows reradiation to happen, and when you reduce the amount of heat that "gets through" the radiant barrier, you will have less convection taking place.

Read more about radiant barrier effectiveness.

On the basis of Frost & Sullivan's independent research, 2008 U.S. HVAC Contractors' Choice: Which Manufacturer Passes the Test...

Trane emerged as the overwhelming leader in the chiller product category among U.S. HVAC contractors.

"Roughly seven out of ten U.S. HVAC contractors ranked Trane as a top chiller brand," says Frost & Sullivan Project Manager, Krishnendu Roy. "While 71 percent voted Trane as one of the top three chiller brands, what is significant is that 40 percent ranked Trane as the number one chiller brand - a 29 percent lead over the nearest competitor."

A positive reputation, coupled with loyal customers, is what positions Trane as a leader. Of the 36 percent of U.S. HVAC contractors' who reported using Trane chillers for non-residential projects/installs, all agreed that Trane was one of the top chiller brands.

The largest proportion of those surveyed said that the manufacturer's sales person is the most important source of information when deciding on purchasing an HVAC component (80 percent).

Interestingly, 22 percent made independent decisions for buying an HVAC component, while 56 percent reported that the decision for HVAC brand were jointly decided along with their customers. Thus, it appears that HVAC contractors have strong influences in choosing brands of HVAC components

The Frost & Sullivan HVAC Contractors' Choice Award is conferred on the company that has demonstrated excellence. The recipient has distinguished itself through its proactive strategies that position it to emerge or continue as an industry leader.

The Choice Awards measure the best brands based upon the highest brand perception index (BPI) score. The BPI is calculated by multiplying the weighted mean score and loyalty index score. Award recipients must have BPI scores of 10 or greater. Trane received a 10 BPI score for Overall Best Brand of Chillers.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Trane

Trane has over 55 years of experience providing chillers to the commercial market. Trane offers scroll, helical rotary, centrifugal and absorption chillers in capacities from 20 to 3950 tons, cooling towers and packaged combinations of all the above. Trane, a business of Ingersoll Rand, improves the performance of homes and buildings around the world with solutions to optimize indoor environments with a energy-efficient heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, building and contracting services, parts support and advanced controls for homes and commercial buildings. For more information, visit www.trane.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan,  enables clients in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides research and best practice models to drive growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com

Initial results from a research study in East Tennessee shows that energy-efficient upgrades can pay off for homeowners by reducing heating costs by 35 to 65%.

"The retrofit unit provided 35% measured heating energy savings from the builder home, yet offers a package of technologies that are considered to be a reasonable upgrade for many homes in the United States," says Jeff Christian,  Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

While the study focuses on improvements to existing homes new, unoccupied homes were used in order to keep the results as unbiased as possible.

The houses are typical two-story models built on insulated slabs with similar solar orientation, lot slope, wall areas, wind exposure and size.

The study uses three similar homes in the same development to gather real-world data about various energy-efficient improvements that can be made to an existing home.  The study is sponsored by the Tennessee Valley Authority and is being conducted in cooperation with researchers from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Computers and instrumentation are programmed to simulate occupancy, including opening refrigerator doors, automatic clothes washing and drying, showers, lights and plug loads in all three homes. But that's where the similarities end.

The Control Home
The control or builder home was built to meet current building codes and earned a Home Energy Rating System score of 90, slightly better than a typical code-compliant home. It is equipped with two heat pumps, one for each floor, that have a total capacity of 4.5 tons.

The Retrofit House
The retrofit house includes energy-efficient upgrades that focus on the building envelope and mechanical equipment. These allowed the HVAC system to be reduced to one, three-ton heat pump located inside the conditioned envelope. The retrofit home earned a HERS rating of 66 - a better score than the builder's home.


Energy Improvements
Improvements to the home include installing

• low-E gas-filled windows
• changing all light bulbs to compact fluorescents
• replacing the ceiling insulation with spray polyurethane foam insulation on the underside of the roof deck and attic walls to make it an unvented, semi-conditioned space.

Attic-based HVAC Configurations
"An unvented attic is particularly helpful in climates where heating and cooling equipment is located in the attic," said Chris Porter, building science manager for BioBased Insulation®. "Modifying the attic to create an indirectly conditioned space helps significantly reduce energy consumption and improves mechanical equipment performance."

BioBased Insulation® donated the insulation for the study, and Endless Supply, a BioBased Insulation® certified dealer based in Ashville, NC, donated the labor to install the product.

Deep Retrofit Home
High-performance improvements to the third home made it a near zero energy home with a HERS rating of 34 and a measured space heating energy savings of 65 percent compared to the builder home.

While more extensive, some of the improvements could still be made to a deep retrofit of an existing home. They included,

• 2.5 kW solar panels,
• solar hot water heater,
• triple-layered windows with an R-value of 7,
• structurally insulated sheathing and
• BioBased Insulation® in the walls,
• R49 attic insulation with radiant barrier sheathing.
• The builder was able to downsize to one, two-ton heat pump because of the envelope improvements.

"With three houses with actual identical simulated occupancy we will have research capabilities that are world-unique," Christian said. "And the really exciting thing is that these homes will be available for research for seven years, so we will be able to replace, test and accelerate the development of even more efficient technologies."

How much do energy-efficient upgrades cost?

The upgrades included in the retrofit home cost $4 per square foot or about $9,800 more than the control home.

Upgrades to the near zero energy home cost $21 per square foot or $51,576 more than the control home.

Payback and ROI
Based simply on projected energy savings, homeowners who implement the retrofit upgrades would recoup their costs in 8.5 years.

It will take homeowners who implement the near zero energy upgrades 22 years to recoup their costs.

While the current round of results includes the heating season only, monitoring will continue during summer, and results for a full year of the homes' operation should be available this fall.

Rebates and Tax Deductions
"We're excited to be part of the study," Porter said. "Recently we've seen an increase in the number of homeowners taking advantage of the $1,500 Federal Tax deduction and other rebate programs. Many are doing upgrades similar to those found in these test houses. Even though these are only initial results, they are still very helpful in quantifying the energy savings from these retrofit options."

GOAL:  6 million new green-collar jobs.

Efficiency First is a nonprofit trade association that unites

• Home Performance contractors,
• residential energy consultants,
• building product manufacturers
• and other key members of America's growing green-collar workforce

Efficiency First advocates using the federal Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program as a standard model for efficiency retrofitting, including third-party verification. National contractor and auditor certification and accreditation should be mandated through RESNET (Residential Energy Services Network), BPI (Building Performance Institute) or other qualified accreditation agencies who conduct independent, third-party quality assurance on the work performed.

Together they intend to escalate the fight against global warming. Efficiency First was founded in 2009 to represent its members in public policy discussions at the state and national levels, to promote the benefits of Home Performance retrofitting, and to help our industry grow to meet unprecedented demand for quality home retrofitting services.

Our mission is to collaborate with legislators, government agencies and professional organizations in the advancement of a performance-based market for energy efficiency that will enable rapid growth in our industry while maintaining profitability and quality of service.

"Our goal is to see a steady run rate of
10 million home retrofits per year by 2020."

According to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, residential buildings alone generate over 20 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel consumption in the United States.

Because the vast majority of America's 128 million homes do not operate anywhere near peak efficiency, large-scale retrofitting of existing residential buildings will play a key role in achieving significant greenhouse gas reductions, while lowering residential energy bills, improving indoor air quality and thermal comfort, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and creating millions of new jobs for American workers.

The home retrofitting industry can achieve a 25% or greater decrease in non-renewable energy consumption by America's housing sector, leading to a 5% decrease in the country's overall carbon emissions - equivalent to taking half of all current passenger cars off the road.

The industry will employ at least 1.25 million American workers directly, and with the inclusion of manufacturing and other supporting industries, will generate up 6 million new green-collar jobs.

NATE (North American Technician Excellence) was founded in 1997 and is the nation's largest independent, third-party non-profit certification organization for heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) technicians. NATE-certified technicians are skilled professionals who have proven their knowledge in the HVACR industry by passing specialized NATE certification tests.

NATE's certification tests represent real world working knowledge of HVAC and HVACR systems and candidates can earn installation and/or service certification in one or more specialty areas.

Specialties include:

• Air Conditioning
• Air Distribution
• Heat Pumps
• Gas Furnaces
• Oil Furnaces
• Hydronics Gas
• Hydronics Oil
• Light Commercial Refrigeration
• Commercial Refrigeration
• Senior HVAC Efficiency Analyst

Find a local contractor that employs NATE-certified technicians

There are four ways to harness solar energy:

• photovoltaics (converting light to electricity),
• heating and cooling systems (solar thermal),
• concentrating solar power (utility scale),
• lighting

Active solar energy systems employ devices that convert the sun's heat or light to another form of energy we use.

Passive solar refers to special siting, design or building materials that take advantage of the sun's position and availability to provide direct heating or lighting. Passive solar also considers the need for shading devices to protect buildings from excessive heat from the sun.

Trade Associations

Trade associations are nonprofit organizations designed to assist businesses and other stakeholders with research, commmercialization and industry networking through communications, advocacy and industry development activies -- such as grant programs, scholarships, education conferences, and online presence. 

Trade associations can provide companies -- especially small green technology companies -- with many business development services they cannot afford to conduct themselves.  They are a conduit between government and industry and between industry and customer groups.

Solar Industry Trade Association

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is the leading national trade association for the solar energy industry. The SEIA works to expand markets, strengthen research and development, remove market barriers and improve education and outreach for solar energy professionals.

Lobbying
Located in Washington, D.C., SEIA was founded in 1974.  SEIA works with Congress to craft progressive federal policy that stimulates the solar energy market to scale up and become competitive with non-renewable energy sources currently dominating the marketplace.

Outreach
SEIA's Meetings and Events division raises awareness of solar through select high-quality industry events including the annual Solar Power Conference. SEIA-sponsored events bring together industry leaders, innovators, policy-makers, media and the public to showcase the incredible advances in solar technology and the solar industry.

Trade Association Membership
SEIA Membership promotes the benefits of membership to prospects, manages the member database and key member benefits like discounts on job postings.

Memberships include solar energy manufacturer, distributor, contractor, installer, project developer, and consultant as well as other industries impacted by the U.S. solar energy market.

Trade association membership can provide you with critical information, advocacy, education, and networking opportunities can help grow your business for long-term participation in  the solar industry.