Emerging Issues in The Mid-West States & Utilities: COVID-19 Response, Interim Mitigation Measures & Longer-Term Trends

Joe Cullen, BPA; Reine Rambert, MEEA; Molly Graham, MEEA

1.5 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI

The Building Performance Association (BPA) and the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) are partnering together to provide a “live state update” on Emerging Issues in States and Utilities in the Midwestern Region. Experts from BPA and MEEA will focus on: 1) BPA and MEEA’s policy responses to COVID-19 Health and Safety Protocols and Interim COVID Mitigation Measures; 2) a survey of emerging COVID-19 Trends in policy and programs in Mid-Western states; and 3) a discussion of longer-term trends and strategies for 2020 and beyond.

The BPA and MEEA presentations will update attendees on state policy issues impacting home performance contractors and small businesses in the Mid-West. The presentations will also highlight trends across the energy efficiency marketplace in each state. A significant portion of the presentations will be devoted to answering questions from the audience.

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The Healthy Homes Opportunity in the Time of COVID--New Opportunities, Growing Demand

Peter Troast, Energy Circle

1.5 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI

One of the greatest opportunities for expanding the home performance industry is in connecting consumer demand for healthy homes with private market opportunities for building retrofits that improve both energy use and indoor air quality. The demand for and awareness of healthy homes continues to grow—especially in the post-COVID-19 world, wherein people are more conscientious of their health at home than ever before. For this to be a viable business, the key question is: how can home performance contracting companies convert the growing demand for healthy homes to whole house jobs? In this presentation, Energy Circle CEO and Founder Peter Troast will explain the trajectory of the healthy homes movement within home performance, and consumer trends supported by first-party statistics and market intelligence. He will unpack how contractors can bridge this communication gap with homeowners, and the foundations of a healthier home business and marketing strategy.

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Energy Efficiency to Preserve Affordable Rental Housing in Minneapolis

Rebecca Olson and Grant Carlson, Center for Energy and Environment

1.5 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI

More than ever cities across the nation are recognizing the challenges of, and experimenting with programs to preserve affordable housing, mitigate climate change, and address issues of environmental justice. In the face of such challenges, the City of Minneapolis created the 4d Affordable Housing Incentive program. The program is a unique pairing of housing and energy policy that leverages City and utility incentives to preserve affordable housing, lower utility bills, and cut greenhouse gas emissions. By providing technical assistance from CEE's energy experts and up to 90% cost share on energy efficiency projects, this program is able to ensure lasting affordability through rent stabilization and lower utility bills.

In this session, we will discuss the successes and lessons learned while coaching property owners through projects. This will include program design elements, funding streams, case studies, and data on energy savings.

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Cold-Climate ASHPs: Real World Results

Emily McPherson, Center for Energy and Environment; Ben Schoenbauer, Center for Energy and Environment; Bruce Manclark, CLEAResult

1.5 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI, QCI

Air-source heat pumps (ASHP) have improved over the last decade, and they are now an energy-efficient heating option in Minnesota and the Midwest. This presentation will discuss CEE’s cold-climate ASHP research, including performance and capacity results, lessons learned, and experiences from over five years of detailed data monitoring from ASHP field installs in Minnesota. Achieving heat pump's potential for energy savings, maximizing durability, and preventing release of climate-warming refrigerants requires proper design, installation, commissioning and service. This session will also discuss best practices for equipment selection and sizing, as well as when heat pumps work and when they don't.

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Workforce Development Townhall- Telling the EE Story

Keith Aldridge, BPA; Ameedah Hafeez and Darnell Johnson, Urban Efficiency, LLC, Karl Stanley, Nisource

1.5 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI

Join this interactive discussion about the development needs of the home performance workforce. You’ll hear how organizations are focusing on workforce development and the demand for qualified candidates, from recruitment, hiring, training, and retention. Panelists will share their experiences finding field and office personnel and solutions they’ve developed to educate and train staff.

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Working in the Field During COVID: Ventilation & Using a Blower Door

Paul Francisco, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Patricia Fritz, NY State Department of Health

1.5 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI and QCI

The pandemic has raised many questions regarding safety of workers and residents during home performance work. A major question has been whether to use a blower door, and if so how to do it safely. This session will first discuss health concerns related to respirable particles in general, reflecting that the virus travels in this type of particles, with linkages to the virus specifically. With this foundation, the session will then review when and how to use the blower door in a manner that maximizes safety, and may contribute to enhancing the safety of those in the home.

Heat Pump Water Heaters in Cold Climates

Kevin Gries, Slipsteam; Frank Gillis, NSSC, Pennsylvania College of Technology

1 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI, QCI

This session will provide an introduction to refrigeration and heat pump operations by discussing some of the basic principles required for refrigeration and the refrigeration cycle. You’ll also hear examples of when heat pump water heaters work and when they don’t. Finally, you’ll learn from case studies and performance data from heat pump research being conducted in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

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How COVID-19 Has Transformed the Home Performance Business--a Contractor Panel

Peter Troast, Energy Circle

1 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI

The COVID-19 pandemic has inarguably altered the way that many homeowners live their daily lives—and that also includes perceptions, practices, and expectations around home performance and healthy home services. In this contractor panel led by Energy Circle Founder and CEO Peter Troast, industry experts will discuss new types of demand, altered operations, changes to services, the challenge of virtual sales, and new service offerings in the home performance industry.

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Meeting Workforce Needs While Addressing Poverty and Equity Issues

Jamez Staples, Renewable Energy Partners; Angie Ostaszewski, Ameren Illinois; Darnell Johnson, Urban Efficiency Group

1 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI

Increasing demand for skilled workers in clean energy, energy efficiency and other emerging energy fields is also an opportunity to address the lack of diversity in these workforces and inequities in the sharing of benefits from clean energy and energy efficiency investments. In this session you'll learn about a North Minneapolis training center, as well as programs in the Chicagoland area and Illinois that are engaging minority communities while training and growing the EE workforce.

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Mobile Home & Duct Sealing

Bob Pfeiffer, Slipstream; Chris Clay, The Building Performance Center

1 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI, QCI

Mobile Homes are often looked at as energy hogs and that there is not much that can be done about that.
This session will discuss what works best to make this type of housing stock safer, more comfortable and more energy efficient.

Bob and Chris will discuss proven methods that have been in use since the early 1990's.

If your new to Mobile Home Weatherization this session will expose you to what needs to be done..

• Learn what the most cost effective retrofit measures are.
• Learn what it takes to properly seal a Mobile Home duct system
• Explain how Mobile Floor measures are done
• Explain how Mobile Attic insulation is done

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Minneapolis Energy Disclosure: Bringing Awareness to Home Energy Improvements

Isaac Smith, Center for Energy and Environment

.5 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI, QCI

The City of Minneapolis recently passed a single-family energy disclosure policy that went into effect in January 2020. This policy requires an energy asset rating, before the home is listed for sale, so potential buyers can make informed decisions and sellers can recoup the investments they made in energy improvements.

Policies like these bring awareness to home energy performance, with a goal of spurring investments in energy improvements. To help achieve this goal, the City of Minneapolis, CenterPoint Energy and Center for Energy and Environment are working together on a pilot. This pilot includes an energy advisor service to help coach new homeowners through the energy improvements outlined on the energy disclosure report, as well as consumer engagement tactics that utilize the energy disclosure data. This presentation will share the early results and activities from this pilot, as well as a review of the policy and energy disclosure report.

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Demystifying Digital Marketing: 2020 and Beyond

Peter Troast, Energy Circle

1 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI

The digital advertising landscape continues to change dynamically as it affects home performance and HVAC businesses—especially in regard to the post-COVID-19, virtual, low-touch world we inhabit. Google continues to launch new products, paid search grows more complex, the review landscape is constantly changing, and Facebook retains its dominant place in many homeowners’ lives. All of this presents a significant opportunity for contractors to improve their digital marketing strategy, lower marketing costs while growing the business and bettering the bottom line.

During this presentation, Energy Circle’s Founder and CEO Peter Troast will bring clarity to the rapidly-paced digital marketing landscape, and show you simple ways to take advantage of digital marketing tools to enhance your online presence and real-world business.

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Do Home Buyers Value Efficiency in Real Estate Listings?

Reuven Sussman, ACEEE; Natalia Gardocki, MEEA; Pamela Brookstein, Elevate Energy

1 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI

Real estate listing websites are perhaps the most obvious means for communicating efficiency information to home buyers. However, evidence of a causal link between efficiency information and real estate listing clicks is currently absent from publicly available sources. This session will discuss two recent studies evaluating home buyer preferences.

ACEEE recruited over 1,500 prospective US homebuyers for an online experiment using mock real estate website search results. The experiment showed that energy efficiency labels on real estate listings change homebuyers’ decisions of which homes to click on. Further, they found that some energy efficiency labels change decision-making more than others.

The Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) has been working to educate real estate agents and appraisers on the proper valuation of energy efficiency for a handful of years. Elevate Energy, with support from the MEEA, held focus groups with recent homebuyers and with real estate agents. Homebuyers were asked what they looking for during the homebuying process, what they wish they had considered, and what they thought about energy efficiency. They asked real estate agents similar questions about their clients. The results were often surprising and offer energy efficiency advocates a roadmap for engaging these two groups.

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COVID Update: Separating Fact from Fiction

Kevin Kennedy, Children's Mercy Kansas City

This session provides an update on COVID-19, the basic facts around the virus, and debunks some incorrect information you may have heard. What are the known symptoms for those infected with coronavirus? What is herd immunity and what will it take to reach this level in the population? What are Long Haulers? What is meant by the Hammer and the Dance? Kevin Kennedy, Environmental Hygienist at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, reviews the current knowledge on the virus, how it’s spread, and how to protect yourself.

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What's Working in the Field: Working in the Time of COVID

Andrea Schroer, NASCSP; Ray Judy, Michigan Training and Education Center, Julie Quarve, Quarve Contracting, Steve Nall, JobSource

1 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI

In this session, you'll hear an informal conversation on how to navigate the “new normal,” and work safely in the COVID-19 environment. Learn from panelists in Michigan, Indiana, and Minnesota, who will share their ideas and protocols for working in the home performance and weatherization industry during these uncertain times.

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Multifamily Air Leakage: Test Methods and Results

Paul Morin, TEC; Jake Selstad, Center for Energy and Environment

1 CE Hour - BPI, NARI, INTERNACHI, QCI

This session will cover the common standards used in air tightness testing of multifamily buildings. We will discuss the procedures for measuring the exterior and total leakage of individual units along with multi-fan procedures for whole building testing of exterior leakage. This will include a comparison of building preparation, equipment setup, and benefits of the results for the various test methods.

We will present whole building and individual air leakage results from a recent research project of 25+ new construction, low-rise multifamily buildings in six states. The average exterior leakage of the Minnesota buildings was 1.25 ACH50, but the total leakage of individual units averaged 3.4 ACH50 and about a third of the leakage was to outside.

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The DNA of a Flourishing Company

John Tooley, John Tooley, LLC

Happiness, well-being, and flourishing are words that we use to describe what we want for our children. The same words apply to what we want for our companies or weatherization agencies. We need no less than three elements to accomplish our dream: Profit, Passion and Purpose. This webinar will share the path to a flourishing company. One where our employees move across the landscape of work from, it’s a job, it’s a career, to it’s a calling. Retention will rise and hassle will go down We will look at the findings of science and how other companies have found this path.