Category: Tech Tip

When it comes to heating and cooling homes or creating domestic hot water in Northern California—which features a mild, Mediterranean-type climate—heat pumps are a great alternative to air conditioners (AC), furnaces, or boilers. Heat pumps provide exceptional efficiency, can help enhance safety and indoor air quality, and offer builders an opportunity to secure up-front cost savings when building new homes. (more…)

Induction Cooktops Technology (more…)

The 2019 residential energy code (2019-Code) will use a new energy efficiency metric to gauge code compliance: the Energy Design Rating (EDR) will replace compliance percent. Each metric accomplishes a similar task – determining if a proposed-home uses less energy than a prescriptive-home of the same size and in the same climate zone. The difference between compliance percent and EDR is simply the mathematical construct used behind the scenes in the modeling software and the inclusion of all energy end uses within EDR. CAHP participants may be familiar with the EDR already as it’s being used for program compliance with the 2016-Code program. Calculations for the EDR are currently available in CBECC-Res 2016 and EnergyPro 7. Instructions to activate and surface the EDR calculations can be found here. And Delta-EDR,…

The 2019-Code goes into effect January 1, 2020 -  just around the corner considering construction timelines. CAHP and CABEC strongly encourage all energy consultants to test out the 2019-Code beta software (also called research versions) before the code change. Testing will help gain familiarity with software and the new code, test how certain building designs fair, and surface bugs, errors, and missing features to inform the development team ahead of final release. For residential buildings, the new code includes: More stringent wall and attic insulation values, including QII in the reference baseline A new baseline for electric water heating The Energy Design rating - a brand new method of code compliance that requires a user adhere to both an Efficiency-EDR and a Final-EDR simultaneously (see CAHP’s EDR Fact Sheet for…

The California Advanced Homes Program (CAHP) and California Multifamily New Homes (CMFNH) program provide EDR and cash bonuses for industry best-practice measures to reward builders and homeowners. These bonuses also help offset the incremental costs for these added measures. These new cash bonuses are model-able and are available for all 2016 code single-family and low-rise multifamily projects, as applicable. Quality Insulation Installation (QII): Single family and low-rise multifamily projects QII outlines a procedure to verify proper installation of insulation to maximize thermal benefit per methods detailed in the Residential Appendix RA3.5, and applies to floors, walls, roofs and ceilings. Claiming compliance credit for QII requires that a third-party HERS Rater verifies the integrity of the installed insulation. Reduced Building Air Leakage: Single family projects only Lower building air leakage yields…