Pilot Program

Committee:

The Upgrade is coming! A Pilot Project is the first step.

January 9, 2012

The Upgrade is coming! Our Pilot Project is the first step.

Recommendations for the Community Upgrade (see http://www.ghi.coop/content/upgrade.) will be made to the GHI Board by the Buildings Committee. The committee was created in the Fall of 2008 to “advise the Board on matters related to maintenance, repair and improvement programs for existing GHI buildings and acquisition of new buildings.” The Board asked the Buildings Committee to develop a program to improve energy efficiency and comfort in the homes, including replacement of our aging baseboard electric heating systems.

The committee has undertaken a number of activities that will lead to a set of recommendations to the GHI membership and the Board on how to do this. One of the first of these activities was to develop a set of goals for the creation of a plan for replacing the electric baseboard heaters and for making improvements to the “building envelopes” (i.e. the “skin” of the house including such components as roof, siding, doors, the surface above the crawl spaces, etc.) The goals for such capital improvements are the following:

reduce overall energy consumption and costs in the dwelling units;
improve member comfort and “livability”;
emphasize use of sustainable, environmentally friendly energy sources, technologies, and products where economically feasible;
reduce overall life cycle costs, including preventive and corrective maintenance, for heating, cooling and domestic hot water systems;
minimize disruption to households as improvements are being made; and
implement the program while maintaining the unique and historic character of the GHI homes.

Some of the needed building envelope improvements will be covered under our Replacement Reserves, so are already paid for by our monthly fees. However, the Buildings Committee will be making recommendations for additional improvements, not covered by Replacement Reserves, designed to increase member comfort in winter and to lower our energy costs. The Buildings Committee has undertaken a number of activities to determine what those additional improvements should be, including the creation of a Pilot Program which began in the Fall of 2010. The Pilot Program is designed to provide GHI with information on the actual cost of energy efficiency upgrades, the energy savings they will bring, the payback periods for the upgrades, and the impact on members while the work is being done.

There are 28 units (7 rows) in the Pilot Program, consisting of 3 rows of block units, two of frame, and two of brick façade units. Members in these units agreed to participate in the pilot after they were contacted by GHI because their rows and met certain criteria for the Pilot Program. The Committee sponsored a workshop for GHI members about the Pilot Program on January 23, 2011. The workshop generated a long list of questions from members – including how the Pilot Program rows were selected --the answers to which are available at the link below (Town_Hall_meeting_TAQs_1_23_2011.doc). The following is a summary of the Pilot Program and the current status of its work.

The Pilot Program consists of three phases. In each phase, GHI is being assisted by the National Association of Home Builders - Research Center. Through a grant from the Department of Energy, the Research Center helped us design the Pilot Program so that it delivers informative results. Through the grant, their technical assistance comes to us at no charge.

In Phase 1 of the Pilot program, which began in November of 2010, the Research Center performed energy audits on the Pilot homes to determine where the homes were losing heat in winter and where cold air was infiltrating into the homes. The Research Center also installed temperature and humidity sensors in the pilot units as well as special electric meters on baseboard heaters, water heaters, and clothes dryers. During Phase 1 and continuing through the next two phases, measurements of temperature and humidity in different rooms are being recorded. Year 1 measurements are providing a baseline of data that will be used to determine the impact of alternative energy efficiency improvements made to the pilot homes during phases 2 and 3.

Phase 2 of the Pilot Program consists of two steps. In November 2011, the crawl spaces of the pilot homes were insulated. The measuring devices will record temperature and humidity information that will help the Research Center determine the impact that the crawl space insulation had on lowering home energy use for heating and cooling. The second step of Phase 2 – beginning in early 2012 – will include replacement of windows and doors, insulation of attics, installation of bathroom exhaust fans, new insulated siding on the block and frame pilot units, and insulation of the porch slabs of the block and brick units. The measuring equipment will then indicate the impact these improvements on member comfort and unit energy costs.

Two types of insulated siding will be tested on block units – insulated vinyl siding and an External Insulating Finish System that resembles cinderblock. In addition, the Research Center will provide us with information on the cost, energy savings, and disruption to members, of insulating the block units on the interior instead using an exterior insulation strategy.

In Phase 3 of the Pilot Program, beginning the late Fall of 2012, three alternative heating systems will be installed and tested. Those systems have not been determined at present. The information from Phase 2 measurements will assist the Buildings Committee to recommend appropriately-sized heating systems, since we will know the increase in member comfort and reduction in winter heating costs that result from the envelope upgrades themselves. Based on the results of the pilot, the Buildings Committee will draft its recommendations for GHI-wide upgrades to the membership and the GHI Board in the Fall of 2013. The GHI Finance Committee will explore ways for the coop to finance and pay for Phase 3 of the pilot program and for the entire GHI community upgrade.

The Pilot Program will also enable the GHI membership to see what the tradeoffs are, between the 6 Buildings Committee goals listed above. The Pilot Program is vital to helping GHI in making the best choices for energy efficiency upgrades, because computer models and expert reports cannot tell us the whole story.

In the next few months, the Board and Buildings Committee will be providing you with information about the Pilot Program through a variety of means (the News Review, on the GHI website, the Communicator, by special mailings, etc.). The committee meets on the 4^th Wednesday of each month, beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the board room at the GHI Administration Bldg. We welcome your participation in these meetings.

To assist you in being warmer this winter, the Buildings Committee has posted suggestions on how to get the most of your baseboard heaters. The baseboard heater use and cleaning suggestions The Buildings Committee sponsored a January 7, 2012 workshop entitled “Be Warmer This Winter” held at the Greenbelt Community Center. Several low-cost strategies for increasing your winter comfort and lowering your energy bills were demonstrated. A weatherization team, composed of five GHI members, can assist you in installing some of these strategies. For assistance, e-mail Lois Gorman at LOISJGORMAN@cs.com .

The Buildings Committee has posted an information sheet on how to get the most of your baseboard heaters, and links to several short “how-to-” videos on low-cost ways of preventing warm air from escaping your unit and preventing cold air from infiltrating. You can access in information sheet and the videos at http://www.ghi.coop/node/203. On that page, there is a link on the upper left entitled “Tips and Resources for Being Warmer This Winter”.

For more information about the Pilot Program and the Community Upgrade, please contact:

Bill Jones, Board of Directors liaison to the Buildings Committee: bylljones@gmail.com
Jim Cohen, Chair of the Buildings Committee: 301-345-0472, jimcohen@umd.edu

Thank you for your careful consideration of this very important project for the future of GHI. Please help us spread the word by talking to your neighbors and friends in the community. If you have ideas for the Board or the Buildings Committee, please contact the people listed above.