When we started to test our selected Impact Project Houses, we wanted to re-create the natural order of the local labor market by putting all 200 jobs out to bid on a case-by-case basis.  Not all 200 at the same time mind you, but a few every week or every other week as the work load allowed.  Starting with 3 Energy Advocates in our network, we assumed that if everyone one could do 4-6 jobs per month; we would end up testing all the houses by May 31, 2012. 

It was a good assumption, but to paraphrase, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”.  There were many complications with the process.  It was time consuming on our end to prepare and manage each bid, keep advocates on schedule and communicate with participants.  Advocates were scrambling to be in the office preparing bids and completing reports while servicing the jobs they already had and spending time in the field.  Several obviously stopped considering the size and needs of the houses and started bidding flat rates on each job, thinking it would speed up the process, but not considering that it could complicate things on the back end when they found the costs of the job to be outside their set price.    

By late November of last year, it was obvious that things had to change.  Besides the difficulty of managing the process on both ends, we had some feedback that the lack of constant jobs made it difficult for advocates to anticipate their needs down the road- they never knew how much work they would have each week. 

We took the time to evaluate the situation and determined that bulk contracts would be a more efficient method of distributing the work.   Our advocates agreed and in January we signed agreements with two companies to each get a set number of jobs for an agreed upon price and to have the payments distributed in thirds- one third up front, the other half way through the process and the final upon completion.  While this process is helping jobs get done faster and is moving much more smoothly, we are still disappointed in one aspect; none of the advocates are currently willing to hire additional employees or expand their practice as we had hoped.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that as they get more comfortable with the new process they will be more comfortable taking risks in their personnel levels and be willing to make more hires and expand the job market.   

During the course of the Impact Project we have primarily focused our outreach efforts on the local community here in Charleston – getting people involved as volunteer participants of a home energy assessment, and engaged in the exciting world of home energy efficiency.

 Now that we are well under way with the 200 energy assessments to be performed through the Impact Project (65 completed to date), we have information and experience to share and, thus, have decided to change our outreach efforts to focus on telling industry peers, green building professionals and other communities about our work. We are seeking opportunities to give presentations, participate in conferences, and nominate the Impact Project for awards to highlight and get the word out about our work and experience.

 A goal of the Sustainable Cities Institute with the Pilot Cities program was to grant projects that could catalyze a greater sustainability initiative on the community level, as well as produce lessons learned and resources to inform other communities’ sustainability efforts. By sharing our work and findings through the ‘conference circuit’ (as we say), we hope to jump start that sharing process, get regional players interested in what we are doing here in Charleston, as well as get some input as to what is going on in other places and learn from them concurrently. 

We’ve previously mentioned how important communication is in the Impact Project, and as we continue to work with our participants, we’ve come to realize just how big of a factor effective communication really is.  Our project has a lot of moving parts, communicating with residents, setting up workshops, scheduling assessments and retrofits and monitoring QA on all work being done.  Because of all of these aspects, it is more time consuming than we anticipated getting participants from beginning to end.  Without effective communication it is easy for these people to feel that they have been lost in the shuffle. 

But it goes both ways, as much as we are responsible for reaching out to our participants, they must also be responsible for moving themselves forward in the process by submitting household information, utility data and attending a workshop.  We have found that while some participants are eagerly awaiting their assessment and are ready to beat down our door to get it; most participants need multiple touches to prompt them to act.  Many people did not realize that they would need to take multiple steps and supply various pieces of information before any work can be done.  It has been a constant game of reminding people what they have and haven’t turned in and where they are in the process. 

It is unclear how much of a factor this commitment is in people’s decisions to continue on in the project.  We have had feedback from some that due to work and personal commitments, they just don’t have the time, and we have worked with them to make it as accessible as possible.  We also have over 15 people who have simply not responded to our calls for participation and will have to be dropped from the project. 

The lesson that this has taught us is to be sure that the participants understand that they will be asked to actively participate in this process, not simply sign up and sit back and wait.  Also be sure that ample time is built in for customer service.  This ranges from helping people set up an online account with their utility company, to explaining the process of the energy assessment and scheduling workshops.  While some hand holding will be necessary, in some ways it only enhances the project, we know our participants life stories at this point, can tell you who works which days and how many kids they have.  In the end it enriches the project and helps generate a better experience for all.   

Training our workforce to properly test and retrofit historic buildings for energy efficiency is one of the primary goals of the Impact Project, and last week we were able to take a major step in making it happen by holding our Energy Efficiency Improvements for Historic Structures in Warm and Humid Climates class. 

The class was attended by seven energy advocates and contractors who came from all across the region and was taught over a period of four days at our local technical college, Trident Tech.  Our students all came from a building science background and all have their BPI BA.  We had hoped to have more members of the Historic Preservation community attend, and had advertized to them, but had no luck this time. 

In order to effectively teach both preservation and building science, we used two instructors, each with experience teaching in their respective fields, with additional contributions from our own building science staff as needed.  This ended up being a great way to go, the students gained a lot from hearing first hand experiences that each had had dealing with the unique characteristics of historic buildings and how they had approached maintaining and updating them. 

While the classroom experience was valuable, all agreed that the best part of the class was the field study that was done on the last day.  We were able to access an empty, about-to-be-renovated, 10,000 square foot house, built in 1789.  It was full of great examples of what can be found in our local historic houses, a variety of rafter types, a crawl space with evidence of multiple types of early electrical and plumbing configurations, and a kitchen building that was joined to the main house with a mysterious foundation set up. 

We were also able to use our 1880’s office building to test out using multiple point blower doors.  Most advocates had never used multiple point blower doors, but many historic houses are so leaky that they will not be able to be pressurized using one fan, so this was an essential point to learn.  They did a great job with it and were able to quickly understand how to run the tests.    

Overall the class went well and we got feedback from the students that it was helpful and informative.  Of course, those of us who were involved in writing the curriculum could see minor flaws, typos and room for edits and improvements and we are looking forward to getting together next week to tweak things and make sure the class will be ready for another run some day.   

One of the goals of the Impact Project is to teach people how their houses work in terms of energy efficiency and to motivate them to take action to improve their efficiency as needed.  The energy assessment is only the first step in this process.  Once the assessment is complete the energy advocate sends a detailed report to the client telling them of what can be done to improve their house’s energy efficiency.  Our hope is that once they receive the report, these participants will be motivated by the findings to take action.  In order for that to happen, the reports need to be compelling and effective in relaying somewhat foreign information such as thickness of insulation, types of weather stripping and duct work. 

We are currently trying to determine how to format the reports to effectively transmit this information in a motivating way.  Our first version of the reports was straightforward, text heavy explanations of what needed to be done with a cover letter giving a summary of the findings.  After receiving the reports, participants were sent an online survey, which asked how well they understood the report and if they were going to take action.  Our first few surveys revealed that some people were confused by the technical reports and didn’t know how or where to start making improvements. 

We took this feedback and formulated a new report with a stronger visual focus, showing people how much money and energy they could save by following the recommendations (see the above image for an example).  This graph made for a much more compelling understanding of how the house could be improved and while we haven’t sent too many of them out yet, the feedback seems to be positive. 

As we move forward we plan to continue to edit the report format until we find one that works well for all, motivates efficiency improvements, and is reliable for contractors coming in to do the work.  We are truly thankful for our participants and their commitment to giving us this feedback and know that with their help we’ll work to make the Impact Project and CharlestonWISE successful programs.   

200 Charleston households were selected to participant in the Impact Project as a reprehensive field sample of Charleston’s SFR housing stocks. We used U.S. Census data for the City and Charleston County Assessors data to match participants selected against the characteristics and proportions of Charleston’s homes (including, age, size, location, fuel sources, as well as occupancy, household income).

Of the 200 homes we are now putting through the motions of their own home energy assessment, we have collected energy consumption histories/data on 65. We did a quick analysis of the average energy bill among our participants for 2010. And the results are….The average energy bill in 2010 for our participants was $212.00, with months ranging from an average of around $80 to $250. The average price per square foot of our participants’ energy bills is $.12. This means a 1700 sq ft house costs around $200 a month, (which is also the case stated by EIA for the state of South Carolina.)

The majority of the home energy assessments completed under the Impact Project so far, recommend improvements that provide a better than 20% efficiency increase, over $300 in annual savings, and are less than 10 year return on investment.

The assessments are also highlighting the impact of small, do-it-yourself, changes like switching out low flow water fixtures, CFL lights, connecting all households electronics to surge protectors and turning them off off off when not in use (including: TV, stereo, DVD, cable box, computers…all of them), and setting back the temperature by just a few degrees when not at home. As well as advanced do-it-yourself measures like weather stripping all door leading to the exterior, wrapping your hot water heater, and weather stripping and insulating your attic access (unless in the garage). These changes can save the average Charleston resident at least 10% off their energy bill.