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By the time you read this, Homestar, a massive home-weatherization rebate program designed to create jobs in our industry will likely have become the law of the land. Coming on the heels of the implementation of the RRP lead-paint rules from the EPA, most contractors will soon find themselves awash in certification and paperwork. But unlike the lead paint rule, which adds cost to your jobs in pre-1978 homes, this new law will offer a potentially significant upside to those who get accredited early and understand the provisions. What follows are highlights of the new law as compiled by Energy First (www.energyfirst.org) and the Building Performance Institute (www.bpi.org), which is named as a provider of certification training under the proposed new law.

Also referred to as “Cash for Caulkers”, Homestar will offer two different incentive levels – Goldstar and Silverstar. The legislation is still being drafted, but details about the proposed programs follow:

Goldstar

The $1.7 billion Goldstar level is a two-year program that features the highest incentive amounts offered and will be available only for whole-home improvement projects. A Building Performance Institute (BPI) Building Analyst Certified Professional or a Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) qualified rater (or an approved equivalent) conducts an energy audit and comprehensive home performance assessment before work begins, then develops and prioritizes improvement measures specific to the needs of the particular house. Those measures are then implemented by a Goldstar accredited contracting company—or another accreditation (including courses offered by NAHB’s Home Builders Institute and NARI) that can be approved by the U.S. Department of Energy.

When the work is complete, the certified analyst or rater returns to the house to conduct a test-out energy audit. This test-out assessment ensures that the installed measures are working properly and determines the modeled energy savings achieved. It also provides risk reduction for homeowners and tax payer dollars by creating a formalized quality assurance program that is hard-coded into the Goldstar incentive level.

If you improve your client’s home energy performance by 20 percent, they will receive $3,000 in incentives. They’ll also get an additional $1,000 for each additional 5 percent improvement. Depending on how much a home’s energy use is reduced, the client could get up to 50 percent of the entire project cost with a cap at $8,000.

Silverstar

Silverstar is a one-year program designed to kick-start job creation. It features lower incentive amounts and is intended for faster, smaller-scale projects with less impact on overall energy efficiency. You can receive between $1,000 and $1,500 for each measure installed in the home, or $250 per appliance, with a benefit not exceeding $3,000 or at most 50 percent of total project costs (whichever is less).

Covered measures include:

• air sealing
  
• attic, wall, and crawl space insulation
  
• duct sealing or replacement
  
• replacement of existing windows and doors, furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, water heaters and appliances with high-efficiency models.