[MassHistPres] Stretch Energy Code

[Zimmerman Sally]

With regard to the stretch code and impacts on historic buildings,
including window replacement, I recently came across a thought-provoking
study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, "Green
Shoots in the Remodeling Industry: Contractor Characteristics That
Affect Green Product Use" by Kevin Park, September 2009. The paper looks
at the nature of green renovations, contractor experience with consumer
demand for green products, and the effect of government regulation on
the adoption of green products by contractors and consumers.
 
http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/remodeling/w09-1_park.pdf 
 
On window replacement, the study found that "high performance glazing"
(i.e., double glazed replacement sash with low-E glazing) was second
only to use of compact fluorescent lighting in Green Product Usage. It
also cited a 1999 study (so not very recent) on "More Evidence of
Rational Market Values for Home Energy Efficiency" by Nevin, Bender and
Gazan in The Appraisal Journal  that demonstrated that window
replacement was fully recovered through an increase in the home's market
value. (It wouldn't make a house worth more to me, but apparently it
does for others.)
 
http://www.icfi.com/markets/community_development/doc_files/apj1099.pdf

 
I offer these studies as indications of how others outside of historic
preservation see sustainability in existing housing. The JCHS study's
product usage survey is interesting in that it may be somewhat
predictive of the interventions for energy efficiency that are most
likely to take place here as the new MA energy and stretch codes come
into effect. My understanding is that the stretch code is an option
within the overall amendments to MA energy code that became effective
Jan. 1.
 
Sally Zimmerman

>>> "jade" <jade at crocker.com> 2/3/2010 8:05 PM >>>
i recently wrote a letter to the editor of greenlivingjournal gently
chastising them for allowing a vinyl window replacement outfit to
advertise their 'green' polyvinyl chloride windows...the editor was
prompt and pleasant in his response and asked if he could publish my
letter...
 
he also suggested that he allows his readers and advertisers to
determine what is green...that's like suggesting allowing a 5 year old
to determine what food is healthy--ice cream is dairy, right?
 
we're in a constant struggle to set the record straight regarding mega
window replacement companies...when it comes to which option is truly
'greenest' (poor green, it used to be such a nice word...) restoration
is the first choice....
 
allowing vinyl replacement window vendors to a green fair makes no
sense but i have seen them at most restoration/preservation/green
events...i think it might have something o do with that other
'green'...yup, cash is what i'm thinking....
 
...jade


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dennis De Witt ( mailto:djd184 at verizon.net ) 
To: MHC MHC listserve ( mailto:masshistpres at cs.umb.edu ) 
Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 2:32 PM
Subject: [MassHistPres] Stretch Energy Code

A very enthusiastic green group is pushing for Brookline to adopt the
Stretch Energy Code.  It is brand new.  We are told that Newton and
Cambridge adopted it at the end of 2009.  It’s said to be "somewhat
similar to an Energy Star rating for houses, with third-party testing so
that residents are sure to get the energy efficiency they’re promised
when they insulate, improve heating systems, or make other
improvements." [windows?] It’s also said to be "an important step toward
the town’s qualifying for new funding that is coming available under the
Green Communities Act" -- whatever that might be.

The obvious concern is windows.  Most of our green folks seem to
understand that window replacements do not make sense economically --
but sometimes that understanding seems a bit fuzzy.  And they allowed
two replacement window vendors -- one with vinyl windows! --  into a
recent "green fair" in the H.S. 

Is anyone else facing this?  

What can Cambridge and Newton tell us about it?

One person told me that the accompanying rules were not yet in place so
that it could be something of a pig in  a poke.  I don't know if that's
true or not.

Dennis De Witt
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