How Obama's Home Star "Cash for Caulkers" Program Could Green Up America's Homes

January 3rd, 2010 by Susan Kraemer

Energy efficient housing. It’s not the fun part of greentech. It’s not some astounding new and innovative technology. It’s not going to win any Da Vinci awards for creativity.

But the Obama administration is betting its new Home Star “Cash for Caulkers” program that it’s the one with the greenest bang for the buck. They’ll pay you up to half the cost to retrofit that gas-guzzling house of yours for up to $4,000 and in the process put a quarter of a million unemployed construction workers back to work lowering your energy costs and carbon footprint. The $23 billion dollar program should retrofit at least 6 million houses, and put a dent in the 17% unemployment rate in the construction industry.

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Unlike smaller and postponed tax credits for efficiency, the Home Star program would offer immediate upfront money, making investment into energy efficiency feasible, even in these economic times. In the long term it greatly reduces costs for energy which is literally like blowing dollars out the windows. It will pay up to half for better insulated windows, attics, crawlspaces, more efficient hot water and home heating, white roofing for cooling, etc.

Whatever you choose: if it can lower your energy use 20% you’d get half off – because if there is only one thing that you can do to lower your carbon footprint – retrofitting your house to be energy efficient is that one thing.

The first step is finding where your house is leaking heat.

Getting an energy audit to see where heat is escaping is worth doing. Redoing insulation in existing structures takes time, trouble and money, but the payback is pretty prompt. In fact, upgrading insulation pays off so quickly that it’s worth doing even if you don’t care about the carbon footprint. The bottom-line improvement is even better than it first appears, because insulation helps keep the summer heat out as well as the winter heat in.

Conventional fiberglass insulation helps, and it is not hard to install. Even more effective in most circumstances is blown-in foam, which is well-suited for retrofits. Best to get a heat test to see where heat is escaping from your house (with your dollars) from an organization like Sustainable Spaces.

Keep the heat in with better windows

There have been huge advances in energy efficient building materials that now make it possible to create houses that need virtually no heating, because they are so well insulated. The PassiveHaus idea in Europe uses these concepts to get houses to net zero energy, and triple-glazed windows are a basic requirement in Sweden’s building code.

Why does Sweden’s building code matter? Sweden grew its economy 44% while reducing its greenhouse gas emissions 9% below its Kyoto targets. California’s building code is pretty stringent too, as I discovered when we built from scratch 15 years ago. Our house takes about half the energy to heat of other houses its size, partly from the passive solar design, but a big part was California’s Title 22 window codes. Upgrading to efficient windows pays off even faster in colder regions, and many parts of the nation have little or no building code requirements for energy efficiency.

Serious Materials in the US makes windows with up to an R11 rating, that can be used in retrofits like this 1934 house that is now net zero. The typical window is R2; the typical brick wall is about R13 – R25.

Image: Flikr user r costa

More from Susan Kraemer: Journalists on Twitter

Zero Energy Houses Create a New Design Vernacular

California Architect Thinks About White Roofs

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Tags: Cash for Caulkers, Home Star, Kraemer, Obama Administration, progressive legislation, The Recovery Act

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

Laura

Seems like the Obama administration is forgetting that their aren’t enough certified weatherization companies to do this work. Certification will cost a fortune for the remodeling company doing the work. Material costs will skyrocket once this thing passes. Aren’t enought 3rd party testing companies so people won’t get their money to pay workers. The Obama administration also has forgotten about the EPA federal law about lead in pre 1987 homes. Companies have to become certified about the lead law and will be charging homeowners more. If a company gets caught by the EPA they could be fined $37,500 per occurance per day. This will put alot of companies out of business. I think governement needs to slow down with some of these programs and think them out first.
Laura

Seems like the Obama administration is forgetting that their aren’t enough certified weatherization companies to do this work. Certification will cost a fortune for the remodeling company doing the work. Material costs will skyrocket once this thing passes. Aren’t enought 3rd party testing companies so people won’t get their money to pay workers. The Obama administration also has forgotten about the EPA federal law about lead in pre 1987 homes. Companies have to become certified about the lead law and will be charging homeowners more. If a company gets caught by the EPA they could be fined $37,500 per occurance per day. This will put alot of companies out of business. I think governement needs to slow down with some of these programs and think them out first.
http://www.BuildHandymanBusiness.com Handyman

All homes are unique and require a trained individual to assess what is needed to get the best ROI on any green retrofit.

There is however a whole bunch of ‘low hanging fruit’, that is quick and effective measures that can be taken that apply to most homes. These things all share some common characteristics including: inexpensive, simple to install (most DIYers can do), and have measurable impact.

They include:

-Switching to CFL light bulbs

-Insulating hot water heater

-Replacing weatherstripping around doors and windows

-Installing low flow faucet aerators and showerheads

-Lower/Raise thermostat one degree depending on season

-Lower hotwater thermostat
http://www.BuildHandymanBusiness.com Handyman

All homes are unique and require a trained individual to assess what is needed to get the best ROI on any green retrofit.

There is however a whole bunch of ‘low hanging fruit’, that is quick and effective measures that can be taken that apply to most homes. These things all share some common characteristics including: inexpensive, simple to install (most DIYers can do), and have measurable impact.

They include:

-Switching to CFL light bulbs

-Insulating hot water heater

-Replacing weatherstripping around doors and windows

-Installing low flow faucet aerators and showerheads

-Lower/Raise thermostat one degree depending on season

-Lower hotwater thermostat
JJ

@MD

You just said that what must not be said.

Tearing down 100 year old homes here in Massachusetts is almost blasphemy yet it really does need to be done. Half the housing stock here is pretty on the outside but just junk on close inspection. Carbon Huggers I call them. People buy them cheap and try to survive in these freezers while sending $1000 bills right through the single pane windows and cracks, and they are over sized which is a big part of the problem.

It just makes sense to boycott them when buying, eventually they become vacant and can then decay gracefully or get salvaged for lumber and maybe even victorian insulation, yes old newspapers were used for R1 insulation.

Even my own compact gambrel home only 20 years old could use some serious doing over. The walls feel chilly in the winter, and is not as tight as I’d like. Next time in my next life I get to build a properly engineered passivehouse, ground source heating and all the works.
JJ

@MD

You just said that what must not be said.

Tearing down 100 year old homes here in Massachusetts is almost blasphemy yet it really does need to be done. Half the housing stock here is pretty on the outside but just junk on close inspection. Carbon Huggers I call them. People buy them cheap and try to survive in these freezers while sending $1000 bills right through the single pane windows and cracks, and they are over sized which is a big part of the problem.

It just makes sense to boycott them when buying, eventually they become vacant and can then decay gracefully or get salvaged for lumber and maybe even victorian insulation, yes old newspapers were used for R1 insulation.

Even my own compact gambrel home only 20 years old could use some serious doing over. The walls feel chilly in the winter, and is not as tight as I’d like. Next time in my next life I get to build a properly engineered passivehouse, ground source heating and all the works.
Darrell W. Morehouse

The instrumental savings, for roofing, is not as the direct for sustained air flow, the heat energy is so dramatic to the shingles and room temperatures thus forming heat exchange in and around the circumfrence of your comfort zone. Cieling fans, and whole house fans can direct your savings in a quarter of pure comfort to humid conditions, Attic fans cool the roof and home, cool the attic and drop expenses in half the waste of real expense.

A tunnel barrier for insulation, from direct roof protection, down to the sophit is a saving of shingles and roof, and cooling the home for comfort is a defined measure of comfort
Darrell W. Morehouse

The thought of persuing, an adjustment rising cost material waste products and the commercial industry, is in a dire need of new scientific systems, both on Economic systems and Ecology systems, we would reorganize a direct flow of measure to reduce the amount of energies used by utillizing Wind mill and Solar protections, the Ideal of Caulking could smoother the draft of saving oxygen
Susan Kraemer

@Majortom Sorry, its me, not Obama. I didn’t know about it. Looks like a terrific program. On the Whitehouse.gov site it is made clear that these innovative ideas are being tested all over the country.

I just didn’t research enough and find yours.
http://twitter.com/ddoingit1 Darrell W. Morehouse

the new realistic measure of home industries, and the home industries would be in remarkable shape economics say no way, butt the people of democrasie say yes, self contained units of energy is more than realistic solar predictions, to help in climate conditions, and home costs could drive the home sales through the roof once more, the jobs of power companies would have to consider subsidies to transform energy into a bi product society. by instalation of solar panel justification our dreams depend self gratitude for the hard work we do
http://twitter.com/ddoingit1 Darrell W. Morehouse

the new realistic measure of home industries, and the home industries would be in remarkable shape economics say no way, butt the people of democrasie say yes, self contained units of energy is more than realistic solar predictions, to help in climate conditions, and home costs could drive the home sales through the roof once more, the jobs of power companies would have to consider subsidies to transform energy into a bi product society. by instalation of solar panel justification our dreams depend self gratitude for the hard work we do
MD

Thicker walls?

Unless you cut down on the parts that transmit energy to the outside it doesn’t matter how thick they are.

Building walls properly or retrofitting (i.e. Larson Truss) will give the most bang for the buck.

google “Larsen truss wall”

Modifying the building codes to a national code, following or superseding Northern European codes is the way to go.

Also, so many older houses are no longer structurally sound, so all the “greening up” in the world is merely putting a band aid on a major problem.

Does it make sense to throw 4-6K into a house that has foundation problems due to frost heave and decades of settling? Nope not at all, structures do have a limit on how long they will last depending on what they are built out of.

Time to start taking down old structures and rebuilding.
MD

Thicker walls?

Unless you cut down on the parts that transmit energy to the outside it doesn’t matter how thick they are.

Building walls properly or retrofitting (i.e. Larson Truss) will give the most bang for the buck.

google “Larsen truss wall”

Modifying the building codes to a national code, following or superseding Northern European codes is the way to go.

Also, so many older houses are no longer structurally sound, so all the “greening up” in the world is merely putting a band aid on a major problem.

Does it make sense to throw 4-6K into a house that has foundation problems due to frost heave and decades of settling? Nope not at all, structures do have a limit on how long they will last depending on what they are built out of.

Time to start taking down old structures and rebuilding.
Darrell W. Morehouse

The instrumental savings, for roofing, is not as the direct for sustained air flow, the heat energy is so dramatic to the shingles and room temperatures thus forming heat exchange in and around the circumfrence of your comfort zone. Cieling fans, and whole house fans can direct your savings in a quarter of pure comfort to humid conditions, Attic fans cool the roof and home, cool the attic and drop expenses in half the waste of real expense.

A tunnel barrier for insulation, from direct roof protection, down to the sophit is a saving of shingles and roof, and cooling the home for comfort is a defined measure of comfort
Darrell W. Morehouse

The thought of persuing, an adjustment rising cost material waste products and the commercial industry, is in a dire need of new scientific systems, both on Economic systems and Ecology systems, we would reorganize a direct flow of measure to reduce the amount of energies used by utillizing Wind mill and Solar protections, the Ideal of Caulking could smoother the draft of saving oxygen
Kenneth Mattocks

I run a small masonry/construction company. How can a small business like the one that I own work its way into, and benefit from the Home Star Program?
Kenneth Mattocks

I run a small masonry/construction company. How can a small business like the one that I own work its way into, and benefit from the Home Star Program?
Susan Kraemer

@Majortom Sorry, its me, not Obama. I didn’t know about it. Looks like a terrific program. On the Whitehouse.gov site it is made clear that these innovative ideas are being tested all over the country.

I just didn’t research enough and find yours.
majortom1981

Too Bad MR Obama didnt give any credit to The Town of Babylon here on LOng ISland . This is where he got the idea from since our NY senator told him about it.

HE couldnt even hold the press conference here.

So If you think its a good idea write into the Town of babylon here in NY . Its been running here for the past year.
majortom1981

Too Bad MR Obama didnt give any credit to The Town of Babylon here on LOng ISland . This is where he got the idea from since our NY senator told him about it.

HE couldnt even hold the press conference here.

So If you think its a good idea write into the Town of babylon here in NY . Its been running here for the past year.
JJ

Those Seriouswindows look very promising, wonder what the premium is over Anderson. I recall they or another similar R11 fiberglass window company was written up here or treehugger a year back.

Anyways if I was building a start from scratch home, those would be on the shortlist plus thicker walls and …

There is another very cheap way to get some of the same benefit of those windows and that is to build a window insert or google for winserts. You can build your own from a wooden frame and 2 or 3 layers of films using the same thing as the duckguy on TV only these are reused yearly. It would be neat if these things could be manufactured on a large scale so they could be bought at local hardware store, but windows come in many sizes. Building your own requires access to a modest woodshop, ripping wood etc, could be a great community project.
JJ

Those Seriouswindows look very promising, wonder what the premium is over Anderson. I recall they or another similar R11 fiberglass window company was written up here or treehugger a year back.

Anyways if I was building a start from scratch home, those would be on the shortlist plus thicker walls and …

There is another very cheap way to get some of the same benefit of those windows and that is to build a window insert or google for winserts. You can build your own from a wooden frame and 2 or 3 layers of films using the same thing as the duckguy on TV only these are reused yearly. It would be neat if these things could be manufactured on a large scale so they could be bought at local hardware store, but windows come in many sizes. Building your own requires access to a modest woodshop, ripping wood etc, could be a great community project.
Doug B

this is an excellent article. it’s full of useful information and the good examples of the Swedes and of California.

it’s only fair that i praise the good if i criticise other articles.
Doug B

this is an excellent article. it’s full of useful information and the good examples of the Swedes and of California.

it’s only fair that i praise the good if i criticise other articles.