With affordability at the top of the list for home buyers today, shopping for a home that will be budget-friendly to purchase and own is a priority for most buyers. A new one-stop shopping platform for energy-efficient homes is looking to change how Americans buy homes by elevating energy efficiency in the purchase process. Furthermore, it’s giving buyers of energy-efficient homes up to two years of free electricity as an incentive to buy a home.
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Next Wednesday, October 4, is Energy Efficiency (EE) Day 2023. This annual event, a collaborative effort of dozens of energy efficiency organizations, including the American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy (ACEEE), Advanced Energy United, The Alliance to Save Energy, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Regional Energy Efficiency Organizations (REEOs) promotes a simple message: Save Money, Cut Pollution, Save Jobs.
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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Better Buildings Residential Network offers industry members an opportunity to keep abreast of energy efficiency and electrification rebates and incentives and the details associated with them. Industry members can register for Peer Exchange Calls. These calls cover key details of incentives available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
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As the remnants of Hurricane Idalia pummeled the East Coast, this week it’s becoming clear that property owners may feel the resulting impacts for months or even years. The devastation underscores the importance of strong building codes and code enforcement as a front-line defense against increasingly extreme weather events. As climate change increases the scale and severity of natural disasters, strong building codes will save billions in repairs, according to a recently published Scientific American article.
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Summer 2023 has been a doozie, hasn’t it? And the season isn’t over yet.
July was the hottest month globally since records have been kept, and likely, the hottest in 120,000 years, according to Scientific American.[1]
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North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) recently announced the result of its annual recycled content survey, which reports its members’ use of recycled materials. In 2022, NAIMA members in the United States and Canada used more than 3.4 billion pounds of recycled glass and slag in the production of residential, commercial, industrial, and air-handling thermal and acoustical insulation.
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently released its annual U.S. Energy & Employment Report, a comprehensive summary of national and state-level workforce, industry, and hiring information in the energy sector. The report shows that jobs in the energy sector increased by 300,000 (3.8 percent growth), increasing from 7.8 million to more than 8.1 million in 2022. And although the energy sector was significantly impacted by COVID-19 and its economic fallout last year, it recovered 71 percent of the jobs lost in 2020.
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How long would your home remain comfortable and habitable in the event of a power outage in this summer’s brutal heat? The answer might depend on how well insulated your home is, according to a new report released by the U.S. Department of Energy. Analysis from the report, Enhancing Resilience in Buildings Through Energy Efficiency, finds that homes built to meet or exceed the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) extend the habitability of buildings by 120 percent during extreme cold and up to 140 percent during extreme heat.
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A new report just published by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) highlights that pairing residential heat pump heating and cooling systems with air sealing and insulation will reduce likely increases in customer costs and strain on the electric grid. The report’s message is timely as states prepare to implement two key programs of the Inflation Reduction Act and offer more than $9 billion in rebates for residential energy efficiency and electrification improvements.
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Heat pump technology is all the rage in the push for electrification and increased home energy efficiency, and with good reason: heat pumps are more efficient than electric resistance heating, reducing electricity needed for heating by up to 50 percent. However, there are several actions that homeowners should take before adding a heat pump so that the equipment operates optimally. These actions could help reduce the size of the equipment as well as the cost. NAIMA has produced a new guide, Getting Your Home Heat Pump Ready, that details the actions homeowners should undertake before adding a heat pump to improve their home’s overall energy efficiency.
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