How to Convince Homeowners to Pull the Trigger on Energy Upgrades

How to Convince Homeowners to Pull the Trigger on Energy Upgrades

Justin Gerdes writes in a Forbes (8/14, 928K) piece, "The proliferation of city and state building energy efficiency codes, combined with the eagerness of building owners to seek LEED ratings, tells me that policymakers and the market are increasingly demanding energy efficiency in new construction." Yet, how does this impact existing buildings? He says these rules must be applied to current buildings in order to improve overall energy efficiency. Gerdes explains, "The existing building sector is critically important for our energy and environmental goals as 72% of California's 13 million residential buildings and over 5 billion square feet of commercial structures were built before the implementation of California's energy efficiency building code (Title 24) in the early 1980's. This means that 3 out of 4 homes in California have never had to comply with any energy efficiency requirements whatsoever."