Home Innovation Insights

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Pranav Phatak
September 29, 2023

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs): Everything You Need to Know

All our readers are probably aware of the benefits of green power by this point. Switching to green power or renewable energy from fossil fuels is one of the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is a much cleaner form of energy. But what if you don’t have your own wind/hydel turbines or solar panels? How do you ensure that the energy you are receiving from the grid is coming from a green or renewable source? A Renewable Energy Certificate or a ‘REC’ would be the best alternative.

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Chris Crowell
August 27, 2018

Shadow Costs: How Outdated Local Processes Stifle the True Solar Market

While PV technology has made considerable gains in terms of cost reduction and increased efficiency over the last decade, often the bureaucracy surrounding it has not. Government often gets credit for growing the solar market through subsidies, but this ignores regulatory hurdles in the way of project completion such as old timey zoning laws, overly burdensome permitting practices, and time-consuming interconnection policies. All of that sticky red tape can stifle PV growth. Check out this guest post from Solar Builder magazine to find out what's being done to overcome these obstacles.

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Patricia Gunderson, PE
January 27, 2017

SolSmart Serves Up Soft Cost Savings

Soft costs can often be a deal-breaker for solar installation. DOE's SolSmart is helping builders and developers overcome barriers to solar in residential construction that can often come from arduous local zoning, permitting, and inspection requirements. Find out more about the program and how it can help in your community.

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Patricia Gunderson, PE
August 15, 2016

Streamlined Permitting for PV? Yes, Please!

DOE's SolSmart is helping builders and developers overcome the barriers to solar in residential construction that can often come from arduous local zoning, permitting, and inspection requirements. Find out more about this new program and how it can help in your community.

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Anne Evens
March 27, 2014

How to Help Appraisers Fairly Value Home Energy Efficiency Improvements

At Elevate Energy, we design and implement efficiency programs that lower costs, protect the environment, and ensure the benefits of energy efficiency reach those who need them most. As a provider of these programs, we understand that future success is dependent upon energy efficiency becoming transparent in the real estate transaction of high performance homes.

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Sam Rashkin
January 16, 2014

2014: A “Race to Zero” Odyssey

The next generation of housing industry professionals has to be better trained to deliver the home of the future. The DOE Challenge Home Student Design Competition is part of this important transformation process toward creating better homes and communities.

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Thomas Kenney, PE
December 19, 2013

Student Design Teams "Race to Zero" in DOE's Challenge Home Competition

In mid-December, we closed out registration for the DOE Challenge Home Student Design Competition. The response we got from colleges and universities across North America was really inspiring — all told, 32 teams have stepped up to the challenge in DOE's "race to zero" in energy-efficient home designs. Find out more.

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Amber Wood, PE
August 30, 2012

Bound for Net Zero

There are lots of ways to describe a net-zero home. But no matter the terminology, there is a real-world proven methodology that Home Innovation Labs has used successfully with builders and remodelers across the country to achieve net-zero – it could work for you too.

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Amber Wood, PE
July 12, 2012

NTER-active New Training Platform for Energy Efficiency

A new online training platform is hoping to become a one-stop-shop for interactive energy efficiency training.

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