Measured Home Performance - Print-on-demand Best Practices Guide for Retrofits (California Report)

Everybody,

If you work or live in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico (or in parts of other States that have similar climates and construction types) you might find this new book useful:

No-cost PDF Version (YouSendIt link below)

Some Background
Some of you may know that last year, Rick Chitwood and the Gas Technology Institute produced a report for the California Energy Commission's PIER program which describes a best practices version of Home Performance as it's being accomplished in California. I was lucky enough to help Rick get his thoughts and those best practices down on paper. (Or more accurately, into the original 2010 version of the PDF report.)

While last year's PDF report was useful, it was sometimes difficult to find on the various websites associated with that research project. And at 136 color pages it was a bit awkward and expensive to print out. 

So with a modest amount of additional funding from project sponsors, Rick, myself and Steve Easley were able to both expand the book to include a brief section discussing window replacement, and also to update and reformat it for Amazon's print-on-demand service. The Amazon service greatly reduces the cost of a printed version of the book.

The Gas Technology Institute, as the primary contractor for the much larger research project that included this report, owns the copyright. So they were able to control the book's price. They have set it at $29.95, just a few dollars above Amazon's marketing-print-fulfillment cost. With that pricing, GTI's Project Managers have tried to make it so that nearly everybody who is seriously interested in Home Performance can afford a copy, while still providing a tiny margin to pay part of their overhead costs associated with maintaining the book's electronic files at Amazon.

Why "Measured" Home Performance?
The word "measured" in the title was my suggestion, based on what I see happening across the country. The true meaning of "Home Performance" is rapidly becoming diluted. Not all companies that advertise "Home Performance" are in fact measuring the results of their projects, much less measuring their results as they work. So the addition of the word "Measured" probably sounds redundant to those who are working according to best practices... but perhaps it will help alert consumers (and other contractors) to that most critical aspect of what are being advertised as "Home Energy Upgrades" or "Home Energy Improvements" or "Home Energy Retrofits."

Full Disclosure
This is not a moneymaking deal. Neither Rick nor Steve nor I receive any money from the sale of these books, nor does GTI make a profit. The project, our time and this information has been brought to you primarily by the ratepayers of California, who indirectly fund the Energy Commission's PIER Research Program. Other contributors of funding, expertise and program guidance for the overall project include:

Industry Partners and Technical Advisors
Clarke Berdan II, Ph.D. Owens Corning
Greg Maxfield, UTD
Rob Penrod, P.E. Beutler Corporation
Paul Shipp, Ph.D.  USG Corporation
Teresa Weston, Ph.D.  E. I. Dupont Corporation

Thank you
Thanks to all of the folks who have given so generously of their time and experience to make this book possible. As a respectful lurker on the Energy Pro website, I am constantly in awe of the caliber of the questions and answers, and of the fine work being done throughout the nation. I hope that through this book, the news can get out about the impressive measured results being achieved by many of the Home Performance Contractors in California.

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Lew Harriman
Mason-Grant Consulting
Direct: (603) 431-0635
LewHarriman@MasonGrant.com
www.MasonGrant.com