On Jan. 28, the Building Performance Institute (BPI) released a proposed new standard (BSR/BPI 101-201x, Home Energy Auditing Standard) for public comment. The Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) reviewed BPI’s proposed standard and believes that a number of significant flaws need to be addressed and a number of passages need to be improved.
Three years ago, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) set out to achieve new efficiency goals for Standard 90.1. The association announced at its 2011 winter conference in January that it had been successful. It now attains site energy savings of 32.6 percent and energy cost savings of 30.1 percent without plug loads.
Many contractors are asking what happened to Home Star, the proposed legislation that would have extended rebates to homeowners who invested in energy efficiency upgrades for their homes. While the bill was a hot topic for much of 2010, it ultimately failed to pass in the Senate, and has not been reintroduced in Congress so far in 2011.
It is no surprise that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is not a fan of medical marijuana, which has been legalized in 15 states and the District of Columbia. According to the DEA, the campaign to allow marijuana to be used as medicine is a maneuver in a strategy to legalize all drugs. But thousands can now use marijuana legally in order to treat various maladies.
It’s a new year, and there’s a crowd of newly sworn-in representatives and senators working on Capitol Hill. What Congress does this year will probably have an impact on HVAC businesses, so the industry will keep close tabs on the legislators. A focus on the national deficit and how to cut spending is expected to factor into many legislative actions this year.
If what has transpired over the first three months since Title 24 went into effect is the norm, business may remain as usual for contractors in California this year. And, that's what scares law-abiding HVAC contractors in California.