Summary of Capabilities

Staff

PSD has an experienced staff that includes architects, curriculum developers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, materials scientists, ecologists, programmers, builders, home performance and weatherization experts. The PSD staff has tremendous field expertise in building performance issues due to the linkages between the co-located consulting and contracting (Performance Systems Contracting, Inc.) companies.

Clients

Current and past PSD clients include the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, Pacific Gas & Electric, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, New Hampshire electric utilities, New Jersey gas and electric utilities, Wisconsin electric utilities, US Green Building Council, the State of Washington Weatherization Program, the Institute for Building Technology and Safety, the New York State Weatherization Directors Association, the National Association of Home Builders Research Center, the Alliance to Save Energy, Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp. and others.

Field Testing and Inspection

PSD and its partner contracting company (PSC) together currently assess the performance of 10 to 15 buildings each week. The building types include a range of single and multifamily residential buildings and commercial properties. PSD was selected as both a RESTECH and FLEXTECH contractor for NYSERDA, providing multifamily and commercial building performance assessments under contract to NYSERDA. PSC is an accredited Home Performance with Energy Star contractor. PSD/PSC owns a complete set of performance testing tools including infrared cameras, blower doors, duct testing equipment, digital pressure measurement, temperature and other data acquisition systems, etc.

Green Building and Renewable Energy

PSD's principal, Gregory Thomas, was the green building consultant for EcoVillage at Ithaca's first neighborhood, helping to develop a state-of-the-art, awarding-winning project which has been in operation since 1997. PSC has been the energy rating consultant and HVAC systems installer for the second neighborhood at EcoVillage and other local green building projects. Mr. Thomas is also the only outside member of the review committee for the development of the planned LEED platinum new building for the Ithaca College Business School and a founding member of the Sustainable Tompkins organization. He has been appointed by the City of Ithaca to serve as a member of the Sustainability Advisory Council for the city. He also served as board president of Affordable Comfort Inc., the national not-for-profit responsible for the largest residential energy and building performance conference as well as regional events.

PSD has also been the program development consultant for the USGBC Greenbuild Conference for its first three years with particular support in the development of the residential agenda. This experience required both information management capabilities as well as broad knowledge of the content area. This project also put PSD in direct contact with the top green building experts in the world.

PSC is a qualified installer of renewable energy systems with both New York State and national certification. The PSC staff has worked on multiple green buildings. PSC is currently moving from subcontracting into being a general contractor for green buildings.

Multifamily

PSD's staff has extensive current and past experience in multifamily housing, including the improvement of over 10,000 units of housing over the past 15 years. Mr. Thomas was the Executive Director for Syracuse Energy, a not-for-profit multifamily energy service company from 1986 to 1994. As part of that tenure he was responsible for winning the first low income multifamily contract for performance contracting, a $12M contract from Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation. As a NYSERDA RESTECH contractor, PSD continues to assess the performance of multifamily buildings for both energy and health and safety. PSC continues to install performance improvements in multifamily buildings.

Program Evaluation

PSD has provided field evaluation and phone surveys as well as analysis and reporting work in a variety of regional and national venues including work for the New Jersey utilities, The New York State Energy Office, California Energy Commission, NYSERDA, and others. PSD also supports the evaluation process for other programs using software, including TREAT energy modeling and online database applications. Experience also includes peer reviewed papers on evaluation presented at the national energy program evaluation conference and the ACEEE Summer Study on energy efficiency.

Information Management

PSD has strong information management capabilities including online intranets for project support, web based applications, design of structured information databases for training and evaluation. For example, PSD has developed the Online Tracking Tool for Energy Retrofits (OTTER), a state-of-the-art application for tracking actual and predicted energy use and energy improvements. This application is used by the electric utilities of New Hampshire to manage their residential energy efficiency programs.

PSD is co-owner and developer of the TREAT residential and multifamily energy modeling tool. This tool is the only tool certified by the Department of Energy Weatherization program for use in all its building type categories. TREAT is designed to interact with the OTTER database structure. PSD has now created a version of the database (TREATtracker) that allows users to access online information using MS Access for more reporting and analysis flexibility.

PSD has developed an online abstract submission and scoring process for the USGBC Greenbuild conference and now the Greening the Heartland conference. This system also linked to the conference websites for real time display of submitted information.

PSD is also starting a series of webinar based trainings for home performance contractors. PSD's experience also includes the participation in the development of a web based interface for monitoring home or multifamily building energy use.

Energy and Energy Ratings

PSD is accredited by RESNET, the national group responsible for the certification of the energy ratings industry, as a software provider (for TREAT), as an energy rater training provider, and as an energy ratings provider. PSD is one of the very few entities with accreditation in all three areas. PSC provides Energy Star energy ratings to builders in the upstate New York region. PSD has provided energy rater training in various locations in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic States. PSD maintains a leadership role in energy ratings by participation on a variety of regional and national committees.

Health and Safety

PSD and PSC staffs have extensive training and certification in health related issues with a particular focus on lead, mold and carbon monoxide. PSD has developed training curriculums and provides training on health related issues to home performance contractors, raters, realtors and others. PSD is a certified provider of continuing education credits for architects, realtors and home performance contractors for its mold and other trainings.

Training and Curriculum Development

PSD has developed a comprehensive set of protocols and related training materials for home performance contractors and energy raters. The work has been funded by the California Energy Commission and the public utilities of Wisconsin over the past five years. This structured resource has received special attention from HUD as a resource for the training of remodelers. PSD staff includes an experienced curriculum developer. PSD staffers are also frequent presenters at national and regional conferences, on a range of topics, from green building, energy modeling, home performance training, evaluation results, protocol development, feedback systems, etc.