Residential Programs

Solutions | Software | Programs | Training

Solutions

Green Building

PSD has provided conference educational program management for the US Green Building Council’s GreenBuild Expo for three years, helping to develop the conference in its early days. PSD staff are LEED accredited and have served on the Energy and Atmosphere Technical Advisory Group (TAG) responsible for the development of LEED guidelines for energy. PSD provides green building consulting for projects including EcoVillage at Ithaca an award winning housing development (photo at left).

CoolSmart Program Evaluation

PSD provided field evaluation, data logging, energy modeling and data analysis for the CoolSmart residential air conditioning retrofit program. The project indentified peak demand and energy savings from a range of AC installation and quality assurance practicesas well as development of techniques for modeling AC demand savings.

California Energy Commission Residential Interval Data Feedback Pilot

PSD provided project development, interface design and educational content, and user survey for one of the first residential pilots in California. This project examined how consumers can be trained to interact with interval data and investigated how home performance contractors might use such data. This information is being used in PSD’s interval data analysis tools under development.

Software

Green Energy Compass is designed to provide a detailed view of a building's energy usage. Meter data is analyzed, and a score from EPA's Home Energy Yardstick is generated and stored.  Powerful reporting can reveal behavioral changes that identify energy savings opportunities.

Green Energy Surveyor provides rapid on-site residential energy simulation and savings prediction.  With a more detailed look at the types of consumption equipment in the home, recommendations for improvements to save energy are generated instantly as information is entered.  Green Energy Surveyor is integrated with an online tracking system that can monitor project savings and results over time.

Program Implementation

Maine Home Performance

PSD developed, implemented, and administered Maine’s Whole House Energy Efficiency Program. This residential energy efficiency retrofit program won a US Department of Energy competitive grant for Home Performance programs.
Video of the news story about Maine Home Performance
Video of the Maine Home Performance Home Makeover show

PA Home Energy

The PA Home Energy Program offers participating contractors and consultants access to the ENERGY STAR brand for marketing and building labeling. The program offers a number of innovations and was awarded an EPA ENERGY STAR award for 2008. The program offers service providers combined access to existing and new homes markets. The program also is the only pilot of a performance based incentive approach, the approach recommended for a national incentive program, providing PSD with critical field experience and systems development for managing this type of incentive.

Training

HUD National Remodeling Protocol Development

PSD developed national protocols for three levels of energy efficient remodeling under a contract with the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.  The project was featured in HUD’s 2008 report on energy efficiency activities.  This protocol work contributed to PSD’s training curriculum development.