Electronic signatures for field work

Back in the early, chaotic days of ARRA (were the days ever not chaotic during ARRA?) I was trying to get as much of Indiana's paperwork to a workable level on my laptop.  As a contractor for a CAP, transferring files electronically made more sense to me.  Plus, there is so much little bits of math here and there in Indiana's Wx process, it makes sense to me to have those formulas automated.  Eventually, I know I'll make a little mistake that can ripple, so automating the proper formula gives me one less thing to worry about, letting me focus more energies on the client & the house.

Anywho, there was no getting around the documents that needed a client's signature.  Those had to be hard copies kept in a folder in the work bag, along with the seldom used forms that one carries, just in case.

Those of you now using touch screen laptops (Surfaces, etc.), that problem doesn't exist.  Those nifty capacitive pens let clients sign right on the screen.

I finally stumbled upon how to sign documents on your mobile device (agnostic name for Android or Apple phones).  Here is a step by step, using Adobe Reader.

Oh, and those of you using Android tablets in the field, the MS office suite looks to be out of beta.  I haven't used it.  I'd love to hear some feedback of how well it works if anyone is.

AEP Health & Safety Repairs Wrap up

AEP's Health & Safety Repairs program has been completed.  In all, $329,000 was spent on 127 AEP customers' homes.  The program was designed to help pay for health & safety repairs on Weatherized homes.  A few highlights:

• 65 homes received new heating appliances because existing units were operating in an unsafe manner.
• 65 homes received repairs to mitigate existing moisture problems (installation of vapor barriers, roof repairs, sump pump installations, plumbing repairs, etc.)
• 34 damaged or unsafe water heaters were replaced.
• Over 160,000 cfm@50Pa was air sealed in the participating homes
• Over 78,000 square feet of attic insulation was installed
• Over 41,000 square feet of wall insulation was installed
• Just under 1,500 feet of pipe insulation was installed
• Over 22,000 square feet of foundation walls were insulated

AEP's service area is the north east corner of the state, so there were fewer CAPs participating in this program.  The final funding breakdown was as follows:

At this time there is no word about a continuation of this program in the future.  

2012-2013 Preliminary results

Some of the state results are winding their way through BEACon.  These are just preliminary numbers:

Average net natural gas savings: 192 therms (+/-10); 18.9% (+/-.01%)

Average local burn electric savings: 717 kWh (+/-133); 7.3% (+/-1.2%)

Average total electric savings: 843 kWh (+/-342); 1% (+/-2%)

Preliminary.

I'm still working on the Citizens Energy Group homes and reviewing the individual results more closely.

Preliminary.

Revised NACs for 2011-2012 Billing Analysis report

source: nflspinzone.com

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?  

I tend to vote for the bad news first.

Last spring when the Production reports were being generated there was a significant flaw with the weather normalization that affected nearly a third of the homes being modeled.  No, it wasn't a bug in BEACon, no there wasn't a formatting error with the consumption data from the utility companies.  

I forgot to use current weather data from NOAA...

Fortunately, for the majority of the homes, there was only one month where there was no weather data to help normalize the consumption data.  However, since NIPSCO provided consumption data for their customers in early 2014, there were many, many more clients affected by the lack of weather data.

Acting on feedback and independent investigation from a small handful of persistent Weatherizers, a review of the old consumption data with more current weather data was done.  And now comes the good news.

The average net natural gas savings during that evaluation period wasn't a tepid 15.4%, but a healthier 18.4%.  The average net natural gas savings went from 163 therms up to 200 therms.

In all, 10 weatherization providers were affected.  Nearly all had significant increases in their average net natural gas savings:

• Area Five
• original: 5.9%
• revised: 28.3%
• Area IV
• original: 16.9%
• revised: 23.1%
• CANI
• original: 10.9%
• revised: 27%
• Human Services
• original: 17.3%
• revised: 18.6%
• North Central CAA
• original: 15.9%
• revised: 25.5%
• Northwest CAA
• original: 14.9%
• revised: 23.3%
• Real Services
• original: 7.9%
• revised: 15.8%
• Housing Opportunities of Warsaw
• original: 7.2%
• revised: 17.4%
• Indiana Builders Association
• original: 10.3%
• revised: 13.2%
• Miami County YMCA
• original: 17.3%
• revised: 23.7%

Another possible solution to room pressure imbalances

Green Building Advisor had an interesting post about a new ventilation strategy for homes with central returns or other HVAC system problems.

The product is an interior door that has free area built into the door itself, while engineering to reduce the amount of sound transmission.  The door has an equivalent open area of 100 square inches.  So it will be able to handle imbalances that are too big for a simple door undercutting.  

The door will cost more than a tradition interior door.  But we've all come across that rare room that has no real wall space facing the main body of the house.  This door might help reduce pressure imbalances to more acceptable levels.

The door will be going into production soon.

Fall 2014 Wx Assistant fuel cost update

This is a little late, but the updated Investor Owned Utility, etc. fuel costs have been updated as follows:
$/kWh
Duke: $0.141
I&M: $0.112
IPL: $0.100
Vectren: $0.217
NIPSCO: $0.147

$/Mcf
Vectren: $10.11
NIPSCO: $7.34
Citizens Energy Group: $10.72

The 'average' weatherization home has been updated to reflect the more recent billing analysis report.  The average home is assumed to use 942 therms and 9,452 kWh annually.  All the other assumptions remain the same.

Vectren Share the Warmth Wrap up (2014) (Update)

Many thanks to the Weatherizers who helped with this year's Share the Warmth program.  Over $191,000 was spent on 94 homes weatherized between January and September.  The $191,000 from Share the Warmth was helped by over $422,000 of additional weatherization funds to weatherize those homes.


Some quick program facts:

• 54 unsafe furnaces were replaced with new, more efficient ones.
• Seven gas cook stoves were repaired, another four were replaced to help reduce high carbon monoxide production.
• 20 damaged or unsafe water heaters were replaced.
• Enough air sealing was done to patch a single 133 sqft hole.  Think the size of a two car garage door...
• Nearly 53,000 sqft of attic insulation was installed.  More than enough to cover 11 basketball courts in a warm coating of cellulose.
• Over 25,000 sqft of wall insulation was installed.  That is as big as seven IMAX movie theater screens.
• Enough pipe wrap was installed to stretch from end zone to end zone of a football field.

Finally, a brief breakdown of what was spent where:

I'm hopeful there will be a similar program beginning early in 2015.  Thank you all for your help!  

Updated to reflect corrected number of homes completed in the program.