Fall 2015 Weatherization Assistant Fuel Cost Update

Updated vendor fuel costs for the major investor owned utilities are as follows:

$/kWh
Duke: $0.122
I&M: $0.118
IPL: $0.095
Vectren: $0.216
NIPSCO: $0.138

$/Mcf
Vectren: $8.832
NIPSCO: $6.408
Citizens Energy Group: $8.069

These fuel costs are based on the newest average pre-NAC for local burn homes from the 2012-2013 Billing Analysis report.  The average pre-NAC for natural gas was 1,016 therms.  The average pre-NAC for electricity was 10,382 kWh.  The monthly percentage of fuel consumption assumptions remain the same as they have been.

2013-2014 Preliminary Final BEACon results

Because preliminary final makes so much sense.

BEACon has finished grinding out the data for homes weatherized between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014, as well as the corresponding energy assistance program data.  That said, the outputs need to be reviewed for possible excessive study attrition (consumption data getting kicked out due to format issues, etc.) to include as much reliable data as possible in this year's study.  That said:

State averages (net):

Site built natural gas - 204 (+/-8) therms; 22% (+/-.8%)

Site built electric - 1,497 (+/-498) kWh; 5% (+/-2%)


Mobile home natural gas - 80 (+/-17) therms; 10% (+/-2%)

Mobile home electric - Unknown (really big relative standard errors on this one)
519 (+/-621) KWh; .3% (+/-3%)

The data will be reviewed over the next few days/weeks depending on what (if anything) is found and needs to be run again.  If the review goes well, the agency summaries will be trickling out soon there after.

2015 Vectren Share the Warmth wrap up

This year's Share the Warmth program funded by Vectren and it's customer's donations wrapped up earlier this month.  119 households participated, up from 94 participants last year.  $257,874 was spent to help weatherize homes participating in Indiana's low income weatherization program.  A few program highlights:

• 74 received a new furnace to replace an existing, but unsafe furnace.
• 16 cook stoves were replaced or repaired to eliminate unsafe levels of carbon monoxide being made.
• 20 unsafe gas fired water heaters were replaced.
• 170,522 cfm@50 Pascals worth of air sealing reductions was achieved.  Which is roughly the equivalent of there being three doors left open year round, letting hot air leave in the winter.  Those three doors are now shut and keeping warm air inside the homes.
• Over 1.5 acres of attic insulation was installed (66,945 square feet).
• Enough walls were insulated to cover nearly 15 IMAX screens (55,589 square feet).
• 1,413 feet of pipe insulation was installed, taller than five Indiana State Soldiers and Sailors Monuments stacked one on top of another.
• 20,174 square feet of mobile home belly insulation was installed, enough to insulate more than four basketball court floors.

The map below shows where the funds were spent throughout the state (anonymized by county).  Nearly 40% of the funds were put to use in Madison, Knox, Vigo, and Vanderburgh counties.  

  

The next map breaks down a few bits of information for each county where Share the Warmth funds were utilized.

Please click on a spot to see how much was spent & claimed for STW

And for the implementation bits:

I would like to thank Ohio Valley Opportunities, Community Action of Western Indiana, PACE, Community & Family Services, Central Indiana CAP, Western Indiana Community Action, South Central CAP, Hoosier Uplands, TRI-CAP, and Lincoln Hills for accepting and putting to use additional Share the Warmth funds.  I appreciate your flexibility!

Vectren Share the Warmth 2015 - June update

Here is an update for Share the Warmth's spending levels as of the beginning of June.  Just under half of the participating Weatherization providers have successfully claimed at least half of their allocations.

With two months to go, over $144,000 has been claimed with a little over $113,000 remaining before the final benchmark arrives at the end of June.  Big thanks to Area IV for getting their total allocation claimed in well ahead of schedule.  For everyone else, keep those claims coming in!  I will be reaching out to many of you to provide a list of clients that have administrative costs yet to be reimbursed.  

Thanks again for your hard work!

2015 Vectren Share the Warmth mapping

Trying out a new visualization method. Rather than relying on charts to show progress for the Share the Warmth program this year, here are some maps:

STW funds claimed by county:

The claims and funding levels are aggregated and tracked by county, so no personal information of the clients is identified.  As of today, 52 homes have been successfully claimed for a total of $113,954.37.  Just a little under the half way, from a funding standpoint.  But less than two months to go before the final benchmark (July 1st).

Over 70 percent of the participating providers have claimed less than half of their allocated funds at this point.  I hope to see more claims coming in the next month.  Thanks for all your hard work thus far...

Pre-Weatherization consumption data for EAP clients - spring 2015

Pre-weatherization consumption data was uploaded to the IWAP database this morning.  The upload consists of EAP clients that will be in the 2013-2014 Billing Analysis study's comparison group, but just NIPSCO and Vectren customers at this time.  

There is over 19,000 NACs uploaded for electric usage and over 38,000 NACs for natural gas usage.  Those NACs should be showing up in your waiting lists and when you search for new clients to put on your wait list.


p.s. interim savings results for Weatherization providers with NIPSCO and Vectren customers should be making their way to the providers the next week or so.  As well as requests for additional information that wasn't found in the IWAP database, but is needed for the billing analysis study.  Which would also include lists of clients that will need fuel release forms...

Spring 2015 Wx Assistant fuel cost update

Updated vendor fuel costs for the major investor owned utilities are as follows:

$/kWh
Duke: $0.126
I&M: $0.12
IPL: $0.096
Vectren: $0.216
NIPSCO: $0.138

$/Mcf
Vectren: $8.832
NIPSCO: $8.028
Citizens Energy Group: $9.137

These fuel costs are based on the newest average pre-NAC for local burn homes from the 2012-2013 Billing Analysis report.  The average pre-NAC for natural gas was 1,016 therms.  The average pre-NAC for electricity was 10,382 kWh.  The monthly percentage of fuel consumption assumptions remain the same as they have been.

2012-2013 Billing Analysis Report - Indiana Weatherization Program

The Billing Analysis Report for homes Weatherized between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013 was completed at the end of March.  Here are a few highlights from the full report.

• 2,341 households were weatherized, serving 5,423 people.
• Average net natural gas savings of 264 therms (+/- 10), 22.6% (+/-.8%).
• The state average of 264 therms is the largest average measured since INCAA has been performing billing analysis for the entire state.
• Average gross electric savings for electrically heated homes of 1,571 kWh (+/-294).

The average net natural gas percent savings are shown in Figure 7 from the Billing Analysis report.  Ninety six percent of Indiana's Weatherization providers were able to meet IHCDA's net natural gas savings benchmark of 15 percent. 

Natural gas is approximately $1.00 per therm on average in Indiana.  So each therm saved is another dollar each weatherization household has to spend on something other than their gas bill.  Figure 8 from the report shows how many therms (and roughly dollars) each client saved on average.  $264 per year might not seem like much, but it is more than 1% of the average weatherization client's household income, assuming the household income is at the Federal Poverty threshold for a family of two.  The CAPs at the left hand side of the chart are worth noting.  They made an even bigger fiscal impact on their weatherization client's households.  And these energy savings are persistent for the lifetime of the retrofits, which means they will last for years to come, stretching the savings out into the future for the people living in that home.

The Billing Analysis process has begun again for the 2013-2014 DOE cycle.  So program managers can expect requests from me for additional data and fuel release forms in the near future.

2012-2013 Billing Analysis results (updated 2015-02-10)

The billing analysis results for homes weatherized in the 2012-2013 DOE cycle will be trickling out over the next few weeks.  As they do, I'll be updating the results for the agencies that have been sent out.  The state average net natural gas savings is about 32 percent higher than last year's average (from 200 therms to 264 therms).  The average natural gas percent savings was up about 23 percent, from 18.3 percent to 22.6 percent.

Agency	NAS	%
NWICA	301	25.5%
RS	236	20.0%
Area IV	189	19.7%
Area Five	294	27.2%
CAGI	258	21.9%
CANI	206	19.6%
CAPE	377	27.7%
CFS	220	19.3%
COWI	73	9.8%
HSI	302	35.1%
ICAP	291	25.5%
CICAP	516	27.2%
HUEDC	213	24%
LHDC	219	35.5%
NCCAA	212	18.8%
OVO	580	51.2%
SCCAP	227	38.8%
SIEOC	155	18.4%
TRICAP	189	31.4%
WICAA	209	26.9%
PACE	486	33.8%
CASI	325	18.9%
PWC	227	24%
INDIANA	264	22.6%

And that is all of them.  Next up is the statewide report...

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.

Pre-weatherization consumption data is live!

Any Indiana weatherization program managers stumbling upon this post, I've got good news.  Well, news at the very least. 


Pre-weatherization consumption data has been uploaded for over 40,000 EAP clients who are also Vectren or NIPSCO customers.  Which means most programs will have some pre-weatherization normalized annual consumption (Pre NAC) showing up when they look at their wait lists. 


Pre NAC is also on display in the Wait List search tool (although in a slightly less functional format, no sorting here). 


It's only taken over a decade, but there is finally pre-Wx consumption information at your (somewhat easy) disposal.  Sorry for the delay.  Feel free to send any feedback my or IHCDA's way...

2011-2012 Indiana Billing Analysis Report

The 2011-2012 Billing Analysis report has been released.  Some of the highlights/key stats:

• Indiana's net natural gas savings was 163 therms (+/- 6 therms), a savings of 15.4%, (+/- .6%).
• WICAA's weatherization program in Brazil, IN had the highest net natural gas savings, averaging 338 therms in net natural gas savings, a reduction of 33%.
• The average total electric home saved about 1,500 kWh after being weatherized.
• The average 'local burn' home (a home heated with natural gas, lp gas, fuel oil, wood, something burned on the premise to create heat, you get the point...) saved an average of 776 kWh if it has some manner of air conditioning.  If the house had no air conditioning, a local burn home saved an average of 519 kWh after being weatherized.

Those results are based on the actual energy consumption of over 1,800 weatherized homes and nearly 4,800 energy assistance clients.

Vectren Share the Warmth status update

We are past the halfway point for this year's Share the Warmth program.  The next major deadline is at the beginning of July.  Of the $191,000+ in the program just under $80,000 has been reimbursed.  As of this weekend the reimbursements are as follows:

Those providers that were unable to meet the first benchmark have had those funds reallocated.  I will be approaching other providers shortly about receiving reallocated funds.  As is plain to see, I'll be expecting lots of claims over the next month.  It is important that the administrative costs have the proper backup documentation and are submitted by July 1st as well.  Given that there is often a time lag between the job being completed and everything getting properly entered into your fiscal software, getting the claim process started earlier will help.

Below is a close up showing the reimbursements to date, focusing on the individual providers.

AEP Health & Safety Repairs status update

We are nearing the half way point of AEP's Health & Safety Repair program.  I haven't done this with any other weatherization assistance utility funded program.  But I thought it might be helpful to see some pictures or different colored lines to communicate how much has been reimbursed for the program.

As of this weekend:

Now, for what matters going forward:

Please excuse the funky image quality.  They look ok on the computer screen, but after being pulled onto the site, they look rather dingy.  We're a little under halfway in the program and have reimbursed nearly half of the program's total funds.  There are still lots of funds to put to use, but quite a bit of time to do it in.  However, the majority of the funds remaining to be spent are in the hands of those providers that haven't claimed much since early February.