“The proposed HOME STAR program – popularly known as “Cash for Caulkers” – has the potential to jump-start the Home Performance industry from the current rate of about 250,000 home retrofits per year to 5.5 million retrofits in the next two years. This rapid growth in consumer demand would create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in construction and related manufacturing sectors.” -from Efficiency First blog
The HOME STAR program will put a lot of people back to work. Construction workers will be trained, hired, and deployed to employ principals of building science in making our homes more energy efficient. With 5 million homes retrofitted a year, many paradigms would shift.
With such a big effort to retrofit homes, our relationships with our homes would effectively change. We would learn how air infiltration causes heat to leave our homes, how we don’t need to live with musty basements, how rooms can be comfortable throughout the house. Insulation would be regarded only as good as the the skill and care it was installed. We would spend a little more on thermal boundary remediation before we sprung for the even bigger TV or exotic granite counter top.
A federal incentive program such as HOME STAR will catalyze the home performance contracting industry. More jobs will come from national investment of capital to drive private sector growth. Better quality of life will come from a large scale retrofication of our nation’s housing stock.
Dollars will be saved in fuel bill savings, jobs will be added, and our mental models will evolve to prepare for the clean energy economy.
