Texas utilities want to be rewarded with lavish incentives for delivering less energy savings, at a time when Texas desperately needs to reduce energy waste for grid reliability
We have highly efficient heat pumps in our single-family residence. You would like for everyone, I presume, to do so. The question is, who pays? We paid for ours. A lot of low-income people haven't the financial resources to do so. If you want people to change their behavior, it's useful to provide them an incentive. What's your suggestion?
We also put in an entirely new a/c system based on a high efficiency heat pump. I put out a rfp to 16 different local high rated companies. 13 of the bids were for over $30,000 for some of the cheapest minimum efficiency regular a/c units and keeping the 1980’s blower and gas furnace that was installed in the 90’s. One bid was $45,000 but at least they bid using a heat pump but it had resistance emergency heat,the sales person never looked in the attic or ran a schedule D just put in the sqft of the house and the software churned out a bid. Just 2 companies had heat pump system that met the spec and were under the $30,000 level, one was using several different manufacturers pieced together, the other that was the second lowest bid met all the qualifications, a high seer heat pump with a nat gas furnace for emergency heat and all new ductwork. It was surprisingly difficult to even find a company that was familiar with the gas furnace add on rather than resistance heat. We have natural gas run to the home, the emergency heat has run for less than 5 years in the 3 years the system has been in place and upgrades to the electrical panel would had added thousands in cost that weren’t in the bid to support the resistance heat load.
Because of past experiences with shoddy residential company’s I specified a hold back and the system had to pass a standard energy audit, blower door and duct blaster. They also had to install backdraft dampers in all the ventilation ducts, none of the existing vent had them.
None of this got any sort of discount. Our income is low enough that the tax credit doesn’t apply, it needs to be on the front side of the form so you get the benefit even if you don’t have the deductions.
So there are two big problems besides getting rid of the tax credit that over 50% of people can’t use anyway is the rampant abuse by the companies that are used to dealing with people in a panic because they’re a/c is not working and it in the 90’s.
They get the minimum system for the maximum cost and can’t use the tax credit to lighten the burden.
Centerpoint could fix these issues by offering direct payments to people that can’t take the tax credits and by vetting the companies that qualify to filter out the ones that just want quick profits and to hell with what’s good for the customer and the suck on the grid continues.
We have highly efficient heat pumps in our single-family residence. You would like for everyone, I presume, to do so. The question is, who pays? We paid for ours. A lot of low-income people haven't the financial resources to do so. If you want people to change their behavior, it's useful to provide them an incentive. What's your suggestion?
We also put in an entirely new a/c system based on a high efficiency heat pump. I put out a rfp to 16 different local high rated companies. 13 of the bids were for over $30,000 for some of the cheapest minimum efficiency regular a/c units and keeping the 1980’s blower and gas furnace that was installed in the 90’s. One bid was $45,000 but at least they bid using a heat pump but it had resistance emergency heat,the sales person never looked in the attic or ran a schedule D just put in the sqft of the house and the software churned out a bid. Just 2 companies had heat pump system that met the spec and were under the $30,000 level, one was using several different manufacturers pieced together, the other that was the second lowest bid met all the qualifications, a high seer heat pump with a nat gas furnace for emergency heat and all new ductwork. It was surprisingly difficult to even find a company that was familiar with the gas furnace add on rather than resistance heat. We have natural gas run to the home, the emergency heat has run for less than 5 years in the 3 years the system has been in place and upgrades to the electrical panel would had added thousands in cost that weren’t in the bid to support the resistance heat load.
Because of past experiences with shoddy residential company’s I specified a hold back and the system had to pass a standard energy audit, blower door and duct blaster. They also had to install backdraft dampers in all the ventilation ducts, none of the existing vent had them.
None of this got any sort of discount. Our income is low enough that the tax credit doesn’t apply, it needs to be on the front side of the form so you get the benefit even if you don’t have the deductions.
So there are two big problems besides getting rid of the tax credit that over 50% of people can’t use anyway is the rampant abuse by the companies that are used to dealing with people in a panic because they’re a/c is not working and it in the 90’s.
They get the minimum system for the maximum cost and can’t use the tax credit to lighten the burden.
Centerpoint could fix these issues by offering direct payments to people that can’t take the tax credits and by vetting the companies that qualify to filter out the ones that just want quick profits and to hell with what’s good for the customer and the suck on the grid continues.