Renewable is do-able in the house

Posted 6 January 2012-From http://sjhp.org/2011/12/27/sjhp-gets-energy-grant-from-florida-governor%E2%80%99s-office/

"The St. Johns Housing Partnership received an energy grant from the Florida Governor’s Energy Office to retrofit ten homes at The Hancock Place as “zero-energy.” The energy grant is designed to quantify the cost of creating zero-energy workforce housing with renewable energy features.

The Hancock Place is SJHP’s affordable housing development in West Augustine. SJHP’s goal is to develop The Hancock Place as a flagship community of Energy Star and net-zero energy homes and then evaluate the most efficient combinations of energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy systems for affordable housing. Effectiveness is measured in terms of energy and dollars saved.

The flagship community will then initiate a program of educational outreach with measurement and analysis of energy usage at its core. The SJHP will incorporate what is learned into its organization as a model for replication by agencies across the state."

Lucid Design Group

Contractor for dashboard

RFP dashboard

Gary White

Objectives, Findings and Venn Diagram have yet to be developed.

Speculative Objectives:

• 1. Quantify the cost of creating zero-energy workforce housing with renewable energy features.

  2. SJHP’s goal is to develop The Hancock Place as a flagship community of Energy Star and net-zero energy homes and then evaluate the most efficient combinations of energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy systems for affordable housing. Effectiveness is measured in terms of energy and dollars saved.

  3. The flagship community will then initiate a program of educational outreach with measurement and analysis of energy usage at its core.

  4. The SJHP will incorporate what is learned into its organization as a model for replication by agencies across the state.

First thing that comes to mind is how many other studies or contracts have been, or are currently in worked to:

• • Use as a baseline for trend analysis

  • Comparison and discrimination of product solution sets

  • Life cycle avoided costs

  • Consideration of changes to infrastructure and subsequent impact on market forces

Questions:

• 1. It was asserted smart metering is not incorporated into these homes. What is the justification for this assertion? What is the additional expense for smart metering and how will that assertion factor into costs over an entire life cycle? How does the expense of an additional of a smart meter/transfer switch compare relative to an entire inverted solar system?

  2. Assuming solar appliances use DC and modulate AC when required, are these sort of appliances considered in these applications. Does inverting the DC to AC, then a portion of the power converted back to DC cost effective or efficient?

  3. Is there a cost to public safety and aggregating power demand?

  4. Were any wireless communication features considered in these design configurations? The first file attachment mentions circadian profiling as part of the adaptive management strategy. Is this type of strategy available of the shelf to mitigate power usage during peak expense plateaus.