Invitation to comment on the Dept. of Energy’s Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy
Hello Everyone-
I work for the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program. The DOE is in the process of developing workforce guidelines for the residential energy market. The guidelines are open for public comment through January 7th. This is an opportunity for the public and the residential energy workforce to provide input on this important document. We would really appreciate the thoughts and input of the experts who contribute to this forum. Please see the link below to view the Guidelines and provide your comments.
Thanks.
There are only 5 days left to submit comments to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades: the public comment period ends January 7. The guidelines will establish quality specifications for weatherization and home energy retrofits and a foundation for better training and certification programs. Be sure your voice is heard by submitting your comments today.
Submit comments to DOE using online form. http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/wip/retrofits/
DOE is developing the guidelines in order to foster the growth of a high-quality retrofit industry and a skilled and credentialed workforce. The development of the guidelines involved historic collaboration between the DOE Weatherization Assistance Program practitioners and trainers, home performance contractors, building scientists, organized labor, healthy homes and worker safety experts, and other professionals in the building trades and throughout the retrofit industry.
DOE expects to publish the guidelines in early 2011 after public review is complete. You can read more about the Residential Retrofit Guidelines project on the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Web site.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
No worries. The new Republican House majority will defund this program.
Ouch! this is a 542 page document that you are giving us five days to comment on at the same time that the USGBC LEED for homes and the National Green Building Standard public review process' are closing and the International Builders Show is about to start. I'm sure there is much to be gained from folks here giving our comments but you could have given us a bit more warning.
The most thoughtful person I know of in America on this subject is Arn McIntyre at Ferris State University Energy Center in Big Rapids Michigan. He has a big project on green jobs training and weatherization scopes of work going on right now.
My own thoughts are at http://www.chandlerdesignbuild.com/files/Market_Driven_Weatherization_012510.pdf
I wish you the best with it, sorry I didn't hear about it earlier.
Hi Michael-
You and I met a few years ago in Chapel Hill when I was living in the area- at a Green Drinks event, if I remember correctly.
I certainly appreciate that 5 days is an insufficient amount of time to digest a document of that size. I was brought in to work on this project just before the holidays and, while the document has been open to public comment for a couple of months, I realized that it may have not been brought to the attention of a lot of the folks working on the private-side in weatherization work. So I am reaching out the network that I relied when working as a contractor in the hopes that we may get a few good suggestions as the comment period winds down.
The page count is a bit misleading- a lot of the document is restating information in numerous sections so that if a section were taken on it's own it would contain all of the pertinent information. The other thing to realize is that the second half of the book is referencing job tasks specific to the Weatherization Program-that may not be as applicable to those in the private sector.
I am certainly not suggesting that anyone try to absorb the entire document. If you do have a moment to take a look, you will find that the online coment form allows you to go to a specific section and comment just on that section. So, if one were an expert on ventilation, that section could be opened up and commented on directly. In fact, that would be a far more useful approach for us- we have a lot of opinioins on the document as a concept, the format etc., but not as much on the technical specifcs. So, if anyone has a couple of hours this week to tackle a section or two, that would be hugely helpful.
I appreciate the time and consideration.
Josh Olsen
Office of Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs
U.S. Department of Energy
Office: 202-287-1813
[email protected]