Our Sustainable Energy Pathway

A ZEN project is one that is focused entirely on making a serious effort to get off of fossil fuels, or at least to reduce them as much as possible.  To do this, we have traditionally required

• A 10% improvement in the home’s envelope – its insulation and air-sealing in the walls, ceilings, roof, and foundation. 
• A 50% reduction in the use of fossil fuel and grid-sourced electricity;
• A 50% reliance on renewable energy in the home’s post-project energy portfolio.

Because not all homes or house sites are suited for solar energy, or other renewable electricity options, and because community solar is not currently an option in Vermont, we are no longer requiring the 50% reduction in combined fossil fuel and grid-sourced electricity.  Instead, because the majority of Vermont’s electricity portfolio comes from renewable sources, in Vermont, we are applying a Vermont-based renewable electricity portfolio as the minimum standard for grid-sourced electricity.  We will continue to encourage – and incentivize – home or house site-based electricity, as well as encourage other renewable fuel options, most of which are wood-based combustion fuels.

It is important to recognize that all fuels, including electricity, and their support systems and technologies, such as batteries, are environmentally destructive, and we continue to encourage as much reduction as possible in all the home’s energy loads before offsetting the remaining loads with super-efficient mechanicals such as heat pumps, and renewable energy such as solar.  ZEN is also about becoming more conscious and aware of one’s energy use – and minimizing its broad-based environmental concerns as much as possible.

• Lower Energy Costs – A ZEN project, properly completed, will always dramatically lower your energy costs.  This is because it substantially increases the efficiency of your home’s building envelope (its insulation and air-tightness), and – usually – the efficiency of your heating equipment, typically from around 80% to around 190% or more! 
• An Optimized Home Envelope – A really key component of any ZEN project is the energy audit and the weatherization component.  The former will tell you a great deal about how the home is performing, and what steps to take to make it perform optimally.  The latter will take those steps, and make your home more efficient, more comfortable, more structurally resilient, and healthier in terms of moisture management and air quality.
• Energy Independence –ZEN used to require a significant solar or renewable energy component, and we still strongly encourage them.  Beyond the benefit of making it possible to reduce all your energy costs to nothing more than a small amount of utility fees, renewable energy makes you less reliant on grid-sourced power to energize your heating equipment, and thus goes a long way towards energy independence.  If batteries are included in your ZEN project, your own personal use of your on-site solar array can increase to 100% in the summer, and be really dependent on the grid for only approximately 2 ½ months (December, January, and part of February) of the year.  Even this dependence can be diminished to zero for off-grid homes!
• Increased Home Value – If you were shopping for a home right now, and found two similar homes, one with $400 a month in energy costs and one with only $40 a month in energy costs, how much more would you be willing to pay for the one with only $40 per month in costs?  While appraisers may not yet look closely enough at these values, a smart home shopper certainly will! 
• Minimized Fossil Carbon Emissions – the whole point of Zero Energy Now is to reduce our carbon emissions!  The only way this will happen in our homes is by eliminating our reliance on fossil fuels!

It is important to look at the cost of a ZEN project not in terms of its upfront cost – which, frankly can be quite expensive, but rather as part of the home’s energy cash flow!  Your energy cash flow is what you spend annually on energy-related costs.  It includes your electric bill, your fuel bills, and any servicing (e.g. cleaning or maintenance) costs.  A Zero Energy Now project shifts your cost from a simple but sizable annual cost in electric and fuel bill payments, to a substantially smaller annual energy cost, which allows the balance of your energy cash flow to be applied to the cost of financing the project.  Instead of continuing to make large payments for energy, which has no investment value at all, a sizable portion of your energy cash flow is invested in your home where the long-term improvements you have made help to grow the home’s value, and where, once the loan is paid off, the costs of servicing the debt disappear altogether – something those large energy bills you once were paying will never do on their own.  All you will be left paying are the much reduced energy bills and utility fees.

If you have a pre-project annual energy cost, say, of $3,500 for oil, propane, and electricity , the project will reduce that energy cost as much as possible – say, to $500 – so that you can take on an additional loan payment without your overall cost exceeding what you can comfortably pay.  In the example above, you would be able to make payments of $3,000 per year, or $250 per month, without increasing your costs at all.  Such a project would be 100% cash flow neutral.  The example above is hypothetical, but a number of projects completed in the last few years have been cash flow neutral or cash flow positive (meaning that post-project energy costs plus financing costs were less than pre-project energy costs alone!)  See our case studies section for examples of projects that achieved cash flow neutrality!

Of course, how you pay for your ZEN project is up to you.  If you have the resources to pay the up-front cost (minus, of course, the tax credits and rebates), you will enjoy the substantial cost savings immediately!  This brings us to an important point: just as every home is different, with different features and idiosyncrasies, every homeowner has different financial capacities and circumstances.  The ZEN program works to develop solutions that are customized to your home and customized to your financial circumstances!

As anyone who has looked closely at managing their finances knows, there is good debt and bad debt.  It is generally not good to run up debt on your credit cards to manage your cash flow because credit card debt only accrues more and more interest the longer you maintain a high balance.  This is living beyond your means!  

A loan to cover a Zero Energy Now project is quite different, however, because the debt – including the interest – is essentially replacing energy costs.  Interest is simply a cost, just like energy bills are a cost.  You want to avoid both of them.  By paying off your debt, you will be reducing your interest as you pay down the debt.  Eventually both the debt and the interest will disappear altogether!  Energy payments, on the other hand, will never disappear, except by eliminating as much of your energy use as possible.  A Zero Energy Now project does just that!  Replacing energy costs with debt in this way is a good thing!  It is still living within your means, and also living more smartly!  It is like the difference between paying to rent a home and making a mortgage payment on a home that you own.  As long as you rent, your rent obligation will never go away.  A mortgage obligation, on the other hand, disappears as soon as the mortgage is paid off.

Zero Energy Now does not, at this time, have its own financing mechanism or company.  Project bills are usually paid by you directly to the contractors completing the work.  We work with you to get in touch with local financing institutions and loan opportunities offered through other programs in Vermont and New Hampshire.  Your ZEN Coordinator or Contractor will help you find the best payment option and arrangement through the range of sources currently available – local credit unions and banks, Efficiency Vermont’s Home Energy Loan, VHFA’s Weatherization Repayment Assistance Program (WRAP), and Weatherization Assistance Programs.

The financing and incentive – and payment – landscape is in a state of constant flux, however, and we are committed to finding ways to make completion of a ZEN project easier for homeowners, regardless of income. 

The return on investment begins to show up immediately in your energy bills.  However, it may not be apparent in your cash flow because of additional costs related to financing the project.  

Financial return on investment in a ZEN project, specifically, is the ratio of your annual cost savings in energy to your overall project cost.  The benefit of a specific return on investment depends on ancillary investment costs, such as interest paid on your debt, in addition to the project related costs.  If you think of interest paid annually as a cost against the savings you obtain in the project, it simply reduces your cash flow savings.  It may even reduce it to zero or less so that it becomes an added cost that you have to bear for the life of the loan.  The return on investment in that case is the cumulative benefits of the project itself – increased comfort in the home, greater control of your energy costs through dramatically reduced energy bills, substantially increased home value, energy independence, and a strong personal commitment and contribution to reducing carbon emissions – which your grandchildren, and all the populations of the planet, will appreciate!  

Your Zero Energy Now Coordinator or Contractor works closely with you to design your project around a return on investment that best meets your needs – usually with a strong focus on managing your overall cash flow at a level that is comfortable for you. 

A ZEN Contractor is residential building contractor who has been trained in all aspects of the ZEN program, and is a certified Building Analyst and Shell Specialist under the auspices of the Building Performance Institute of Malta, New York.  The contractor applies the CLEAR tool and sometimes hires a ZEN Coordinator to develop the project design and work scope.  Like most building contractors, he usually completes projects on a contract basis, with a combination of his own employees, and various subcontractors working under his direction.  Some ZEN Contractors may not have their own crew, and work only with subcontractors to complete the various components of the project.  The ZEN Contractor takes responsibility for the entire project including any subcontractors he hires.

A ZEN Coordinator is often a former contractor, who is also trained in all aspects of the ZEN program, and is a certified Building Analyst and Shell Specialist under the auspices of the Building Performance Institute of Malta, New York.  Unlike a contractor, however, he works by the hour at a specified rate, to develop the project design and work scope, works with the homeowner to hire contractors who can complete individual work scope elements as specified, and then oversees the project work on behalf of the homeowner as needed.  Individual contractors are responsible for their own work, and the ZEN program takes responsibility for project design and performance.

Some ZEN Contractors will prefer to work independently, with relatively minimal engagement from Program staff; others will prefer the “team element” of having a Coordinator available to provide support either to themselves – perhaps in designing the project – or counseling and decision-making support to their clients.  

Homeowners may also need counseling resources, design reassurances, or logistical problem-solving capabilities that a Coordinator can provide, which Contractors, focused on carrying out projects and getting the work done on a schedule, may not have the time or attention capacity to undertake. 

The goal in having these personnel options available is to provide all the elements and support resources needed to help homeowners make appropriate decisions and choices.  We want to ensure that you have the resources you need to complete your Zero Energy Now project!

Zero Energy Now was first developed by the Building Performance Professionals Association, a trade association in support of BPI certified weatherization and Home and Building Performance contractors, and other building science professionals.  

In most cases, the program has engaged weatherization contractors who are BPI certified, and who are known to be familiar with the principles of building science.  These contractors often work with subcontractors in other trades – professionals in their fields with a strong background, and proper licensing, in the installations for which they were qualified – heat pumps and refrigerants, plumbing and heating systems, biomass boilers and furnaces, or solar PV installations.  

In some instances, non-BPI certified weatherization contractors have been engaged in projects, but always under the care and supervision of a BPI-certified ZEN Coordinator or other agent, such as a Heat Squad or VGS Project Manager, who could certify the quality of the work, and qualify it for Efficiency Vermont or VGS/BED incentives. 

Another resource for qualifying many of these contractors is the Efficiency Excellence Network, sponsored by Efficiency Vermont. 

Beyond the nominal qualification of contractors through certifications, we go to substantial lengths to familiarize ourselves with their work, their professional depth and experience, their personal presentation to homeowners.  These have always been an important part of our vetting process.  

We are always looking to expand our network of qualified contractors, and we are eager to get to know new tradespeople who are motivated by our goals of getting off of fossil fuels and fighting climate change.

Zero Energy Now is committed to giving you all the support you need to fully understand your newly installed energy systems – how they work, how to achieve optimal performance, and how to keep them properly maintained.  Your contractor or your coordinator will be available to provide advice, to inspect or review the performance of the installations, to troubleshoot problems, and to verify performance with respect to your ongoing energy bills.  Since the program is founded on the principle that good energy performance should not cost more, or be less comfortable than fossil systems, we are very interested in following up with homeowners to discover any weaknesses or failings in our system designs, and to correct them appropriately.  Our goal, in the long run, is to make the Zero Energy Now concept, and specific program elements as sound and successful as possible so that we can scale up to transform our existing built environment entirely away from emissions-producing fossil fuels.

This is the dilemma of the ages, and of every personal choice we make.  ZEN allows you to make a good choice – one that will benefit you personally, and one that will certainly benefit the future of humanity and of the planet if enough people make the same choice.  More people will make that choice only if some people begin to make that choice.  By doing your part now, you will help others see the benefit of the choice that you have made.  What is now an uncommon choice will eventually become a popular choice.  Other choices that were once uncommon, but are now nearly universal include the choice to buy an automobile, the choice to buy a computer, and the choice to invest in higher education.  In spite of efforts by some groups to downplay or ignore climate change, it is not going to go away.  The only way to fight it effectively is to get off of fossil fuel.  This is something we all have to do, and the sooner we each make that choice – and go ahead and do it – the easier it will be for all of us!