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A Warm Spot in Their WalletsWant a home where your winter and summer comfort, as well as low fuel bills, are guaranteed? That concept is behind a 20-month-old program that is attracting builders looking for an edge. In the Philadelphia area, the program is called SmartChoice, and it was recently expanded to include houses with gas as well as electric heat. About 1,550 electrically heated houses in the Philadelphia area are enrolled in SmartChoice, said Albert J. McDevitt Jr., product manager for Peco Energy Co., which sponsors the program. "With gas coming in, the number of homes will easily double quickly," he said. Peco's service area includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties. To back up the guarantee of comfort and fuel efficiency, SmartChoice houses are insulated, caulked and weatherstripped to high energy standards. Insulating standards for attics, walls, floors and windows exceed current state requirements, McDevitt said. For example, Pennsylvania energy laws require attics to be insulated to R-30, but SmartChoice houses require R-38. The house are also tested for energy efficiency. SmartChoice is a Peco program within a larger program, called Comfort Home, that is open to other utilities. Comfort Home Inc. of Lancaster started the program in 1989 with Pennsylvania Power & Light Co., of Allentown, as its first customer, according to Ed Carr, Comfort Home president. Comfort Home Inc. checks all houses in the program, backs the warranty, and helps utilities with marketing. The comfort warranty for a SmartChoice or Comfort Home dwelling covers one year, while the energy-cost warranty extends for three years. Peco estimates that under the program, heating a 2,500-square-foot new home could cost as little as $761 to $1,058 a year. Builders like the program, Carr said, because they get increased customer satisfaction. Kathleen S. Burns, project manager for Peco's gas-services group, expects builders to enroll about 2,500 prospective gas-heated houses in SmartChoice by the end of 1996. "One of the reasons we adopted the [gas] program is in response to builders," Burns said. "We've done focus groups and meetings with builders, and developed the program based on what they say their customers want. We do have a lot of interest. C&M Home Builders Inc., of Warrington, was one of the first area builders to sign up for gas SmartChoice. Bernard J. Ciliberto, C&M president, said he will use SmartChoice gas heat at two new developments, Liberty Knoll in Towamencin Township and the Ridings in Lower Makefield Township. "We believe in the overall package and testing," Ciliberto said. "The builder has fewer callbacks, and it's valuable as a marketing tool." Liberty Knoll will feature 140 two-bedroom townhouses with prices starting around $95,000, Ciliberto said. The Ridings will offer 38 detaches houses with prices starting around $300,000. McKee Group, Drexel Hill, is among builders who report good results with the electric-heat SmartChoice program. McKee Group has used SmartChoice, with electric heat pumps, in about 50 factory-built houses at Buckingham Springs, an adult-community development near Wrightstown. "Our buyers have been around the block and lived with various heating systems," said Frank J. McKee, president of McKee Group. "When we first tell them about using heat pumps, they are skeptical." McKee said it is a "tremendous marketing advantage," however, to give would-be buyers a pamphlet stating that their comfort and energy use are guaranteed. Other area builders in the Smart Choice program included K. Hovnanian Cos., Quaker Group, Heritage Group, and Perdone Associates. McDevitt said a survey of about 30 buyers who had lived in SmartChoice houses for more than six months recorded "more than a 90 percent positive response." Mildred Kelsall, who lives in Buckingham Springs, said she and her husband, Jack, had weathered last summer's heat wave and this winter's bitter cold without problems. They moved into their SmartChoice home, heated and cooled by an electric heat pump, in July. "We're very happy with it, and find no problems," Kelsall said. Typically, a builder enrolls a development or specific group of homes in one of the programs, pledging to build to stiff energy-efficiency standards. Comfort Home Inc. checks specifications for each house, calculates the estimated annual fuel costs, and, when the house is completed, conducts an energy audit. SmartChoice houses fall under Comfort Home's review system. The program is not available to individuals or for existing houses. Peco provides cash incentives to builders in SmartChoice, paying up to $1,500 per year house to those who use geothermal heat pumps, which extract heat from the earth. Smaller payments are given to builders using other forms of heating and cooling, including standard air-source heat pumps and gas. Some manufacturers of heating and cooling equipment offer additional incentive payments to builders who use their products. Comfort Home does not offer incentives. Why are utility companies so anxious to sponsor houses that save electricity and gas? "Utility companies recognize that customer service is extremely important," said Carr. "And the program helps them increase their saturation with space-conditioning equipment. For example, electric utilities can sell more heat pumps and give greater satisfaction through lower costs and higher levels of comfort." Pennsylvania utilities with Comfort Home programs, besides Peco and PP&L, include Metropolitan Edison in the Reading-York-Lebanon area, and Penelec in Western Pennsylvania. Other sponsors of Comfort Home programs are Jersey Central Power and Light, and utility companies in Maryland, West Virginia, Georgia and Kentucky, Carr said. Comfort Home warrants that is fuel-cost estimate can be met if home temperatures are kept no higher than 72 degrees during the heating system, and now lower than 75 degrees during the cooling season. Under the warranty, homeowners are prohibited from setting thermostats to temperatures beyond the specified points, but Carr conceded that there is no foolproof way to determine if the recommended settings are violated. "We've never gone back and checked settings," Carr said. "We take the information [given by homeowners] at face value. But if there is a really blatant violation, we can tell. If someone sets their winter temperature at 80, we can tell. We don't attempt to control it, though." Instead, Carr said, Comfort Home attempts to teach homeowners that if they use specified thermostat settings, they will have the best fuel economy. Carr said Comfort Home receives "a relatively low number" of complaints. "No more than 2 or 3 percent complain," he said. "And we haven't received one yet that we haven't been able to resolve." Resolutions occasionally included payments for fuel use over the estimates, he said. "We all worry about that potential customer from hell," he said, "but we haven't had that situation." Gregory A. Shorten, general manager of McKee Group's Buckingham Springs, said Comfort Home "has responded quickly on the few occassions that I'm aware of [when there were complaints]." "Usually there was just a little balancing needed" of the heating-cooling system, Shorten said. Guaranteed fuel costs vary with the type of heating system used and the size and design of the house, said Bruce Smith, manager of technical services for Comfort Home. "We calculate it for each house," Smith said. "We use a lot of computer programs to get the figures. If the builder takes a couple of windows out or improves the insulation, the fuel figures will go down." A chart used by Peco estimates that for a 2,500-square-foot house, annual heating-cooling costs would be $1,508 if a standard air-source heat pump is used. Air-source heat pumps do their work in the winter by extracting heat from the outside air and bringing it inside; they cool in the summer by extracting heat from inside the house and dumping it outside. If a more efficient (and more expensive) geothermal heat pump is used, the annual heating-cooling cost for the same house is estimated at only $761. If a gas heater with a 90 percent efficiency rating is used with electric air conditioning, the estimated total annual cost is $1,019. In addition to a checkup to determine the fuel estimates, Smith said, every house undergoes a final inspection to ensure it meets the program's energy-efficiency standards. Comfort Home's technicians use sophisticated equipment such as a blower door and infrared scanner to check for air leaks and insulation gaps. The blower door, so-called because it is temporarily attached to a door opening, reduces the air pressure inside a house so that air leaks from outside are more easily traced. The infrared scanner, used from outside to scan the shell of the house, can detect areas of high heat loss. Philadelphia Inquirer Real Estate Section -- March 10, 1996 |
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