Imagine a sprawling apartment
inhabited by two residents who spend a
great deal of time eating out and being
entertained away from home. Even
in an ineff icient home, these users are
not turning on lights, washing dishes
and clothes, cooking meals, opening
the refrigerator, taking showers, or
f lushing toilets with the frequency of
a tight eff iciency unit bristling with a
crowded family.
"By creating a tax or fee that applies
only to multifamily housing, one
drives consumers away from the
energy effi cient and to the energy
ineffi cient."
If you add unemployment or in-home
child rearing to the scenario, the number
of active hours per day the home is used
doubles or triples. Hours of residential
usage dramatically changes the need for
temperature control and electricity usage.
By looking at the Energy Star rating and
ignoring the number of people in a housing
unit, it is all too easy to mischaracterize
the amount of energy usage, and energy
effi ciency in a home.
The second problem with Energy Star
styled benchmarking is the costs imposed
only on multifamily housing. Because of
lower square footages and less exposure to
outside temperatures, even an ineffi cient
apartment is far more environmentally
friendly than a single-family home. Yet
multifamily housing is the main target for
this type of benchmarking.
According to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration, “Households
living in apartment buildings with fi ve or
more units use about half as much energy
as other types of homes. Lower energy use
in apartments can be partially explained
by their smaller living space. Additionally,
apartment units are bordered by other units
or common areas on one or more sides
and typically have fewer windows, limiting
exposure to exterior temperatures.”
Creating a tax or fee that applies only to
multifamily housing drives consumers away
from the energy effi cient (multifamily) and to
the energy ineffi cient (single family homes).
Encouraging eff icient building and
usage is a good goal. Multifamily housing
is the solution to more energy eff icient
residences not the enemy. We can’t allow
bad math to change an environmental
policy into punishing the poor and
encouraging people to move to less energy
eff icient forms of housing.
Roofing Painting Carpentry
Welding Gutters Concrete Commercial
195 Telluride Street, Suite 3
Brighton, Colorado 80601
720-791-5701
www.aamdhq.org
MARCH 2020
TRENDS | 43