To: Participating Contractors and Stakeholders Regarding Programs: EmPower New York, Assisted Home Performance Summary: EmPower+ Contractor Program Announcement- Go Live Next Week Contact: Account Managers
Please remember that the EmPower and Assisted Home Performance programs will be combining into one program, EmPower+, next week, on Monday, July 10, 2023. Please see prior program announcements for full details.
For current Participating Contractors, no action is required for you to continue working in the Program through EmPower+. Your existing Participation Agreement remains valid under EmPower+. If you decide you no longer wish to Participate in EmPower+, please send us an email to empower.residential@nyserda.ny.gov.
As you communicate EmPower+ changes with your staff, and customers please emphasize that, although the program names are changing, the customer experience should not change; NYSERDA is still dedicated to reducing energy usage for low- and moderate-income households.
To help assist with this rebranding, we ask that you please review your literature and websites and change all references to EmPower NY and Assisted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® to EmPower+ by September 1, 2023. All marketing and promotional materials as well as forms with the Empower or Assisted Home Performance program names should stop being used by September 1, 2023, at the latest.
Please make sure to attend the July 7 Contractor webinar for additional EmPower+ information, the sign up information is below:
If you have any questions about this change, please contact your Account Manager.
To: Participating Comfort Home Contractors Regarding Programs: Comfort Home Pilot Program Summary: Market Rate Utility Release Form Contact:comforthome@nyserda.ny.gov
New Version of Comfort Home URF Released! The Comfort Home URF has been updated and all Assessments submitted on or after 7/10/23 will be required to submit using the new URF found on SharePoint in the Program Documents folder. Download the newest version (revision date of 5/30/23 in the lower left corner of page 2) and start implementing as soon as possible.
This new URF can be used in both market rate NYSERDA programs, Residential Energy Audits (REA) and Comfort Home.
To: Participating Comfort Home Contractors Regarding Programs: Comfort Home Pilot Program Summary: Coordinated Incentive Update – Westchester County Contact:comforthome@nyserda.ny.gov
NYSERDA is partnered with Consolidated Edison in Westchester county to make energy upgrades more affordable for homeowners. This partnership aims to increase customer demand for energy upgrades driving an increase in business for our participating contractor network. Together, Con Edison’s Residential Weatherization Program (Con Edison RWP) and NYSERDA’s Comfort Home Program will pilot deeper retrofit projects through expanded homeowner incentives.
Recently Con Edison Residential Weatherization Program put out an announcement that their program has increased incentives for their program in all Con Edison territory. This will not change the current incentives offered by NYSERDA in Westchester county. If a home does not meet the Con Edison Eligibility criteria (flow chart below) NYSERDA will continue to pay a $1,000 incentive in addition to standard Comfort Home package incentives.
NYSERDA is pleased to announce improvements to the “Find a Contractor Site” located at https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/ny/ahp-empower/Contractors. These improvements should be live at the time of this announcement or shortly thereafter. Historically, this site was updated at planned intervals, so there was a lag time between when a contractor notified the Program of changes to their contact information and when those changes were live on the website. Now, this site is directly connected to the NYSERDA Salesforce Program Partnership records, so any updates will immediately be seen on the website once Program staff has updated and saved the record. In addition, the Search feature has been expanded to include county served, which will surface contractors who serve a specific county and/or are located in specific county:
Contractors are asked to check their information on this website at regular intervals to ensure it is up to date. If a change is required, a case can be submitted to support.residential@nyserda.ny.gov with any requested updates.
Also as a clarification, the Find a Contractor site hosted by Uplight at https://nyserda.energysavvy.com/contractors/ is still searchable through browsers but is not considered an active NYSERDA website and contractors are not encouraged to use this. Over the upcoming months as the Program transitions from Uplight to the New York Home Energy Portal, this webpage will be decommissioned.
If there are any questions, please reach out to your account manager.
To: Participating Contractors and Vendors Regarding Programs: EmPower+ Summary: EmPower+ Launch Contact:Please reach out to your Account Manager
NYSERDA is announcing the launch of EmPower+ for Spring 2023 which will be the culmination of a years’ long effort to combine the EmPower NY and Assisted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® programs into one program with a single application, single set of processes and requirements, and a consistent incentive structure. The coordination of these programs began with the launch of the combined income-eligible customer application in July 2021, continued with the alignment of program processes in March 2022, and will finalize with a rebranding and launch of the NY Home Energy Portal on July 10, 2023. EmPower+ will be a seamless experience for all – customers, contractors, and community groups, with customers accessing difference incentive levels based on their income level.
The Program will function very similarly to the current state, with incentive levels for low- and moderate-income households at 100% and 50% respectively. However, this will all be under the EmPower+ umbrella. Customers who have recently applied under the Combined Application will not need to reapply once the switch to EmPower+ has been made.
Name Change
To help assist with this rebranding, we ask that you please review your literature, scripts and websites and change all references for EmPower NY and Assisted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR to EmPower+ by September 1, 2023. Please note the name is EmPower+, not EmPower Plus. If the use of + is prohibitive (such as within a software system), then the name EmPower should be used.
The URL for EmPower+ will be: nyserda.ny.gov/empower. Please review your materials and websites and make any necessary changes.
Retirement of EmPCalc
Over the past two years, processes and procedures have been changed to align EmPower and Assisted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR. With the official launch of EmPower+ and the NY Home Energy Portal, the use of the EmPCalc tool will be retired. All energy modeling and project submissions will be done within the NY Home Energy Portal. There will be no need to upload Excel documents to address versioning, as that will be done automatically within the new system.
Home Energy Assessments
The home energy assessment procedures and reports will align for customers across all income levels, and among the EmPower+ and Residential Energy Assessment Programs. All customers will receive a complete home energy assessment with a report that shows customers all opportunities for improvements in their homes, regardless of available incentives.
As previously announced, all staff who complete energy assessments must hold the proper certifications and submit that proof to the program.
Updates to Program Rules
Required minimum insulation levels required for heat pump installations will be aligned for Empower+, REA, and Comfort Home. Section 5.10 of the Program Manual will be updated with the table below:
Area Required
Insulation Level
1-4 Family Homes
Attic Gable Walls
R-14
Knee Walls
R-15
Attic Roof Deck
R-28 or Fill to Capacity
Attic Floors/Open Attic
R‐38 Average1 or Fill to Capacity
Attic Slope Ceilings
R-38 or Fill to Capacity
Attic Hatches
R‐20
Pull‐Down Stairs
R‐13
Walls
R-14 or Fill to Capacity
Rim Joist
R-14
Air Tightness
7 ACH2
Mobile Homes
Walls
R‐6
Attic
R‐24
Belly
R‐21
Air Tightness
12 ACH3
The 5% Assisted Home Performance contractor modeling incentive will end for projects submitted for completion after July 7, 2023, as the energy modeling process is being streamlined by being built into the new platform.
Home Performance with ENERGY STAR Name and Logo
The Department of Energy announced that the national Home Performance with ENERGY STAR Program is sunsetting in 2023. This change will not impact NYSERDA running the EmPower+ program and taking a building-science forward approach to energy efficiency and clean energy improvements. However, the use of the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR name and logo will end. NYSERDA is retiring this use with the launch of EmPower+. Contractors and partners who use this name and/or logo should cease to do so by the end of 2024.
As you communicate these changes with your staff and customers, please emphasize that, although the program names are changing, the customer experience should not change; NYSERDA is still dedicated to reducing energy usage for low- and moderate- income households.
If you have any questions about these changes, please contact your account manager.
