Program/s: EmPower+, Residential Energy Assessments, Comfort Home To: Participating Contractors Summary: Monthly Contractor Update Contact with Questions: Empower.residential@nyserda.ny.gov
NYSERDA Single Family Programs Update Friday, October 4, 2024 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. ET Webinar number: 2534 351 3591 Event password: Energy 1
All attendees must register prior to joining the event. This process will allow you to add the meeting to your calendar and provides each individual with a custom link to join the meeting. Please do not share your link with anyone. To register, please click here.
All webinars are recorded and links to the recordings are available on the Contractor Support site.
To: Residential Contractors From: Residential Financing Team Programs: EmPower+, Comfort Home, Residential Energy Assessment Program Summary: GJGNY Residential Financing – Interest Rate Changes Questions: residential.financing@nyserda.ny.gov
Dear Participating Contractors:
NYSERDA will be making the following updates to the GJGNY Financing Program’s interest rates to support the program’s objectives of increasing efficiency, reducing cost, and making GJGNY residential loans more accessible to low-income households and disadvantaged communities.
1) Change eligibility for the lower rates to only customers that meet the New York State Disadvantaged Community Criteria or reside in a US Census Block Group identified as where 50% or more of the population of the group has a household income of less than or equal to 80% Area Median Income (AMI) (“Designated Areas”). Customers living outside these Designated Areas, and who can provide household income documentation to show their household income is less than or equal to 80% AMI, would also be eligible for the lower rates. Customers not in a Designated Area or unable to show household income of lower or equal to 80% AMI would only be eligible for the higher interest rates. NYSERDA will update the web based geographic eligibility map to reflect this change. We anticipate this update to be completed by November 1, 2024.
2) Recalibrate interest rates to better reflect market conditions. Interest rates for customers within a Designated Area or with household income of less than or equal to 80% AMI will increase from 3.99% to 4.5%, with the option of a 0.5% discount for Smart Energy Loans (SEL) when using automatic payments (ACH). Similarly, for customers outside of Designated Area or with household income greater than 80% AMI, interest rates will increase from 7.49% to 8.00%, with the option of a 0.5% discount for SEL when using ACH.
3) Remove the 0.5% interest rate discount for On-Bill Recovery (OBR) loans. OBR loans have several fees associated with filing documents and title searches, which up until now had been paid by the Program. To date, the Program has incurred fee expenses of over $6.7 million. Removing the 0.5% discount will allow GJGNY to offset some of these expenses and fund additional loans.
These changes will come into effect on November 1, 2024, and will apply to all loan applications received on or after this date.
New Rates Effective for Applications Received On or After November 1, 2024
Some contractors are experiencing an error message when contacting the Contractor Support phone line as a participating contractor. This is being worked on and updates will be posted as they become available. As a temporary workaround for calling the support line, please select the either approved or past customer IVR option (option 2 when calling 800-284-9069).
Other communication channels are unaffected: Contractors may submit a case by emailing support.residential@nyserda.ny.gov, clicking the ‘Submit a Case’ button on the homepage of the contractor support website, or start a messaging session using the Chat bubble on the bottom right of the contractor support website’s homepage. Thank you for your continued support and patience.
Program/s: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: Building Airflow Standard Calculator Questions: Please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.
In response to a recent suggestion from a program contractor, for EmPower+ Contractors using the Comfort Home Building Airflow Standard Calculator, an ACH50 calculation has been added to the tool. The inputs remain the same as the prior version; however, the calculated values now include the number of air changes per hour at 50 pascals. We hope that you find this addition helpful. A copy of the tool can be found on the contractor support site, in Section 8 of the Program Manual.
Programs: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: Heat Pump Project Requirement Changes Questions: Please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.
Section 5.10 of the EmPower+ Program Manual has been updated to provide additional clarification on the project requirements for heat pump projects. Participating Contractors installing heat pumps should review the updated guidance in its entirety. A summary of the significant changes is provided below.
Manual D is only required if substantial (50%) new duct work is installed
Drawings of the house should be accurate enough for verifying the Manual J but, exact window locations don’t need to be shown- only sq/ft and type per side. Room by Room or block drawings are acceptable. Location of heat pumps are required at final project submission.
The proposed heat pump system may include use of a supplemental heating source to reach 100% of the building heating load. Supplemental heat sources may be designed to provide up to 20% of peak heating load up to 5kw or equivalent supplemental.
Customer attestations will be allowed when delivered fuel bills are not available.
Photos requiring the location of the heat pumps are not required until final project submission.
CLEAResult is now reviewing to these standards. They will be reaching out to contractors who have had projects returned more than once to assist with project submittal. They are also working up a list of common roadblocks that they are seeing and will distribute to contractors.
If there are any questions, please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.