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GJGNY Residential Financing – Interest Rate Changes

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To: Residential Contractors
From: Residential Financing Team
Programs: EmPower+, Comfort Home, Residential Energy Assessment Program
Summary: GJGNY Residential Financing – Interest Rate Changes
Questions: [email protected]

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
 SEL paid by ACHSEL paid by check & OBR
<=80% AMI and DAC4.00%4.50%
>80% AMI7.50%8.00%

Thank you,

NYSERDA’s Residential Financing Team

Contractor Support Line Outage

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 [email protected], 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.

Building Airflow Standard Calculator

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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.

Heat Pump Project Requirement Changes

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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.

Launching of Quality Home Contractor

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Program/s: EmPower+ Contractors
To: EmPower+ Contractors
Summary: Launching of Quality Home Contractor
Contact with Questions:  Amy Kasson-Muzio at [email protected]

Dear Stakeholders,

NYSERDA is in the process of establishing a Quality Home Contractor (QHC) designation aimed at highlighting exemplary performance among Single Family Residential EmPower+ participating contractors.

The Quality Home Contractor designation will help New Yorkers during the contractor search and selection process, by identifying EmPower+ contractors who consistently achieve high standards of quality. The designation will help lessen the search and selection burden on customers and lend confidence that the job will be well-done when a QHC is chosen. The designation will also help contractors to differentiate themselves by the quality of their work.

Eligibility criteria for determining which contractors will receive NYSERDA’s QHC designation are:

  • Must be an active full status EmPower+ contractor,
  • Must complete at least 12 full comprehensive projects within the past calendar year (2024 for the initial designation), and
  • Must have at least a 4.0 (no rounding up) average in-field inspection QA score for the past calendar year.
  • Must not have been on any disciplinary action, either probation or suspension, within the past calendar year. 

The designation will be valid for one calendar year and will be re-evaluated annually using the same criteria. 

Contractors that meet the eligibility criteria will be identified on NYSERDA platforms (e.g., website) and listed as a NYSERDA Quality Home Contractor. These contractors will also be provided with a NYSERDA Quality Home Contractorlabel/logo to use in their own marketing and customer communications as a third-party differentiator and validation of their work quality.

With the addition of the QHC designation, we do not anticipate any other changes to the Quality Assurance inspection guidelines within the overarching Quality Assurance program for EmPower+. 

Sincerely,

The Quality and Market Standards Team