{"id":2458835,"date":"2020-05-26T02:24:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T08:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/pitkin-county-targets-building-codes-in-effort-to-reduce-emissions\/"},"modified":"2020-05-26T02:24:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T08:24:00","slug":"pitkin-county-targets-building-codes-in-effort-to-reduce-emissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/pitkin-county-targets-building-codes-in-effort-to-reduce-emissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitkin County targets building codes in effort to reduce emissions"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/greenhouse-atd-052620-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/greenhouse-atd-052620-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/greenhouse-atd-052620-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/greenhouse-atd-052620-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/greenhouse-atd-052620-1536x1151.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/greenhouse-atd-052620-2048x1535.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>A home with a solar photovoltaic system in Snowmass Village. Residential construction in Pitkin County will soon be subject to stricter code requirements, including installing storage for large renewable energy systems.<\/strong><br \/><em>Elizabeth Stewart-Severy \/ Aspen Journalism<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The path to carbon neutral in Pitkin County leads through residential construction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Recent changes to Pitkin County\u2019s land-use and energy codes hold new and renovated residential buildings to strict efficiency standards that officials say will significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. But it is not clear by how much.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Last month, the Pitkin County board of county commissioners adopted the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) \u2014 a program to measure home efficiency \u2014 and set strict energy requirements that apply to new construction and remodels and additions over 1,000 square feet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Homeowners with large rooftop solar installations \u2014 those that produce 10 or more kilowatt hours (kWh) \u2014 must also install battery systems to store some of that power. It\u2019s a change that means both thousands of dollars in expenses and some energy independence for the homeowner, and could eventually allow Holy Cross Energy to use that energy when it\u2019s most needed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe\u2019re trying to come in line with climate action and be more responsible with our buildings,\u201d said Cindy Houben, director of community development for Pitkin County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Buildings account for 53% of greenhouse-gas emissions in Pitkin County, according to a 2017 greenhouse-gas inventory produced by the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE).<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">More-efficient buildings will mean fewer greenhouse-gas emissions, Houben said, but the county does not have projections about how much of a difference the new changes will make.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Brian Pawl, chief building official for Pitkin County, said he tried to work with CORE to come up with a model to predict changes, but it proved too difficult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to pinpoint what difference our changes will make,\u201d Pawl said. \u201cThe hopes would be to see it reflected in the amount of emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">He added that tracking emissions will be easier under the new code, since it uses the HERS index, an industry-standard score.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A typical home in the U.S. is rated 100 on the HERS 150-point index. The lower the score, the more efficient the home. Older, drafty homes fall closer to the top of the index, while newer homes tend to be better insulated, with lower HERS scores.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pitkin County will require that homes receive a score of 60 or lower, before on-site renewable energy lowers that score to 30 or lower. Pitkin County calls this effort Net-30, a play on net-zero, which is expected to be the county\u2019s requirement by 2030.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pawl estimates that there are between 15 and 20 new homes built each year in the county and potentially hundreds of remodels that will have to comply with the new requirements. A local study of sample new houses averaged a score of 58.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cA lot of where the current code is lacking is addressing existing inventory,\u201d Pawl said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Older buildings tend to suck more energy. Eventually, Pawl said, there will be enough turnover that most homes in the county meet current efficiency standards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">To move the needle on emissions from buildings, \u201cit\u2019s going to take decades,\u201d said CORE executive director Mona Newton. \u201cExisting building stock is a real challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pitkin County has long required that energy-intensive construction, including driveways with snowmelt systems, be offset with onsite renewable energy or payments to the Renewable Energy Mitigation Program. Now, the county also will require that homeowners with larger renewable systems \u2014 those that produce 10 or more kWh \u2014 install home batteries to store as much as 25% of that energy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pawl said it\u2019s hard to know how many homes might be affected by the new requirement, but it\u2019s likely that homes larger than 5,000 square feet or with extensive snowmelt systems would have to install storage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">When homeowners install rooftop solar systems, unless they choose to be off the grid with specialized technology, they remain on the grid and the energy produced on-site feeds back into the grid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The new storage requirement provides some independence and resilience to individual homeowners, and it also could eventually help Holy Cross Energy \u2014 which supplies most of the upper Roaring Fork River valley with electricity \u2014 to manage renewable energy during peak demand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201c(Holy Cross is) looking at ways for people to have storage at peak times so we don\u2019t have to build more infrastructure,\u201d Houben said. \u201cIf we\u2019re able to have storage and not have to build additional lines, then it\u2019s just better for the community in general.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The cost for the individual homeowners, however, will be significant. Home batteries cost thousands of dollars, and Pawl said the battery storage might, in some cases, cost nearly as much as the rooftop solar panels. But the long-term return on the investment should make it worth the upfront cost, he said, and homeowners will gain some independence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThat\u2019s the big future goal \u2014 is to be a little bit more resilient and have the ability to be independent,\u201d Pawl said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Also, he said, the current changes lay the groundwork for the county to require net-zero buildings by 2030. By then, technological improvements will make it easier to reduce or eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions from buildings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe\u2019ll hope that the industry\u2019s caught up,\u201d Pawl said, \u201cand there\u2019s better panels out there and better opportunities and better battery storage and those prices have come down and we can be even more creative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The new building requirements go into effect in late July.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">Aspen Journalism is a local, nonprofit and investigative news organization that collaborates with The Aspen Times and Aspen Public Radio on coverage of environmental issues. For more, go to <a id=\"N0x218ad40N0x230b710:N0x218ad40N0x22b2990\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspenjournalism.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">aspenjournalism.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/pitkin-county-targets-building-codes-in-effort-to-reduce-emissions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A home with a solar photovoltaic system in Snowmass Village. Residential construction in Pitkin County will soon be subject to stricter code requirements, including installing storage for large renewable energy systems.Elizabeth Stewart-Severy \/ Aspen Journalism The path to carbon neutral in Pitkin County leads through residential construction. Recent changes to Pitkin County\u2019s land-use and energy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2458835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 07:41:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}