As 2021 comes to a close, the RTF is already looking forward and preparing for next year. Staff and members have been busy approving a new work plan, releasing 6 new requests for proposal to support that work plan, setting 2022 meeting dates, and preparing to welcome and onboard a new class of RTF members.

The third quarter of the year has wrapped up and the RTF has been hard at work throughout. Members in the third and final year of their service term spent the summer developing some new HVAC measures, exploring new avenues for the RTF to provide value outside of measure level guidance, scoped new measures to add to the measure portfolio, and helped plan for 2022. You can stay up to date on all RTF decision and news as it happens through the RTF website which is updated throughout the quarter.

Read here for an update on the RTF's 2021 Q2 happenings!

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 10 - The Northwest Power and Conservation Council is soliciting applications for appointments to its Regional Technical Forum to serve three year terms beginning January 2022 and running through December 2024. More info...

Every spring the RTF publishes an annual report recounting its accomplishments over the past year. While 2020 was a difficult year for us all, the RTF was still able to stick to their work plan and get a lot done. The following report details those accomplishments. The full report is available at the link below.

2021 started with a bang as the RTF continued to work hard updating and developing measures, providing technical support to Council Staff as they close in on releasing the 2021 plan, and aiding the region’s EE programs with the best available data and analysis.  Meetings have remained all virtual and despite missing the energy and camaraderie of a full room, members have stayed productive and engaged.  The quarter has been all about heat pump water heaters, with major changes to some of the previously adopted residential HPWH measure applications and discussions spanning many subcommittee meetings and two RTF meetings. This …

In January of 2021 RTF staff made available a white paper summarizing the energy impacts of installation practices on single-speed air-source heat pumps installed in residences in the Pacific Northwest Region. The goal of the paper was to provide a technical explanation of the impact of installation practice to help identify promising directions for program evolution. It was written with energy efficiency program operators in mind with the energy impacts presented as recommendations for consideration in program designs.

As the final quarter of a challenging year wraps up, we are left to reflect on all of the work the RTF has accomplished as a group in spite of the barriers and complications 2020 has thrown at us. The fourth quarter of 2020 was as productive as the three that preceded it, the RTF approved its first gas only measure, spent some time revisiting the many moving parts of the new homes standard protocol, made regularly scheduled updates to the RTF guidelines, and spent the last meeting of the year focused on residential washers and dryers. We can’t know …