RTF Quarterly Newsletter: Quarter No. 46 October-December 2021

In the fourth quarter of 2021 the RTF approved a number of new measures of interest to the region. In November 2019, the three new measures outlined below were suggested by the region and approved for further scoping and eventual development. All three measures were developed primarily by outside contractors who were able to step in, with support from the usual contract analyst team, and get these measures built and available to the region. This allowed the CATs and RTF staff focused on some longer-term projects. We’re grateful to the contractors who helped produce these measures and present them to the RTF so they can be useable resources for the regional actors.

Door Sweeps are a strip of flexible material at the bottom of an exterior door to reduce air infiltration that saves energy by reducing heating/cooling losses by air sealing the gap under the door. The measure was adopted as a planning measure to apply a door sweep where none currently exist with delivery channels including direct install, mail by request and leave behind. The measure is considered planning as more research is needed for the savings to be considered reliable, specifically there remains significant uncertainty around ‘average’ door gap size or the effective useful life of a door sweep.

An Air Purifier or Air Cleaner is a portable, electric appliance that removes fine particles, such as dust and pollen, from indoor air. They clean air with either fibrous media air filers or electronic air cleaners. Energy savings come from a product that uses less energy to deliver an equivalent amount of clean air. The measure approved by the RTF is the purchase of a new ENERGY STAR certified portable room air purifier. This measure is also considered planning as more data is needed to better understand use patterns of the air purifier in order to improve the savings assumption.

The Timers for Water Coolers measure is to install a timer on a water cooler in commercial applications to turn off the cooler during unoccupied hours. The timer must be grounded, have a 7-day programmable scheduling capability, and be able to support the necessary amperage. This saves energy by reducing standby losses from water cooler cycling to keep cold or hot water ready to dispense. This measure is also considered planning as there remains uncertainty around a few key details that dictate savings. Namely, more data is needed around timer ‘off’ hours which is detailed in the accompanying research strategy.

Manufactured home duct sealing has a long history at the RTF and this quarter’s update saw significant changes to the measure. The primary update was the measure specification and delivery verification guidance were revised for a UES approach rather than the standard protocol format the measure had been in. Duct sealing is more complicated than a basic widget, and program design and administration have a significant affect on savings, which is why the RTF previously created a standard protocol for this measure. However, the savings potential is real and important to the region, so the RTF persisted and came up with this latest solution. This latest update moves the measure back to being a UES, while crossing a traditional UES boundary outlining delivery verification more thoroughly than a typical measure. The measure specifies that in order to get UES-able savings, programs need to achieve a high level of compliance with the specification, making job quality critical to reliable savings. The RTF approved an accompanying specification and delivery verification guidance document, found here for those interested, which provides a more thorough description of RTF direction.

In addition to the shift in structure and measure type, the savings for manufactured home duct sealing was also updated based on evaluations that best aligned with the new spec and a new research strategy was developed to continue to improve the measure and our understanding of these savings.

Residential Behavior Subcommittee—The Residential Behavior Subcommittee was convened to solicit feedback on a proposed draft of RTF Guidance for Evaluating Residential Behavioral Measures.

Connected Thermostats Subcommittee—The Connected Thermostat Subcommittee met to review the findings from NEEA’s recent research on correlation between billing data and thermostat metrics and discuss how the findings should be incorporated into the RTF’s Residential Connected Thermostat UES and Research Strategy

Implementers Group—The Implementers Group meets once a quarter to discuss the outcome of the RTF meetings, upcoming RTF meeting topics, and other topics that affect program implementers in the region.

Operations Subcommittee—The Operations subcommittee meets before each RTF meeting to review and discuss the RTF meeting agendas, decisions, and contracts.

Small & Rural Utilities Subcommittee—The Small/Rural Subcommittee meets once a quarter to discuss how to support the specific needs of small and rural utilities. At this quarter’s meeting the group discussed the Draft 2021 Power Plan efficiency target and its impact on cost-effectiveness.

• Adopted the Retrofit Doors on Existing Display Cases UES for remote condensing systems as presented. Set the Category to Planning, the Status to Active, and the Sunset Date to October 2024.
• Deactivated both the Residential and Commercial Advanced Power Strips UES measures.
• Extended the sunset date for the Commercial Secondary Glazing System UES measure to February 2022.
• Extended the sunset date for SF Duct Sealing UES to July 2022 and directed staff to review BPA, NEEA, and any other research sources.
• Extended the sunset date for Residential Connected Thermostats UES to January 2022.