The City of Minneapolis is getting serious about implementing a Time of Sale Energy Disclosure, which would add information about energy efficiency to Truth-In-Sale of Housing (TISH) evaluation reports. The goal is for this information to be collected at the same time as the TISH evaluation, ideally by the same TISH evaluator.
Climate Action Plan
In 2013, the Minneapolis City Council adopted the City's Climate Action Plan. Part of that plan calls for a 15% increase in energy efficiency for residential buildings by 2025. To get there, there are several items listed to help achieve that goal, but the one that we're talking about today is the following:
So that's what's driving this whole thing. Minneapolis is committed to implementing a program that discloses information about energy use in buildings at the time that the building is offered for sale. The analogy I've heard is that we don't buy vehicles without MPG ratings, but we're perfectly accustomed to buying homes without energy ratings. The logical counterpoint to this argument, however, is that we're perfectly accustomed to buying used vehicles without MPG ratings.
Center for Energy and Environment
In 2016, I met with a representative from the Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) to hear more about this proposed program, and I expressed interest in being involved in the test program. CEE began rolling out the test program in 2017, starting with some meetings to explain the program.
We attended an information meeting on the program in 2017 and decided that we were not willing to participate in the pilot program. The pilot program required blower door testing and a bunch of data collection for $75 per home, which was not feasible for us. My company backed out of the program at that point, and I've heard little about it since.
In September of 2018, CEE published a document explaining how and why this whole program could work, titled TRANSFORMING THE MARKET FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN MINNEAPOLIS: Recommendations for Residential Energy Efficiency Rating and Disclosure.
Energy Disclosure Public Meeting
A public meeting was held on January 7th to discuss the details of these plans. Three energy disclosure policies were presented at this meeting; rental, multi-family, and time of sale / Truth in Housing. The only one to have any discussion was the part about Truth in Housing.
Holes in Walls
The Time of Sale energy disclosure program is a tough pill to swallow. The first challenge with the proposed program is that TISH evaluators would be required to drill a 2" hole in an exterior wall (from the inside) to determine the type and depth of insulation in the walls at the home. This detail has a LOT of potential problems. Here are a few: