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ENERGY STAR®, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
program, helps us all save money and protect our environment
through energy efficient products and practices. For more
information, visit www.energystar.gov.

December 1, 2010
EPA is excited about the excellent dialogue and feedback that is being generated as we continue to engage with program
partners across the country in preparation for the launch of the new ENERGY STAR for Homes guidelines. In response to this
feedback, EPA is issuing updates to several important implementation details for the new ENERGY STAR for Homes guidelines
that were scheduled to become effective at the beginning of 2011 (i.e., Version 2.5).
First, EPA is delaying the implementation date for the v2.5 guidelines by three months. This change impacts the implementation
timeline in several key ways:
1)	Single family homes that are permitted before April 1, 2011 can continue to be qualified under the current v2 guidelines
until July 1, 2011 (previously, this applied only to single family homes permitted before January 1, 2011);
2)	Condos and apartments in multi-family buildings that are permitted before April 1, 2011 can continue to be qualified
under the current v2 guidelines until January 1, 2012 (previously, this applied only to units in multi-family buildings
permitted before January 1, 2011); and
3)	All homes both permitted and completed between April 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011 must be qualified using the new
v2.5 guidelines (previously, this applied to homes permitted and completed between January 1, 2011 and December 31,
2011).
Further, EPA is expanding the application of the term 'permitted by' in determining which version of the guidelines a home must
be built to earn the label. Specifically, in recognition of common practice to not pull permits until after a home is sold, the home's
signed contract date will be considered equivalent to the permit date.
Additionally, EPA is introducing a v2.5 transition period for multifamily homes that are financed through low-income housing
agencies. All multi-family homes financed through low-income housing agencies may earn the ENERGY STAR under the last
iteration of the guidelines, Version 2, until January 1, 2013 as long as the application for funding for those homes was received by
the low-income housing agency before April 1, 2011. If the application for funding is received between April 1, 2011 and
December 31, 2011, then the homes must earn the ENERGY STAR under the Version 2.5 guidelines if completed before January
1, 2012, and under the Version 3 guidelines if completed after January 1, 2012. If the application for funding is received on or
after January 1, 2012 then the homes must earn the ENERGY STAR underthe Version 3.0 guidelines.
Finally, to accommodate growing partner concerns about the impact of basement square footage on the ENERGY STAR HERS
Index Target when the Size Adjustment Factor is applied, EPA has decided that basement areas, whether finished or not, shall
not be counted as conditioned space for the purpose of determining a home's Size Adjustment Factor. To quality for this
exemption, basements must have at least half of the wail area from floor to underside of ceiling framing below grade. Note that
this exemption is only for the purposes of determining a home's Size Adjustment Factor. It does not affect the Conditioned Floor
Area as defined by RESNET and used in the course of rating a home or determining maximum allowable duct leakage.
EPA is continuing to revise the v3 guidelines in response to partner questions and evolving standards and expects to issue
Revision 02 in early 2011. Thereafter, it is expected that the guidelines will not be updated more frequently than every three
months and that after a year of implementation, the updates will slow to every six months. EPA will specify an adoption timeline
for each revision to allow partners time to implement them. With each new release of the guidelines, partners will be notified by
email, and the revised program documents, along with a version tracking document, will be posted to the EPA Website at
www, enerqystar. qov/homes.
We appreciate our partners' patience as we move into the final phase of implementing these very important changes to the
program. If you have any questions regarding the changes above, please contact us atenerqystarhomes@enerqystar.gov.
For more information, visit: www.enerqystar.gov

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