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Affordable Housing Energy Performance Standards 2022    Building and Sustainability Standards Affordable Housing with Significant City Funding The City of Northampton aims to support affordable housing, reduce on-going utility costs for affordable housing providers and residents, and achieve community-wide net carbon neutrality by 2050 (city operations carbon neutrality by 2030). As part of these efforts, the City has created minimum standards for affordable housing projects which include significant City support. This support comes in the form of CDBG funding, CPA funding, short term rental fee funding, Tax Increment Financing, donation or bargain sale of surplus city land, conservation limited development projects, City obtaining state grants that support affordable housing (e.g., MassWorks and Housing Choice), and new zoning density incentives. These standards will not automatically apply for projects with small City contributions (e.g., housing rehabilitation or soft second affordable housing mortgages). The standards will also be adjusted for unique circumstances, such as rehabilitation of existing buildings where some of the performance standards are not practical. HERS ratings do not represent a linear relationship between energy savings and effort or expense. It is much harder to go from HERS 50 to 45 than from 55 to 50. However the difference in energy savings from 55 to 50 is larger than going from 50 to 45. On top of that, there is a small house penalty that makes it harder to get a lower HERS rating that with a large house, and yet a smaller house still inherently has a smaller carbon footprint than a larger home. DOE’s ZERH program has a more lenient HERS rating requirement, but does end up with a house that, at least in theory, can have energy bills that net out to zero dollars. For a lower income person, this is a big benefit. If the least cost way to achieve this is a ZERH, then we think this should remain an option. One benefit to using the ZERH standard is that we can count on DOE to revise it as technology and other standards change. -See detailed standards on the next page.     New Construction Standards (will be adjusted for rehabilitation projects) 1 to 3-Family Homes Multi-Family Multi-family ≤1,500 sq ft >1,500 sq ft ≤600 sq ft >600 sq ft For all Projects: Minimum wall insulation R30 R30 R30 R30 Minimum attic insulation R60 R60 R60 R60 Minimum Foundation walls/slab, lowest floor 1 R20 R20 R20 R20 Minimum lowest floor if on piers R30 R40 R30 R40 No fossil fuels for heating and indoor appliances. YES YES YES YES No fossil fuels for water heating YES YES See below See below 90th percentile DHW demand must be satisfied by non-fossil fuel equipment. Fossil fuel equipment may be used to meet the remaining peak demand above the 90th percentile. N/A N/A YES YES IPMAO Water Demand Calculator may be used for water demand sizing in lieu of sizing methods from the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) and the International Plumbing Code (IPC). N/A N/A YES YES Must meet Energy Star, Building Code, Energy Stretch Code, Health Code in effect when built YES YES YES IF site is solar suitable then DOE Zero Energy Ready Home YES YES YES YES IF site is not solar suitable (shading, roof, orientation), then Maximum HERS rating 50 HERS 42 HERS 45 HERS 40 HERS 1. Where foundation walls and slab are insulated, insulation combined with interstitial materials should sum to R20 regardless  of orientation (see, for example, the sketch below).