Portland Energy Efficiency Home Pilot- Program Overview

The Portland Energy Efficient Home Pilot (PEEHP), a public/private partnership administrated by the City of Portland, was a competitive grant program established in 2009 to support energy efficient home construction. The PEEHP leveraged $113,000 in grant funds to facilitate residential builders to use energy saving measures in 14 new homes. The program helped participating builders accelerate their adoption of higher efficiency standards for future projects in preparation for more stringent energy code requirements that took effect in 2011.

The PEEHP is a model of collaboration among City, industry, and utility partners to respond to concerns about proposed green building policy in the City of Portland. The program was sponsored by the City of Portland’s Bureau of Development Services, Energy Trust of Oregon, Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland, the National Association of Home Builders, as well as utility companies, including NW Natural, Pacific Power, and Portland General Electric.

The grant provided technical guidance and funding for infill housing developers, including Habitat for Humanity, Terrafirma Building Inc., and Fish Construction NW. The participating builders were required to build a minimum of two new homes to exceed the energy efficiency standards of the 2008 Oregon Residential Energy Code. Energy modeling software was used to assess the house plans and determine methods to increase the efficiency of each project by 15% and 30%. At completion, homes were tested to verify that the selected efficiency measures achieved the program goals.

The PEEHP has captured real cost and feasibility data for constructing energy efficient single and multi-family houses. Grant recipients reported on the actual costs incurred, as well as successes and challenges they experienced during the process of implementation. The details of each project are captured in several case studies that are available on this web site.