This subcommittee is forming and currently recruiting new members. For more information, please email info@performancealliance.org.

The Milestones and Key Actions in the table below will help illuminate and guide the work of the Subcommittee. They are documented in the Whole-Building Design section of the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Action Plan. The Action Plan was developed with input from the Investor-Owned Utilities, the Western HVAC Performance Alliance, and other stakeholders to help California’s HVAC sector achieve the goals described in the California Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan published by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Strategy 3.5: Sponsor design competitions to encourage builders to design and build homes with net zero peak demand.

In many chapters of the Strategic Plan, competition and challenges are called for as tools to encourage leadership and innovation. As noted in the CEC’s staff report, the HVAC industry seeks to “design competitions help spur builder interest and…could help identify or test which ideas are most likely to gain home buyer acceptance.”  In addition, competitions, such as the Western Cooling Challenge described below, can provide additional pathways to reach out to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), not only to develop new equipment, also to support incubation of new technologies and encourage manufacturers to commercialize equipment. With innovation an essential component of Strategic Plan success, efforts to leverage competitions and prizes to encourage ZNE peak homes have been pursued since before 2010.