How do the benefits and costs from the commercial Stretch Code standards compare to the baseline code?
Case studies of specific buildings by Massachusetts utility companies National Grid and NSTAR show that the savings in reduced energy costs far exceed the greater initial construction costs. If the costs are included in a mortgage, then owners would see immediate cash-flow savings. Moreover, the utilities offer generous incentives that make the efficiency improvements even more profitable. For example, on one mid-sized office building in Warwick, Rhode Island, the additional cost was $91,000, while the annual energy savings were $29,500, for a three year payback. But NGRID provided a rebate of $63,100, reducing the initial cost to $28,000, which is covered by the first year’s energy savings. More generally, we anticipate that any additional upfront costs incurred in construction should be recovered from energy savings with a payback after rebates of less than three years.
