New WHPA Committees are Off and Running

More than 50 HVAC industry participants attended the HVAC in Whole Building Performance Committee kickoff meeting June 14 in San Diego.

A high standard was set in 2010 with some significant contributions by WHPA Committees. The Compliance Committee’s success in simplifying statewide HVAC permitting forms has supported expanded HVAC contractor code compliance in California. The work of the Commercial Quality Maintenance Subcommittee provided detailed input to the new utility HVAC quality maintenance program now being offered to commercial customers. Several Committees and members contributed to the June 2011 HVAC Action Plan (see HVAC ACTION PLAN story below).

The HVAC in Whole Building Performance Committee is an example of a newly-formed Committee, just established in June 2011. Under the chairmanship of Jeremy Reefe (San Diego Gas & Electric) of the statewide Investor-Owned Utility HVAC team, the Committee was launched in an onsite meeting on June 14 at the California Center for Sustainable Energy in San Diego. Fifty-one people attended in person, and another 12 participated by teleconference. The Committee is now accepting members for five Subcommittees.

Many new committees are now forming and most are accepting members (see SEEKING YOUR PARTICIPATION in this issue). The goal of each Committee is to have broad representation from many of the 19 industry stakeholder categories, in order to provide broad guidance on industry issues. At the choice of the members, most Committees meet every four to six weeks for an hour to an hour and a half, with Subcommittees and Working Groups working as needed.

Seeking Your Participation

WHPA members are meeting
and sharing industry insights.
Here is a list of committees and subcommittees that are active and seeking new members:

Compliance Committee

• Permitting Subcommittee
• 2013 Standards Subcommittee
• Compliance Subcommittee
• Enforcement Subcommittee

HVAC QI/QM Committee

• Commercial QM Subcommittee
• Commercial QI Subcommittee
• Residential QM Subcommittee
• Residential QI Subcommittee
• HVAC WE & T Subcommittee

HVAC in Whole Building Performance Committee

• Technology and Design Subcommittee
• Design Standards Subcommittee
• Education Subcommittee
• Building Codes Subcommittee
• Design Competitions Subcommittee

Advanced Technology Committee

• Climate Optimized Building Codes and Equipment Subcommittee
• Market Adoption Subcommittee
• Fault Detection and Diagnostics Subcommittee

Marketing Committee

Administrative Committee

HVAC Action Plan
Recognizes WHPA Leadership

The HVAC Action Plan is designed to help California's HVAC sector achieve the goals described in the California Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan.

The WHPA was recognized as a significant contributor to the development of the HVAC Action Plan. Of the 34 “champions” identified to help transform California’s use of energy in the HVAC sector, 30 are affiliated with organizations that are members of the WHPA.

Mark Cherniack, who is staff to the WHPA and who helped draft the Action Plan, said "The HVAC sector is leading the other industries, including lighting, in meeting the milestones outlined in the Action Plan. The fact that the industry formed the WHPA in 2009 provided an experienced, cohesive base to support the development of the HVAC Action Plan.”

The Western HVAC Performance Alliance was prominently mentioned in two June articles of leading industry publications.

The cover story of the June issue of Indoor Comfort News was titled “Contractors Say ‘Yes’ to Calif. Utilities HVAC QM Programs. The article stated “WHPA has held numerous committee meetings and worked with the IOUs and the CPUC to formulate and execute the California HVAC Action Plan.“

Contracting Business ran a column, “California Is Getting It Right!” by Dominic Guarino, Chairman and CEO of National Comfort Institute in the June issue. The thought-provoking article included his acknowledgement of “a group of hard working individuals in California (who) formed the Western HVAC Performance Alliance… the group has a good representation by a cross-section of our industry.”

It went on to state “The WHPA helped develop the (California utility) programs with involvement from HVAC technicians and contractors, and property managers with the goal of providing value to customers and to contractors.” CLICK HERE for article.

Check out the WHPA Website

PerformanceAlliance.org is constantly updated to provide the most current information for our members.

Visit our 2011 HVAC Events page to see the upcoming conferences.

You can also see a list of all organizations that are WHPA members by viewing the Member List.

Our Library has important documents such as CA State Energy Efficiency Information and Southern California Edison Incentive Calculators.

Today’s top headline: “Southern California Edison Quality Maintenance Programs are open for business” (June 27, 2011)

The Western HVAC Performance Alliance was established in 2009. More than 80 organizations in 19 stakeholder categories are working together to help transform from the residential and small commercial HVAC industry to ensure that technology, equipment, installation and maintenance are of the highest quality to promote energy efficiency and peak load reduction. In this role the WHPA provides input to California Investor-Owned Utilities. For more information, contact info@performancealliance.org.