Effective for all applications submitted on or after February 1st,
All homes submitted into the RNC Program, regardless of whole-house or equipment only, must be 3 stories or less. Anything greater than 3 stories is considered a commercial building and, is under no exceptions, eligible to be submitted into the Program. This is to align with the North Carolina Building Code.
All applications must be submitted through Ekotrope. Previously the Program allowed for bulk submissions got equipment-only applications. Going forward all applications must be submitted directly through Ekotrope, with an individual application for each address / being submitted.
Read MoreThanks to all builder and rater participants, 2023 was the highest energy savings Program Year to date!
Check out some of the 2023 Program highlights in this article.
Read MoreIn following with the Department of Energy (DOE) national regulation update on HVAC systems effective in 2023, Ekotrope is updating the Duke Energy HERO Program to allow for SEER / SEER2, EER / EER2, and HSPF / HSPF2 inputs. There will also be the following changes made to the Duke Energy HERO Program reference home:
Starting May 1, 2023 for homes permitted on or after January 1, 2023:
The reference home will be set to 15 SEER (or SEER2 equivalent).
Exception: If the proposed home is less than 15 SEER, the reference SEER equals the proposed SEER (or SEER2 equivalent).
Check out this technical bulletin on the National SEER Change Summary.
Post Updated on 12/14/2022 to add the permit date of January 1, 2023.
Read MoreThe Executive Order issued by North Carolina Governor Cooper (Page 46, section 20.10) reducing the duct insulation requirement in unconditioned spaces from R-8 to R-4.2 in the North Carolina Building code is now live for savings impacts on Program homes. Homes with R-4.2 duct insulation have been eligible for RNC Program submissions in Ekotrope since March, but the savings calculations are now live to set the North Carolina reference home to R-4.2, from R-8. When using the Ekotrope Quick Analysis pane and Ekotrope Projected Reports there is an option for Permitted after 1/1/2022 which will show the updated energy savings as a result of this change.
Read MoreAs PV systems become more prevalent in the marketplace we want to remind you the Duke Energy RNC Program policy.
Homes in the Program are required to be individually metered and billed under a residential rate schedule. Homes that have solar photovoltaics (PV) installed around the time of the build could be master metered, (where multiple units of a multifamily building, townhome, or duplex are all under one meter) and billed as non-residential/commercial account. Builders are responsible for confirming with Duke Energy at the time the account is set up if the address will be residential and individually metered in the homeowner’s name. If raters are aware the home will have PV, it is recommended the builder confirm how the account will be set-up with Duke Energy prior to testing and submitting the home.
Read MoreAfter an extensive evaluation, the Duke Energy Progress(DEP) Residential New Construction (RNC) Program is ready to expand to all Duke Energy jurisdictions in North Carolina which includes Duke Energy Carolinas(DEC). We greatly appreciate your patience while the required due diligence has been carried out.
This News article describes the timeline of the expansion and provides DEC RNC incentives.
Read MoreMap of the Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress service territories.
Read MoreThe Duke Energy RNC Program will be temporarily modifying the minimum required duct insulation in response to the Executive Order issued by North Carolina Governor Cooper (page 46, section 20.10) reducing the duct insulation requirement in unconditioned spaces from R-8 to R-4.2 in the North Carolina building code.
If the temporary order expires, the RNC Program will default back to the North Carolina building code for duct insulation requirements. This change will go live in Ekotrope in the coming weeks. The RNC Program team will provide updates as they become available.
Due to the complexity of calculations determining whether homes qualify for incentives in the RNC Program, participating builders should check with their Home Energy Raters when making specification changes to homes to ensure they still qualify in the Program, and to determine incentive impacts.
Read MoreUpdated on 4/27/22
The Duke Energy RNC Program will begin capturing savings from HVAC grading in the coming weeks.
HVAC grading savings will be capped at 1,000 kWh per home system.
Homes must qualify for the full HERO+ HERS incentive category to receive incentives from HVAC grading.
The RNC Program team will provide updates as they become available surrounding the timeline in Ekotrope.
Read MoreEkotrope Version 4.0 will be mandatory for all homes in the Duke Energy RNC Program permitted on or after January 1, 2022 , per RESNET guidance. The RNC Program Team recommends all raters review their builders plans for potential impacts to program savings and compliance in the RNC Program prior to January 1st. The complete list of changes in Version 4.0 can be found on Ekotrope.com.
Read MoreThe Duke Energy RNC Program team will be hosting a rater webinar to overview the best practices with t-ply and housewrap and answer questions from raters. Please reach out to the RNC Program team for a link to the webinar.
Read MoreThe North Carolina Utilities Commission recently approved a North Carolina based utility program that incentivizes the installation of smart thermostats. The Duke Energy Progress(DEP) RNC Program also incentivizes builders for installing an Energy Star(ES) smart thermostat in participating homes. Effective May 17, 2021 participating homes in the RNC Program may receive incentive for ES smart thermostat from the DEP RNC Program or receive an incentive for a smart thermostat from other North Carolina based utilities, but not both.
Read MoreThe Duke Energy RNC Program team will be hosting a rater webinar to overview the HVAC Grading process in Ekotrope and answer questions from raters. Please reach out to the RNC Program team for a link to the webinar.
Read MoreThe new Standard 310 (Std. 310) provides a method for evaluating the installation quality of HVAC systems. Ekotrope currently has the HVAC grading system in Beta and plans to release the working version in April.
Read More
