ENERGY EFFICIENCY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND RELIABLE ENERGY RESOURCE WE HAVE.

Services

SUSTAINABLE BUILDING DESIGN

STRATEGIC ADVISORY SERVICES

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

ENERGY CODES & STANDARDS

ENERGY MODELS

For nearly 40 years, Ecotope has been involved in the development of energy efficiency and renewable technologies as an energy resource in the Northwest. Throughout our history, we have remained committed to the original vision that energy efficiency and other demand side measures can provide the most reliable and cost-effective method to meet electric load growth.

Ecotope uses a thorough understanding of building science to develop cutting edge yet practical approaches to energy efficiency. Ecotope has been instrumental in the creation of a strong technical base to the region’s savings initiatives. We’ve evaluated many of the region’s significant conservation programs, including various heat pump applications, manufactured homes programs, and heat pump water heaters.

Our involvement with regional conservation plans, as well as extensive technical research and field auditing experience, has led to a thorough understanding of building systems and their interactions. This principled and focused approach has resulted in some of the most important and ground breaking research and evaluation techniques used in the Northwest, including:

 

  • Implementation of residential supply curves for the first Northwest Power Plan.
  • Development of the duct efficiency model for the Performance Tested Comfort Systems program.
  • Design and implementation of an innovative approach to characterizing new commercial buildings to evaluate code compliance and enforcement.
  • Development of the regional residential analysis tool (SEEM). This tool is used to assess measure savings for a variety of residential programs including duct sealing, EStar new construction, and residential weatherization. Ecotope uses SEEM in conjunction with standard regional cost-effectiveness tools such as ProCost.
  • Design and implementation of a multi-tiered engineering, statistical, and performance-based evaluation of ductless heat pumps.
  • Design of an innovative sampling approach to characterize the single-family, manufactured homes, and multifamily homes across the Northwest (Residential Building Stock Assessment) resulting in comprehensive summaries and databases describing the residential sector.
  • Design of high performance commercial and multifamily buildings that have been nationally and internationally recognized as examples and demonstrations of integrated efficiency design.