Rachel White
CEO, Byggmeister Design Build
Age: 46
Industry experience: 11 years
In a decade, Rachel White went from a customer of Newton-based design-build firm Byggmeister to its CEO. White, whose background includes a Ph.D. in religious studies, hired the firm for a home remodeling project and became more interested in sustainability issues. She began consulting for the company before joining it full-time as a project manager. White was named CEO in 2018 as founder Paul Eldrenkamp prepares to retire in 2021, when Byggmeister will transition to an employee-owned company.
Q: What’s Byggmeister’s history and business model?
A: Byggmeister has been in business for 37 years. We’ve always been based in Newton and we do single-family and small multifamily projects, no new construction other than an occasional addition. The focus of our work has long been in improving the performance, the comfort, the efficiency and the durability of the homes that we work on. Increasingly over the past couple of years, our projects have been incorporating electrification. We’ve been moving toward heat pumps for heating and hot water, [and] induction for cooking, and moving away from oil and gas in buildings.
Q: What does one of Byggmeister’s total energy audits entail?
A: One of the first steps is to do a thorough assessment of the house and existing conditions. You do a blower test to identify air leaks, thermal imaging with an infrared camera to see where there’s missing insulation, look at the conditions of the existing equipment and look at the utility bills. Based upon that assessment, and the condition of the windows, siding and roof to we would start to develop options for improvements.
Q: What are the most popular green building features for your clients?
A: There’s growing awareness of the efficiency of heat pumps for heating in our climate. Until a few years ago, heat pump technology was not designed to work in cold climates. You often hear people say, “Heat pumps don’t work when it’s below 30 degrees.” The technology has improved dramatically. There’s equipment that is specifically designed for our climate, where the equipment can operate down to minus 15 degrees. It may lose efficiency, but it can still operate and provide heat.
People are increasingly becoming aware of induction cooking and its benefits. Even three or four years ago, induction cooking was still pretty novel and people doing kitchen renovations didn’t know about it. There’s still plenty of people who say, “I want to cook on gas,” and there are a variety of reasons for that. But as it penetrates the market, there’s just a higher level of comfort in at least exploring it.
Q: What are your customers’ primary goals when they hire Byggmeister for a project?
A: People increasingly understand that electrification of buildings is critical to achieve our climate change goals. We tend to work with people who are knowledgeable about climate change issues. It’s not just a marketing term. It has real roots in a policy consensus. Some people don’t want to lock in place another fossil fuel system if its service life would be 20 or 25 years, but may become obsolete as pricing changes. Right now, natural gas is priced favorably to electricity, but I hope and suspect that will change.
Q: What government or utility company incentives are available for this type of project?
A: The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources for a couple of years has been running the Home MVP [Market Value Performance] program. The incentives are structured very favorably toward heat pump technology as opposed to gas or oil systems. That has to do with the fact that heat pump systems are so much more efficient. The program pays for energy savings, based on every unit of energy that the project is estimated to save, and there’s modeling software that we’re required to use and a dollar value attached to that. We have seen incentives that range from $2,000 or more on modest retrofits, and for a whole house heat pump conversion, the incentive has been upwards of $10,000. It might save 10 percent of the upfront costs.
Q: What’s the payback period for that type of conversion?
A: A very long time. And the operating costs when you convert from natural gas to electricity can actually go up slightly on an annual basis. When people are doing a whole house conversion from natural gas to electricity, we tell them they should expect costs will go up slightly until there are changes in how energy is produced. But nobody ever asks that question when they update their kitchen unless they are turning around to sell the project.
Q: What about upfront costs?
A: I’d want to compare the upfront cost to gas with air conditioning. Heat pumps provide heating and cooling. If you’re considering either heat pumps or a gas boiler or furnace plus central area, the upfront costs are going to be pretty comparable. If you already have central air and are just replacing the furniture or boiler, the cost of going to heat pumps would be more expensive. It often makes the most sense to do these upgrades when the equipment is at the end of its service life.
Q: Has Byggmeister gotten more inquiries from residents in Brookline following the recent passage of the bylaw to ban natural gas hookups for new construction and gut renovations?
A: There’s been no immediate impact on our practice. The bylaw specifies you have to renovate more than 75 percent of the floor area of the house before that project would be subject to the ban on new gas hookups. One of the messages I try to leave people with is there are many more homes that are suitable for electrification than would be covered under the new Brookline bylaw.
White’s Favorite Contemporary Novels
- “Gilead,” by Marilyn Robinson
- “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy
- “The Orphan Master’s Son,” by Adam Johnson
- “On Such a Full Sea,” by Chang-Rae Lee
- “Olive Kitteridge,” by Elizabeth Strout
