What the Department of Energy's Home Energy Scoring Program Means for InterNACHI Inspectors

July 2010

InterNACHI, the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, Inc., with more than 7,000 certified property inspector-members in the U.S. alone, is getting ready to nationally promote and adopt U.S. Department of Energy’s Home Energy Scoring Program.

By fully integrating the Home Energy Scoring Program into their business models, home inspectors will save America and the environment at the same time.

Scoring Points for Energy Efficiency

Initially launched in November 2010, the DOE's Home Energy Scoring Program is aimed at “…giving American families the tools they need to invest in home energy upgrades,” according to Vice President Joe Biden. The program’s ultimate goals include putting less demand on public utilities and natural resources, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and helping homeowners save money on their energy bills and decrease their carbon footprint, which will potentially make them eligible for discounts on home supplies and even insurance coverage.

The Score's pilot program will conclude in Fall 2011. The Home Energy Score will be widely available to homeowners nationally when it rolls out in early 2012.

How the Score Will Benefit Homeowners

The Home Energy Score will be a quick way for homeowners to understand how their home's energy performance compares to that of others in the same region. And, the Home Energy Score will be more than just a simple number or label. Along with the score will come customized recommendations for simple energy upgrades, intensive energy audits, as well as an estimate of how much energy improvements can reduce the homeowner's utility bills.

InterNACHI's Energy Inspection Report

In order for over 7,000 home inspectors to get ready, InterNACHI will be launching a new inspection program, the InterNACHI Energy Inspection Report™ (EIR™) Training and Certification Program, to train and certify inspectors to perform Energy Inspections (or clipboard, non-diagnostic home energy inspections). Home inspectors who wish to perform home energy audits and surveys must successfully complete qualifying training.

Calculator Tool

InterNACHI will provide all qualified inspectors access to a software tool that will be used to produce Energy Rating reports. In February, InterNACHI received a full license to develop its own residential energy calculator based on the DOE's Home Energy Saver tool. The Home Energy Saver (HES) is a web-based, residential energy calculator developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Training

Working in cooperation with approved training providers of The InterNACHI School, InterNACHI will provide its members with free education and training as part of its new InterNACHI Energy Rating™ Training and Certification Program, both online – for off-hours convenience – and field-based – for indispensable hands-on experience. InterNACHI's new training program is currently under DOE review. Once complete InterNACHI will make another announcement and open enrollment to its members to begin their free training.

Secure Certificate

To help prevent defrauding the U.S. DOE, home buyers, home sellers, REALTORS®, and financial institutions, InterNACHI has developed a ‘Secure Certificate’ for our Energy Rating. Our ‘Secure Certificate’ contains security measures, including Fourdrinier watermark paper, visible and invisible fibers, extended stains indicators, tonefuse, prismatic background, microline borders, thermochromic ink, hologram images, unique ID numbers, and QR codes. All Energy Ratings generated through InterNACHI’s web-based HES Tool system will be secure, verifiable and backed-up.

See the Certificate

The combination of InterNACHI’s calculator tool, training and certificate will fully equip InterNACHI inspectors to perform InterNACHI Energy Ratings while the DOE’s Home Energy Scoring Program is currently being piloted and developed.

InterNACHI Code of Ethics Protects the Consumer

An inspector's credibility is built upon on a Code of Ethics that protects the consumer.

InterNACHI-certified inspectors earn trust and credibility from homeowners every day. InterNACHI’s Code of Ethics prevents member-inspectors from performing any repairs to the structure for which the inspector has prepared a home inspection report.

Section I. Duty to the Public: The InterNACHI member shall not perform or offer to perform, for an additional fee, any repairs or repair-associated services to the structure for which the member or member's company has prepared a home inspection report for a period of 12 months.

There are Codes of Ethics of nationally recognized accreditation organizations that actually allow a conflict of interest to exist during an inspection process. Fortunately, InterNACHI's Code of Ethics exists, too. InterNACHI inspectors are in the business of educating homeowners with unbiased inspections, reliable information, and trustworthy recommendations. InterNACHI's Code of Ethics ensures that the InterNACHI home inspector's first priority is not enriching himself -- it's serving his client, the consumer.

InterNACHI Energy Ratings Will Benefit Homeowners

Homeowners often find that energy improvements can dramatically improve the comfort and integrity of their homes, so it makes sense for homeowners to act as soon as possible to enhance their quality of life. Using the InterNACHI Energy Rating, home inspectors can assess areas in the home for energy improvement and make specific, cost-effective recommendations to clients so that they can develop a specific plan of action to address their home’s energy deficits. Whether they’ve lived in their home for years or have just moved in, and whether it’s a newly built or older, classic home, all homeowners and prospective homeowners can benefit from a home energy inspection.

By getting an InterNACHI Energy Rating performed by a specially trained InterNACHI inspector, homeowners can quickly learn how to save energy and money, while also seeing how their home ranks compared to others in the area. After the homeowner makes energy improvements, the home's energy efficiency is likely to increase. So, similar to radon testing that is performed both before and after mitigation, homeowners can ask their contractor to include a post-upgrade assessment as part of the energy improvement package to compare pre- and post-upgrade scores.

An InterNACHI Energy Rating can help homeowners understand how to integrate energy upgrades into a home renovation project or addition. When done as part of a larger project, it makes sense to have the home inspected before and after work is done so the homeowner can verify that the home's energy performance has improved. The Rating serves as a way to document these improvements, thereby enhancing the home's appeal and value when it’s ready to sell.

Benefits to Other Stakeholders

InterNACHI’s new training program presents the perfect opportunity for InterNACHI to demonstrate to various second-tier stakeholders, such as the National Association of Realtors, and home improvement businesses, such as Home Depot and Lowe's, that InterNACHI inspectors and InterNACHI’s Energy Rating Program are a perfect match to represent the U.S. DOE’s and the American homeowner's interests because:

InterNACHI is currently a leader in educating the American consumer-homeowner;
InterNACHI is currently a leader in providing residential property inspections;
InterNACHI inspectors are more than qualified to conduct Home Energy Surveys;
InterNACHI inspectors are already trained and actively performing inspections of new and older homes;
the education that homeowners receive in the course of an InterNACHI home inspection helps spur consumer action aimed at businesses to motivate them to provide alternative and green products and services;
InterNACHI currently works with RESNET, BPI, and other third-party, energy-efficiency accreditation organizations;
InterNACHI's Move-In Certified™ inspections already empower Realtors with sales prospects; and
InterNACHI’s inspection methods advance a common language of energy terminology in discussions with all invested parties.

More than 10,000 times a day, InterNACHI-certified inspectors meet face-to-face at the breakfast table with home buyers. Many of them are new in town, and the parties directly involved in these discussions form the first relationships that become long-term ones between the home inspector, the home buyer’s Realtor, the seller’s Realtor, the neighbors, and the contractor.

More than 120,000 items a day are reflected in InterNACHI inspection reports for repair or replacement. This means that, prior to most closings, the home seller has to spend money on home repairs. Furthermore, in the five months following that very first kitchen meeting, the home buyer will spend more money on his home than he will in the next five years. That’s why it’s so important to keep these conversations going and to support local businesses and education providers who can, in turn, support the homeowner-consumer.

InterNACHI has long been committed to the consumer-homeowner by training its home inspectors with its own rigorous inspection courses. Serving the consumer in the future of home energy efficiency is another way InterNACHI is promoting its membership -- by thrusting them into the forefront of energy via the DOE's new program, which is rolling out in late 2011.

The Real Cost to Homeowners

American homeowners often neglect a comprehensive home energy audit as an unnecessary or even frivolous aspect of home inspections. Historically, it's also been cost-prohibitive, ringing up at a national average of between $400 and $600. InterNACHI's Energy Rating Training and Certification Program is a perfect match for the DOE's ultimate goals, which VP Joe Biden summarized well. InterNACHI is committed not only to affordable and comprehensive training for its inspectors, but also to affordable and comprehensive home inspections for consumers, which help make them responsible homeowners who maintain their homes properly, which, in turn, saves energy.

Consumer education is the most cost-effective energy conservation measure known to man, and that's what InterNACHI inspectors do every day:

educate homeowners; and
provide low-cost energy inspections.

Driving down energy costs and expanding green-energy technology have been among the top priorities of government for more than two decades. Everyone has a stake in this program’s positive outcome.

Inspectors and homeowners alike can learn more about the importance of being one of the participants in the DOE's Home Energy Scoring Program, as well as how to request home energy inspection services from their local home inspector, by exploring the links below.

For more information:

Recovery Through Retrofit

Vice President Biden Launches Home Energy Scoring Program

InterNACHI licenses the Home Energy Survey Tool

The U.S. DOE's Home Energy Score

InterNACHI's related articles:

Elements of an Energy-Efficient House

Energy-Efficient Mortgages

InterNACHI's related online and video courses:

Take InterNACHI's online "InterNACHI Energy Rating Training and Certification Program."

Take InterNACHI's free, online "How to Perform Energy Audits" course.

Take InterNACHI's free, online "Performing a Home Energy Audit (according to BPI Standards)" course.