DOE Prepares to Roll Out the Home Energy Score, Nationally

[James H. Bushart]

(I just got this email, today.)



Hello Home Energy Score Stakeholders,

We want to update you on our progress on the Home Energy Score program.

As you may know, we concluded the Home Energy Score pilots this summer.

We had 10 great pilot partners who provided us with feedback and recommendations. We continue to work with Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory regarding improvements to the Home Energy Scoring Tool <http://homeenergyscore.lbl.gov/> and are incorporating other research findings and analysis into the program.

We have recorded 3 webinars <http://homeenergyscore.gov/> regarding the program at www.homeenergyscore.gov <http://www.homeenergyscore.gov/> .

These include FAQs, background on the program, pilot results, and more. See the top right quadrant of homeenergyscore.gov
<http://www.homeenergyscore.gov/> .


We are also actively recruiting partners for our national launch of the program. Partners will include state and local energy offices, energy-related NGOs, as well as utilities and co-ops.

Qualified assessors under these programs must be BPI or RESNET certified and must take DOE's on-line training and tests. We ask that partners commit at a minimum to scoring 200 homes in 12 months and fulfilling quality assurance requirements.

Interested in signing on as partner? Please contact homeenergyscore@sra.com with subject header: Interested partner by November 30, 2011.

We look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming months.

Thank you.



Joan Glickman

Senior Advisor, US DOE

Home Energy Score

www.homeenergyscore.gov

[Patrick Carter]

oh my, you are so bad...

[Joe Farsetta]

BPI may be the first under the awarded subcontract, but they will not be the only ones. The award is already being looked into, as it may have run afoul of federal contracting rules.

Regardless, the federal government is barred from awarding or standardizing on a single organization to provide ALL training and certification.

This from the DOE:

“The subcontract to be awarded through this Alliance/NREL procurement does not signify that DOE intends to recognize only one certification body for weatherization or home performance certifications. It is intended that the ISO 17024 standard will be used as part of the evaluation criteria for future determinations regarding DOE recognition of additional certifications.”

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by jfarsetta

BPI may be the first under the awarded subcontract, but they will not be the only ones. The award is already being looked into, as it may have run afoul of federal contracting rules.

Regardless, the federal government is barred from awarding or standardizing on a single organization to provide ALL training and certification.

This from the DOE:

“The subcontract to be awarded through this Alliance/NREL procurement does not signify that DOE intends to recognize only one certification body for weatherization or home performance certifications. It is intended that the ISO 17024 standard will be used as part of the evaluation criteria for future determinations regarding DOE recognition of additional certifications.”

RESNET and BPI are two separate and distinct certification bodies. I think that this announcement from them is consistent with your quote.

[Nick Gromicko]

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (mentioned in her email) recently renewed InterNACHI's license for the Home Energy Scoring Tool for another year.

[Joe Farsetta]

No. There will be multiple means to obtaining training. Ultimately, the DOE will offer their own certifications. They simply cannot hand all training programs for an entire program to two orgs. As an example, NRSB is one of two private orgs that offer a certification for radon professionals. However, training can be obtained through MULTIPLE training venues.

There is simply too much money at stake to hand it to a single entity. Such awards and procurements are typically frowned upon in federal coontractiing, not to mention the specter of contressional investigations and investigations by the Inspector Generals office.

As I stated, this is a starting point for the DOE in what will likely be a continuing trend in the energy assesment arena. There are still programs available through DOE that are active, and do not revolve around this program. BPI is fighting to conviince the DOE that other training programs and avenues to DOE certification will confuse professionals.

Many disagree. A coalition of 72 professional organizations have raised a red flag, as none were ever consulted in the development of training and certification standards.

This is why the DOE leaves the door open...

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by jfarsetta

No. There will be multiple means to obtaining training. Ultimately, the DOE will offer their own certifications. They simply cannot hand all training programs for an entire program to two orgs. As an example, NRSB is one of two private orgs that offer a certification for radon professionals. However, training can be obtained through MULTIPLE training venues.

There is simply too much money at stake to hand it to a single entity. Such awards and procurements are typically frowned upon in federal coontractiing, not to mention the specter of contressional investigations and investigations by the Inspector Generals office.

As I stated, this is a starting point for the DOE in what will likely be a continuing trend in the energy assesment arena. There are still programs available through DOE that are active, and do not revolve around this program. BPI is fighting to conviince the DOE that other training programs and avenues to DOE certification will confuse professionals.

Many disagree. A coalition of 72 professional organizations have raised a red flag, as none were ever consulted in the development of training and certification standards.

This is why the DOE leaves the door open...

Perhaps you are right in your predictions of what "will be". As for the way it is now, it requires BPI or RESNET certification to apply this silly home energy score. It is destined to fail anyway, IMO. It is simply a meaningless number that can do some harm ... but no real good. I plan to give them away, free, with a full diagnostic audit to those who insist on them but I would never recommend them to anyone.

They (DOE) want this score to be a consideration in every real estate transaction. In their test programs, homes that are older than 20 years have averaged a score of "5" on a scale of 1 to 10. With several thousands of dollars of implemented improvements, homes with a rating of "5" were not able to improve any higher than a "7". How many home sellers do you think will want to sabotage their chances of getting their price with those kinds of numbers?

This thing will be a bust, as I see it. The NAR is already protesting it and ... as reluctant as I am to support anything that they do ... I have to agree with them on this one.

[Patrick Carter]

Originally Posted by jfarsetta

As I stated, this is a starting point for the DOE in what will likely be a continuing trend in the energy assesment arena. There are still programs available through DOE that are active, and do not revolve around this program. BPI is fighting to conviince the DOE that other training programs and avenues to DOE certification will confuse professionals.

A good example of this confusion is very previlant on this very message board in several threads... where individual HI's are trying to grasp what their role will be or if it's even an option for them to follow... Nick and his brother Ben have in some forms have contributed to this confusion by their response and claims to be DOE's choice for this program (Home Energy Score).

I, like James will be and currently doing so, provide the HES as a free service to promote a real and more accurate diagnostic Energy Assessment of the client's home under BPI standards, protocols and COE because of one thing, their (BPI) experience within the energy assessment field. Until someone else can provide the same experience and knowledge, and are so recognized by energy specialists/professionals nationally, I will consider them a want-a-be and will not give them much credence until proven otherwise.

[James H. Bushart]

It looks like there is a major tax credit program about to unfold that will also require the same certifications.

[Michael Larson]

Yeah, that's what we need.

More Chinese financed subsidies.

What part of there is no more money is so hard to understand?

[Steven C. Waskewicz]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (mentioned in her email) recently renewed InterNACHI's license for the Home Energy Scoring Tool for another year.

As an interested party, I was perusing the partners list for the Home Energy Score tool, and wondered why InterNACHI is not listed like ****HI is?
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/building.../partners.html