BPI Class in VA

[Kevin A. Richardson]

I'm attending this BPI Certification class in Virginia if anyone is interested.

http://www.vsbn.org/
http://www.vsbn.org/docs/200905_BPITrainingFlyer.pdf

If you live in the state of VA you get a discount!!

Should be a great class!!!

Kevin

[ldapkus]

What is the difference between BPI and RESNET Training. Are your audits QA'd (page 3) by a BPI provider. It seems that is you are RESNET Rater you still have to get QA'd annually and pay them a percentage. WTF???

[Kevin A. Richardson]

Linas,

This is a BPI class not RESNET. I'm not sure about the RESNET training requirement or the QA you are referring to.

As far as I know RESNET was originally designed for New Construction Energy Audits. BPI on the other hand is for pre-existing homes. Although, they have recently teamed with one another to come up with a joint standard for pre-existing homes.

If you are looking to get into the residential energy inspection arena, then BPI is the way to go. However, there may be others who disagree.

Kevin

[Peter C. Russell]

Originally Posted by krichardson

Linas,

This is a BPI class not RESNET. I'm not sure about the RESNET training requirement or the QA you are referring to.

As far as I know RESNET was originally designed for New Construction Energy Audits. BPI on the other hand is for pre-existing homes. Although, they have recently teamed with one another to come up with a joint standard for pre-existing homes.

If you are looking to get into the residential energy inspection arena, then BPI is the way to go. However, there may be others who disagree.

Kevin

I agree Kevin.

[David C. Macy]

If you are RESNET certified you have to pay $50 for every energy audit to pay for there/your QA.

Seems like a lot of time and money and when your all done you make about $5 an hour.

I need to check the BPI out. I think Saturn offers both of the certifications.

[jrivera]

Hey, CMC is only 20 bucks and you don't have to pay anyone to come out and check your work.

Mic

[Tyler Johnson]

Well there is a difference between BPI Certification and BPI Accreditation. An individual gets a BPI Certification, and a business becomes BPI Accredited. The difference basically being that BPI Certification tells a client that you know the process and have proven that you can do the process, however accreditation indicates that you follow the procedures and follow quality assurance guidelines and pay certain fees (plus accredidation requires at least Building Analyst certification plus one other specialty - usually Envelope Professional).
As far as the difference between RESNET and BPI Building Analyst training, RESNET is definitely more associated with new homes with their HERS rating assesment. The HERS rating is a point system that incorporates various factors and tests you conduct throughout a home to give it a number, that number then becomes an energy star rating which is marketable for new homes. BPI Building Analyst training teaches you how to examine existing buildings for proper ventilation, health hazards (combustion appliance zone testing, CO testing etc.), and air leakage testing - with a blower door after whic the assessor will give a report indicating all of the retrofits the occupant should make.

[Jason Kaylor]

Originally Posted by dmacy

If you are RESNET certified you have to pay $50 for every energy audit to pay for there/your QA.

Seems like a lot of time and money and when your all done you make about $5 an hour.

I need to check the BPI out. I think Saturn offers both of the certifications.

That is the route that I normally recommend to people. Daryl over at Saturn is about as knowledgable as you can get in the energy auditing industry. Most people shy away from the Saturn training because of the 8 weeks of online training before the hands on in MT. If you want their complete package it is $2100. That is BPI certification (as Tyler pointed out that is not accrediation), Resnet / HERS. They will also do the blower door and duct blaster training. I am 99% sure that also includes your initial field audits done on site in MT. Call Saturn to confirm that. Their website is a little confusing. You will see programs from $595 to $795 on the site. Once you add them all up with txt books you are looking at $2100.

I also highly recommend Clean Edison if you just want to go the BPI route. It isn't cheap, but it is really good. $1595, and they throw in a 4th day for the blower door training. Clean Edison is all over the country, and is the largest LEED prep exam training facility for LEED in the country.

One other standard that really needs to be taken in to consideration is the NAHB Green Building Standard. It recently gained an ANSI certification, which gives it teeth. Not to mention that the NAHB has almost 500k members. So just like the NRA they can make things happen. If you plan on doing the upgrades or just want all the certifications you can get your hands on that may help you some day, then the NAHB standard probably will be one of the bigger ones over time.

To avoid a lot of the dis-information flying around about auditors make x amount of money per job/week/hour/year or that energy audits are free in my area check out http://www.natresnet.org/ & http://www.bpi.org. You can also chat with energy auditors at the Saturn message boards at http://srmi.biz/bpt/ and http://www.energyauditortalk.org

Jason Kaylor – JJ
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