My Trial Of Home Energy Auditing

I hope to report here, my experience with home energy auditing, using US DOE Home Energy Scoring, as a challenge to continued do-nothing weatherization in my community. I will do this at no cost to my customers, for a limited time only.

The contribution of one more capable contractor must matter, where about 27,000 existing homes are sold in the Portland market, each year. Compare this to HES audit accomplishments reported by US DOE , a nationwide total of 37,000 existing home audits in a three or four year period since 2012, by 350 auditors. Among foolishness of the Portland mandate, is inability of a pool of competent contractors, to perform even a small fraction of the required audits.

To become licensed to perform Home Energy Score audits to a new City Of Portland mandate, I may choose among paths spelled out in an application form from Oregon Department of Energy, dated 4/25/2016.

https://www.oregon.gov/energy/RESIDENTIAL/docs/HEPS/Proof-of-training-for-Home-Energy-Assessors.pdf

Where all paths must follow the US DOE instructions, How To Offer Score , step through them here.

1. Work with a Home Energy Score Partner.
To offer the Home Energy Score, Assessors work directly with Home Energy Score Partners. Interested Assessors should contact a local Partner  for information about joining their program. Or, you can reach out to another organization that is not yet a Partner and ask they become one.

In Oregon, I may choose as local Partner, Oregon Department of Energy , then following their rules cited above.

2. Hold a relevant credential.

If you hold a certification as a home inspector, HVAC contractor, or other residential professional, then you meet our minimum qualifications to become a Home Energy Score Assessor. The table below gives some examples of relevant credentials, however this is not an exhaustive list. Contact your local Home Energy Score Partner  to find out more about the minimum qualifications they require. 

In Oregon, this partner is again Oregon Department of Energy . Confusion arises here, where Oregon Department Of Energy fails to list quite a few allowed paths. These additional paths include:

U.S. Green Building Council LEED: Green Rater or Green Associate, a path costing just $250. I find this uninteresting, where LEED has no interest in existing homes.

North American Board of Certifed Energy Practioners: PV Installation Professional, again irrelevant to me.

I infer that US DOE requires acceptance of any interested professional.  As a superior weatherization professional, with more than 20,000 hours of proficient practice I am a qualified professional, and need not be burdened with further investment of my valuable time and small cash reserve.

By the fewer Oregon Department of Energy paths, professionals exempted from further cost burden include home remodelers of no proven skill in weatherization, The free path of the National Association for the Remodeling Industry, NARI, is open to any worker of a dues-paid business. Find only two such doing insulation, Gale Contractor Services and USI JB Insulation, listed as NARI members through Oregon Remodelers Association. Gale, the more likely to join a rater game, was caught and reported by me , for blatant fraud and has remarkably bad grades at Angie's List. At Angie's List I am very-visibly superior to JB Insulation for both quantity and quality of service.

If I found reason to join ORA/ NARI, I would be out $945 for dues and for irrelevant training. Again, any Gale or JB Insulation employee would pay nothing in this path to becoming a licensed rater, and would do so with inferior motivation to serve the public interest.

Look at  BPI Paths


To become BPI certified is not honorable, and costs much more, if with traditional purchase of a rating as a Building Analyst, Envelope Professional. 

It seems the little-knowledge BPI certification to only do home energy scores is simply a no-fee passing of US DOE rater examination. Then pay to BPI $200 one time and $25 for each audit billed. This is nothing but theft from home owners. BPI cares not whether one behaves honestly, or knows much of anything. I will never submit a penny in such thievery. I believe BPI is a criminal organization.

Become BPI Certified Building Analyst:

http://bpi.org/bpi_raters.aspx 

Oregon Training Institute Office
27501 SW 95th Ave., Suite 980 (Building C9)
Wilsonville, OR

http://www.warmandsafenow.com/event_mgr/pages/registration.php?id=772  

BPI Building Analyst; Envelope Professional - Wilsonville

Five days, 9 am to 5 pm, guaranteed pass as a Building Scientist.

(1/30/17 – 2/3/17)

Available Seats: 8

Price: $3790.00

This expensive path has been chosen by most of the rating advocates who showed up at Portland's City Hall. They have paid up, mostly as unearned income to BPI, to be privileged weatherization Generals under HPwES. And, there may be too few of them to fulfill the new Portland audit mandate.

However I might end up serving the public interest as a rater and critic, I must offer my choice of how to rate, from among those allowed by Portland's mandate.  Look at the ordinance words at pages two to three:

http://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/620857 

K. “Home Energy Performance Score System” means a system that incorporates building energy assessment software to generate a home energy performance score and home energy performance report. Examples of home energy performance score systems include, but may not be limited to, the U.S. Department of Energy Home Energy Score, the Energy Performance Score (EPS) or the Home Energy Rating System (HERS). 

I choose US DOE Home Energy Score, for reasons including absence of a tax upon my customers.

 Here is an example HES graphic:

HES scores rise with efficiency improvement to a maximum of 10.

I reject EPS:

Energy Trust of Oregon/ Earth Advantage Institute/ Cake Systems wants auditors to use EPS, not the US DOE Home Energy Scoring. Cake Systems has a fee schedule very similar to that of BPI, and also does nothing to earn this tax upon home owners.

What does an EPS report look like?

EPS scores fall with efficiency improvement to a minimum of zero, and have no high limit, though a maximum of 200 is depicted. A home owner under the City of Portland mandate is as likely to receive an EPS report as a HES report, and will not attempt to understand the numbers, or do anything good as a result of the tax upon the buyer.

I reject HERS Scores:

There is a HERS score possibility too. What does that look like?

A HERS score looks something like an EPS score. See that a home may have a negative number with site power generation. Such scoring is criticized for perhaps not doing diligence with efficiency, before crediting the perhaps-temporary privilege of some odd power generator.

I don't care about HERS scores as Energy Rating Index, ERI, for new homes only:
Here is another example graphic where HERS for a new home is identified as the Energy Rating Index, ERI, prescribed by International Code Council, ICC, for 2015 International Energy Conservation Code, IECC:

The energy-efficiency improvement of any existing home is not definable by HERS/ ERI.

In energy matters, ICC is not at all concerned with a home that is no longer subject to approval or not, by some Jurisdictional Authority. Except for meaningful snares of plumbing and electrical codes, a remodeler is not at all required to improve a home. A flipper may cash out a house without any efficiency improvements. Those who permit this may be more guilty of hurting buyers, than one flipper.


Comment at August, 2018:
I performed math studies of US Department Of Energy Home Energy Scores, and recorded observations here:
http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-odd-insulation-math-of-us.html 

Where none of my infrequent-now existing home customers have had an interest in silly HES numbers, and I found no means to conduct supervised scoring, I am done with scoring. I do exemplary opportunity assessment and real work in weatherization.

I support  myutilityscore.com ,  with  reporting of actual energy costs as the information to be shared by realtors , for all homes, not just those for sale. 

Comment at March 2023

How might actual energy costs be studied? Please consult my post Fresh Air is Free, dated March 4, 2023,  reporting annual actual energy costs in my home diligently recorded to the present over a span of fifteen years. Prior to January 2020 I lived in the house with frugal heating, winter thermostat setting 55°F. From 2012 home energy efficiency was progressively improved from poor to remarkably outstanding. From January 2020 the home has been occupied by renters, with winter thermostat setting probably 70°F, and annual heating cost about $450 for a 1000 sf single-story home. Learn now whether this qualifies as an exceptionally good conservation score.

Compare the $450 number to an American Gas Association tabulation for 2020 , $639 average annual natural gas cost for homes in Oregon. As I assuredly know, my home is exceptional. Do make comparisons with comfortable thermostat settings. See details in my chart: A super-efficient home with thermostat at 55°F will have savings unfairly limited by base charges. Natural gas in Oregon through 2022 has been weirdly inexpensive. A 25% cost increase is in effect in 2023, and dollars per therm will continue to increase. Cheap natural gas has been an awful deterrent to weatherization.

The HPwES Conflict of Interest

This is a good example of the marketing gift or bribe, that forces contractors to employ HPwES:
http://energytrust.org/residential/evaluate-your-home/home-performance-energy-star/
His company also got public funds to advertise, for participation in HPwES. It could be thousands of dollars a year, giving advantage to biggest companies, and disadvantage to the small. A kick to a conscience-driven critic who won't go along with the stupid crime.

The guy in the clean shirt fixed nothing, and had negligible means to direct repairs by an indeterminate worker, perhaps a subcontractor, you know nothing about. Meager critical judgement by a naive assessor, that might be employed in subsequent work, is only the boilerplate that Homecheck software allows. Your investment of $450, rebated $150, locks you into a dangerous relationship, where you stand to be abused, often with blatant fraud related to your weird disempowerment. Even with $300 out of pocket, will you go for it? Will you know that the assessor likely has bias toward tasks and materials that might not be right for your needs, in another powerful aspect of the conflict of interest?

It will always be wrong to place a contractor in advantage over his customer. I prefer the reverse power dynamic, having only the power to walk off a job, at a loss. I  place myself at disadvantage by almost never asking advances on my investment in materials, and invoice work only when the customer is satisfied. I deposit payments only after all owed and volunteered documents, including rebate applications, have been issued. I think I am capable of misbehavior, where I might have spent the money. Customers do not abuse their sensed empowerment, including control over me through Angie's List reporting. Through seven years of this practice, I have no regrets.

In a most egregious form, HPwES enforces a conflict of interest, against those with low income. Here's how it works, with Oregon's Energy Trust:
http://energytrust.org/income-qualified-assistance/savingswithinreach/participate/
Prior to beginning improvements, your Savings Within Reach participating contractor will ask you to sign an Income Verification form to confirm your eligibility to participate in the initiative, then examine your home and perform one free diagnostic Blower Door test* to identify the most effective upgrades that can be made. All improvements must be installed by an approved Savings Within Reach participating contractor. You are required to use the participating contractor who provides your Blower Door testing to perform all Savings Within Reach improvements.
The contractor pockets public funds, and the customer can't complain. There will almost never have been any meaning in the blower door test. It will never guide "work" done. Participating contractors will leave the major savings opportunities buried under crummy loose-fill, safely booby-trapped against inspection. That's all the poor customer could afford. Sponsors proudly boost the business of those sucked into Home Performance. Who cares?

There is broad consensus among professionals that conflict of interest should never be allowed, as in this discussion:
http://homeenergypros.lbl.gov/group/bpi/forum/topics/is-it-conflict-of-interest-for?commentId=6069565%3AComment%3A30819&xg_source=activity&groupId=6069565%3AGroup%3A2214

If you want your home inspected, call a licensed Home Inspector. If you are concerned about your furnace, call a pro. If you need insulation, new doors or windows, hire a specialist professional fully accountable to you. Find  professionals always A-rated at Angie's List. Don't expect your weatherization sponsor to send you someone you can trust. 

Angie's List For All

With effort, I got the four reports needed for Super Service Awards in 2011, in Insulation and in Doors categories, maintaining a demonstration of validity to me as a commentor on weatherization policies. Where but at Angie's List, can I find that public comment on my exceptional work, the "carrots" I work for, and no one could buy.

It was hard because most customers would not join, even where I showed them backdoor "deals" permitting membership at $12 per year for ten years. For anyone, not just Groupon grabbers. And, why would one want only temporary membership? Perhaps the deals, and general power brokerage by phone staff, offend more even, than high prices. Knowing a business will take more from me than from another, by times-five or more, just for being naive, surely kills a deal.


It seems Angie's List could not go public, after all, to extract funds from unwary new investors, to repay it's then-majority owners, the existing investors:
March, 2011: $53.6 million, various investors including T. Rowe Price.
September, 2010: $22.5 million, investors including Milwaukee's Wasatch Funds.
December, 2008: $6 million, Prizm Mezzanine Fund, Chicago.
April, 2008: $35 million, Battery Ventures


The total from fund investors is nearing $200 million. Can't find that list seen recently. The nature of non-public ownership is evident in this comment on T. Rowe Price ownership. Say the borrowing is $200 million, and T. Rowe Price has 9.8% ownership at 601,174 shares (then of 6.13 million shares outstanding). That's an investor price of $33 per share. A share price has meaning only when the public is let in. And then, wouldn't the investors get protection in the IPO, with more share leverage. I don't know how it works, but know the public loses in an IPO.


Angie's List is in truth, the collective intelligence of it's reporting members, including me. We are being sold out for foolish, can't last, greedy investment in Wall Street, like everything else. We can resist, by asking that Angie's list never go public, but instead repay investors through income vitality. I think Angie's List could, should, must, have at least twenty million paying members. Then, even at just $12 per year per member, there would be hope the debt could be repaid. At average $30 per year, times twenty million, The List would prosper. This is my dream, and long-standing shunned-rudely proposal: Perhaps half, including new members would be Honored members, paying $20 per year. Those who don't care to actively participate, might not resist the ordinary $40 per year membership. Yes, declared same prices everywhere. No more offensive deal-making.

Where are my Angie's List reviews?

Finding diligent, creative, honest weatherization is not easy. One way is through Angie's List. Please see a prior post on this:
http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/2011/01/should-we-rely-on-agencies.html


Getting diligent work of any kind saves energy. In weatherization work, missed opportunities of savings  of blow-and-go competitors, is more entropy than benefit. It is so hard to go back and do right, where largest opportunities of savings have been sabotaged through burial, or where access is denied for achievement of attic ventilation or other repairs.


I work largely for the credibility of reports volunteered by my Angie's List customers. My work continues to be always-improving. Yet, I see that I must prod my few customers who are members, to retain status of Super Service for 2011. Angie's List has a Fetch Program that I will try. I do not ask for reviews, and want to not know which customers are members, such that I might favor them.


Now I see that Angie's List is trying a new approach to stay afloat with its high-price-strategy in hard times. It is in hock over $100 million to investors. The investors may get their money back from unwary buyers of stock, going public in an IPO! If they continue to need investor money to advertise and operate, how can they be worth $1 billion?

Should We Rely On "Agencies"?

The last post suggests reliance on "agencies" to achieve good, honest work in weatherization. I don't think that is the way.


Public display of customer reports might work. We might all belong to an affordable and more-informative Angie's List. With diligent reporting of satisfaction, or being wronged, a careful home owner could intelligently choose honest workers and consensus best practices. I have tried to influence Angie's List to entice fuller membership through low pricing, and reward of responsible participation. Suggestions include a Honored Member status, earning half-price annual fees, at not more than $20 per year. All new members are Honored Members, helping them over a barrier of uncertainty, where one must pay first, to see the value. Honored Member status is retained by responsible participation, say a combined number of five, in posted reports and referred new members. With five years of Honored Member status, it becomes permanent. I want Angie's List to succeed in this way, and welcome customer reports on my work. Good work, reported, is my investment in advertising.


Another solution is having self-maintained records of work well done. I imagine  Google-like companies (several) setting up data warehouses, where the condition of our homes is a public record. Things that matter to society get recorded. Measures taken for energy efficiency are for the common good, and are included. Posting is voluntary, with rewards. The public record is a basis for home valuation at resale, and for more-favorable taxes and mortgage interest rates.