Networking the Energy Retrofit Industry
The energy retrofit industry is as unique as each individual home. It is not like new home construction, where crews work together day-in and day-out against a comprehensive set of home plans in a tried-and-true repeatable process. In home energy retrofit projects, teams are built dynamically based on homeowner needs, preferences and budget. Improvement projects range from large, multi month, multi-team rehabs to small, and quick, single contractor installations. Typically, the onus of performing research, determining priorities, locating reliable, skilled tradesmen and scheduling work falls on the homeowner. Many homeowners have gone as far as contracting with an energy professional to have an audit performed, only to then realize that there are still daunting tasks ahead of them necessary to fund, schedule and complete the improvements. These tasks often prove too overwhelming and delay the project indefinitely.
This scenario is frustrating for the homeowner and harmful to the energy retrofit industry and the environment. Competent contractors are not getting jobs, funds designated for energy improvements sit dormant, homeowners fail to receive any benefit from the investment they have made for the audit and potential energy and environmental savings are never realized.
Opportunities in the energy retrofit industry are growing. Remodeling Contractors, General Contractors and Home Builders have been retooling, sharpening their skills and gaining knowledge to become an Energy Improvement Project Manager or EIPM. Lenders have been researching tools such as Energy Improvement Mortgages (EIM) and Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM) to assist homeowners in obtaining financing. Real Estate Professionals and Appraisers have been studying green building and energy efficiency options and the value these bring to a home. The industry is primed and ready for the new global green economy.
Where is a Homeowner to go to find skilled, competent trade professionals they can trust and energy efficiency funds they can access?
Where does a General Contractor, Remodeling Contractor or Home Performance Contractor go to find homeowners in need of services and to find skilled, competent trade and energy contractors?
How do skilled, competent Trade Professionals find the jobs in need of their services?
How do Certified Building Analysts (Energy Auditors) and Home Energy Raters link in to the home performance contracting industry?
How do Funding Providers who are tasked with not only disbursing funds in support of energy retrofit projects, but with tracking the use of those funds and reporting on specific benefits gained through the use of those funds, ensure the best use of the money while maintaining and ensuring transparency, oversight and quality control.
The time has come for an all-inclusive system to support and network together the energy retrofit industry. That is what EnergyARM is all about. EnergyARM brings together the people, technologies and communication tools to provide comprehensive energy retrofitting services to homeowners, giving them a one-stop-shop for their energy retrofit needs.
According to the recently released White House report, Recovery through Retrofit, there are three barriers to a national retrofit market:
Barriers to a National Retrofit Market
Despite the economic and environmental benefits of improving home energy efficiency, a series of barriers have prevented a self-sustaining retrofit market from forming, including:
- Access to Information: Consumers do not have access to straightforward and reliable information on home energy retrofits that they need to make informed decisions.
- Access to Financing: Homeowners face high upfront costs and many are concerned that they will be prevented from recouping the value of their investment if they choose to sell their home. The upfront costs of home retrofit projects are often beyond the average homeowner’s budget.
- Access to Skilled Workers: There are currently not enough skilled workers and green entrepreneurs to expand weatherization and efficiency retrofit programs on a national scale.
EnergyARM was built on award-winning technologies by nationally recognized professionals after careful research into the best of the best to specifically address these barriers.
Straightforward and reliable information on home energy retrofits: Homeowners need to know they can trust the information they are receiving. In order to make informed decisions about which energy retrofits to make to their home, they need the help of competent, trained professionals who are certified to give them accurate, reliable, thorough information specific to their home. Every EnergyARM energy audit report includes an analysis of how the home is currently performing, a biddable, prioritized listing of improvements needed, a projection of the energy that will be saved by making those improvements and a return on investment analysis of each improvement. Of course, the health and safety of the home’s occupants is top priority, so every EnergyARM energy audit incorporates testing of combustion appliances in the home and an inspection of the combustible gas lines for leaks.
EnergyARM automatically assures consistently reliable energy audits and project results. By partnering the two nationally recognized standards for home performance and home energy usage, EnergyARM delivers to homeowners a dependable, well-trained, certified, nationally available workforce of energy experts. These experts work together to provide the Best of the Best in diagnostics, improvement recommendations and accuracy that homeowners can rely upon. The system uses Building Performance Institute (BPI) certified Building Analysts to perform the energy audit and health and safety testing, the quality assurance checks of the work performed, and post-improvement energy savings and test-out health and safety testing. It incorporates the oversight of certified Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Raters to ensure that each whole-house energy audit’s energy saving recommendations are reasonable, determined through consistent methods and that the calculated costs/benefits of improvements are credible. And, it uses REM/Rate software as its calculation engine. REM/Rate is the industry standard for determining the most cost-effective home energy solutions and for reliably determining the savings that result from implementing prescribed solutions.
Access to Financing: Homeowners need access to budget-stretching incentives and funding opportunities. These opportunities are out there, but the average Homeowner doesn’t even know where to start to find out what is available and whether they qualify for it. EnergyARM incorporates these funding sources within its network and utilizes an integrated escrow account to facilitate fund management. This allows an Energy Improvement Project Manager to assist the homeowner in bringing together funding from various available federal, state, local and utility programs along with the homeowner’s own funds in support of the efficiency upgrades.
Use of the escrow account gives the contractor the assurance he will be paid for work performed. It gives the homeowner assurance that the funds will not be disbursed until the work has been performed to the agreed-on quality standards. And, it gives the funding provider the transparency, tracking and reporting mechanism required with the assurance that their funds are being used as intended.
Expansion of Energy Retrofit Programs through a Skilled Workforce: EnergyARM incorporates the Best of the Best. Because of its unique networking and communications capabilities, Energy Improvement Project Managers, Trade Professionals, Building Analysts and HERS Raters are able to work closely together, support each other and learn from each other on a continuous basis. Each home is unique and each energy retrofit project is one-of-a-kind. But the members of the EnergyARM network are trained, certified, insured and focused on the house as a system. As they move from one virtual team to the next, they are constantly expanding their knowledge and working together to share what they have learned. The EnergyARM virtual interactive community provides the training, tools, support and systems they need to ensure quality and improve skills.
EnergyARM requires the use of standardized processes, certified specialists, quality control checklists and redundant sign-offs to ensure that each energy retrofit project is a success. The use of nationally recognized training and certification programs that incorporate their own quality assurance and ethics processes provides another layer of reassurance for the homeowner.