Our First Hybrid HERS Rater Training – How Did We Do?

We just completed our first combined online and in-person home energy rater training class. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now because I’ve suspected that our attempt to buck the industry preference for a 5-day class by doing ours in 8 days was keeping our registration numbers low. At the request of one of the students who signed up for our just-completed class, I made the leap. Wanna know how we did?

Enrollment

Well, using enrollment as a metric, we did great. This was our biggest class. We filled it up completely. Having more people with more backgrounds and experience made the class more interesting, I think. We did a lot of activities during the week, and the students did a lot of learning from each other.

The tests

Rather than just one test plus two training ratings, HERS rater students now have to take three tests: the national rater test that’s been around for nearly a decade now plus the two new combustion safety tests. Here’s how they did:

• National rater test: 11 out of 12 passed on first attempt (The 12th passed the next week.)
• RESNET combustion safety test, multiple choice: 13 out of 13 passed
• RESCAZ simulation: 13 out of 13 passed (with one person retesting and passing on the second attempt)

The reason we had only 12 taking the national rater test is that one of the students had taken the class before, missed the one-year deadline to get certified, and had recently retaken and passed the national rater test elsewhere. He was in the class for only two days to meet the new combustion safety requirements and get the two training ratings done. (That’s why we had 13 in a class with a limit of 12, in case you’re wondering.)

Online materials

I spent a lot of time putting together videos and activities for the online training. I was really pleased with them, but of course it’s how well the students do with them that really matters. I was relying on the students to put a lot of good effort into the online training. Once they came to Atlanta for the class, we jumped right in, assuming they had a good handle on the fundamentals they were supposed to get from the online materials.

Judging by the performance in the class and their test results, I’d say it worked pretty well. Also, I got informal feedback from several of them during the course of the past week, and they thought it was great. 

Graduation

One of the fun things we do with our class is end on a positive note. We hold a graduation ceremony and give out training certificates to all those who completed all the HERS rater training requirements. (That’s Ben Bogie from Connecticut in the photo below.) This time we got 12 of the 13 through all the requirements in our online plus 5.5 day in-person training. The other is really close and should finish up next week.

Another fun thing we do is play Psychrometric Chart Simon Says. This year, with so many people, we split them into two groups. The winners of the divisional round faced off for the championship. Ian Bukowski, who works for Habitat for Humanity in Baltimore, and Nikki Krueger, who works for Thermastor in Madison, Wisconsin, went head-to-head, move after move, and neither made a mistake. Finally, we had to call it a draw, and they both received an official Psychrometric Chart Simon Says Champion certificate, as you see below.

The future

I’m really excited about the change we’ve made. This first class in the new format was a great success, and I’ve got so many ideas about how to make it even better. I can’t wait to get started enhancing our curriculum for our next HERS rater class this August. Would you like to join us? If so, click the button below.

 

 

Working on getting some of our HERS rater training online was also great practice for the online course I’m teaching in the fall, Mastering Building Science. If you’ve had a BPI or HERS class and are looking for the next step, check it out.

Now, I’m off to the north Georgia mountains for a little weekend camping trip! Talk later.

 

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