Energy modeling has gotten a bad reputation in the home performance world. One conference I've attended has gone so far as to say that it's "outside the sandbox" of topics presenters can cover. They want to see data, not modeled…
The HERS Index is a number that gives you a measure of how energy efficient a home is. We can debate how relevant that number is or how accurate is the energy model it's based on, but the fact is…
Energy usually gets top billing in the green building community. It has a huge impact on the environment. We sometimes pay a significant amount for it (although most of us don't pay enough to motivate serious change, but that's another…
One of the major fiberglass insulation manufacturers (the color in the photo below gives away which one I'm talking about) is getting serious about the installation quality of fiberglass batt insulation. They've put out a video (embedded below) and a…
Certified home energy raters are going through the process of meeting RESNET's new combustion safety requirements this year, but word on the street is that many raters are procrastinating. "Only 45% of our raters have completed the requirements so far,"…
The RESNET board of directors last week issued Formal Interpretation 2014-04 (pdf). If you're on RESNET's mailing list, you may not have noticed this one come through on 24 September because they send out so many emails, but it's an…
Energy Vanguard has put together an online CAZ training course to supplement the RESCAZ simulation and our in-person classes. For HERS raters who are also certified as BPI Building Analysts, the online course will satisfy RESNET's requirements. The video below…
A home energy rating is supposed to tell you how energy efficient your home is. A certified home energy rater goes to the home and collects all the data relevant to energy consumption in the home (well, all the data…
In case you haven't heard, last year RESNET created a task force to look at ways to improve the consistency of results among certified home energy raters (aka HERS raters). One week ago, executive director Steve Baden sent an email…
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…