“On November 9, Vice President Biden and DOE Secretary Chu announced a new DOE Home Energy Rating System pilot program. It will consist of an special energy audit after which the homeowner will receive an energy label for the home (similar to the Energy Star label) which gives the homeowner a list of energy-saving measure to make their house more energy efficient. The label gives the house’s current score and its new score if the upgrades are done plus an annual estimated total savings. The audit will contain estimated savings and payback for each recommended upgrade.The pilot will be held in locales in Massachusetts, Alabama, Washington and Virginia. BPI and RESNET will handle the training required for the auditors for this program. Biden also announced a pilot program called PowerSaver Loans which will be a financing option for energy-efficient upgrades developed by FHA.” Insulate America

Contractors across the country are now scrambling to get their BPI Certification in order to participate in government mandated Home Performance with Energy Star programs.

The Energy Audit Training Center provides a unique solution for many busy contractors with our Interactive Online training course. We’ve licensed a BPI Preparation Curriculum that provides the same class room style training (as more expensive programs) right on your computer to help you get trained and started on BPI certification in Energy Auditing with much less classroom time.

If you weren’t aware, seventeen Oregon communities will launch an energy efficiency program this month. The Department of Energy has launched a beta test of the New Homes Ratings program in multiple states and many utility companies are launching Home Performance with Energy Star programs. In fact, states like Michigan and Illinois (to name a few) have introduced these programs as of January 1st, 2011.

Our Online course means you can take less time off from your current job to attend classes or interrupt your busy schedule.

The EATC Online Preparation training was designed for students to save money by eliminating travel costs, while allowing you to continue your normal work schedule and maintain your income. You can complete most of your training online with the help and support of our BPI Certified Course Instructors and Mentors. The EATC training program is specially prepared for online interactive training, which is designed to provide the necessary certification for the Home Performance with Energy Star approved programs.

For more information about the opportunities in the revitalized retrofit construction industry or to begin your BPI Training visit us at www.energyaudittrainingcenters.com and your staff can begin training today!

A home energy assessment, also known as a home energy audit, is the first step to assess how much energy a home consumes and to evaluate what measures can be taken to make the home more energy efficient. A Home Energy Assessment uncovers problems that may not otherwise be noticed by a homeowner.

Professional Home Performance Energy Auditors uses a variety of techniques and equipment to determine the energy efficiency of a structure. Thorough assessments often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.

Become a Home Performance Professional Today!

You can get your slice of the stimulus pie. The unprecedented funding for residential energy efficiency retrofit work and weatherization assistance programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has created an urgent need for trained, qualified home performance specialists.

With your BPI Certification you gain…..

Knowledge – be an expert in your field. BPI training teaches you the fundamentals of home performance evaluation, home performance assessments, building envelope and HVAC testing and more. Using the house-as-a-system approach, you will understand the relationship between all the systems in the house and its effect on occupant health, safety and comfort, and energy efficiency and durability. You can than properly prioritize the issues to offer your customers the best return on their investment.

Credibility - You can leverage your Certification to build a stronger, more credible name for yourself. Use the BPI logo to back your sales efforts and differentiate your work from the competition based on proven performance. When people notice your Certification and realize that your work meets stringent standards, your reputation strengthens as a professional contractor. BPI Certification is…. a rigorous, credible, and defensible process administered to individuals by BPI or its training affiliates, to prove knowledge, skills and professional competency in the building performance industry designations.

Employability - Employers want people who know what they’re doing. As a Certified Professional, you can prove that you’re already an industry expert, working in accordance with nationally recognized BPI Standards and have passed both the written and field tests.

Upon registration we provide you with access to our online learning center.

Take control of your future, Become BPI Certified!

Only BPI Pre-Approved Courses qualify to educate you on taking your BPI Field Testing and BPI Certification, to ensure this BPI Certifies all BPI Affiliate Programs and Proctors.

BPI is deeply involved in the ongoing development and deployment of this important program. In fact, BPI or equivalent standards are cited under training, certification and Quality Assurance protocols as requirements for the contractor development portions of this successful national home energy efficiency retrofit scheme.

With over 10 years of experience as a national standards development and credentialing organization for home performance retrofit work, Building Performance Institute has been instrumental in the implement the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR programs throughout the country.

State agencies like the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Energy Trust of Oregon,  Austin Energy, and Maryland Energy Administration, have launched home performance contractor programs.

Become a BPI Certified Professional

Why Get BPI Certified?

You can get your slice of the stimulus pie. The unprecedented funding for residential energy efficiency retrofit work and weatherization assistance programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has created an urgent need for trained, qualified home performance specialists.

With your BPI Certification you gain…..

Knowledge – e an expert in your field. BPI training teaches you the fundamentals of home performance evaluation, home performance assessments, building envelope and HVAC testing and more. Using the house-as-a-system approach, you will understand the relationship between all the systems in the house and its effect on occupant health, safety and comfort, and energy efficiency and durability. You can than properly prioritize the issues to offer your customers the best return on their investment.

Credibility - You can leverage your Certification to build a stronger, more credible name for yourself. Use the BPI logo to back your sales efforts and differentiate your work from the competition based on proven performance. When people notice your Certification and realize that your work meets stringent standards, your reputation strengthens as a professional contractor. BPI Certification is…. a rigorous, credible, and defensible process administered to individuals by BPI or its training affiliates, to prove knowledge, skills and professional competency in the building performance industry designations.

Employability - Employers want people who know what they’re doing. As a Certified Professional, you can prove that you’re already an industry expert, working in accordance with nationally recognized BPI Standards and have passed both the written and field tests.

Upon registration we provide you with access to our online learning center.

Take control of your future, Become BPI Certified!

Only BPI Pre-Approved Courses qualify to educate you on taking your BPI Field Testing and BPI Certification, to ensure this BPI Certifies all BPI Affiliate Programs and Proctors.

Northwest Region 10

Jerry Hause, Weatherization Auditor/Inspector, Cowlitz Tribe

Program Champion

As the leader of Washington’s first low-income Native American Weatherization Assistance Program, Jerry Hause is dedicated to improving the quality of life for Cowlitz Tribe members. His mission is clear; he wishes to close the gap between weatherization and indoor air quality through outreach, mentorship and partnership-building. Through his work, Jerry has brought about uplifting results for his tribal members.

Read more about the Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s Weatherization Assistance Program -www.cowlitz.org/offices/citwap.html

Since becoming a certified weatherization auditor/inspector in November 2005 and a Building Analyst Professional in October 2008, Jerry has helped Cowlitz members make small changes to create healthier homes and helped other tribes to conduct certification training and to creatively fund their own environmental health programs.

“Weatherization and indoor air quality are one and the same – completely interchangeable. I walk into a home to make external changes to improve energy efficiency and durability, but I end up making internal changes to improve indoor air quality too. The sense of pride in Cowlitz households is definitely linked to the quality of their homes, inside and out.” Jerry Hause

• Program Summary
• Key Strategies
  • Bring All Stakeholders to the Table
  • Connect the Dots
  • Empower Others to Lead
  • Share Your Efforts with Others
  • Build on Success

Program Summary

The Cowlitz Weatherization Program was established in 2005 as the result of a partnership with the Bonneville Power Association (BPA) and the Northwest Tribal Energy Coordinators Association (NWTECA), an organization comprised of Northwest federally recognized tribes. NWTECA and BPA were looking for ways to provide weatherization assistance to low-income Native American communities that were not receiving Community Action Program (CAP) services. Though CAP agencies aimed to serve tribal members in need of their help, without the trust of Cowlitz Tribe members, they made little headway in achieving their goal. After meeting with Cowlitz leadership, the need for a tribal based weatherization program became clear. With funding from the Bonneville Power Association, the tribe was able to train and certify a weatherization auditor/inspector through the Northwest Energy Education Institute.

Making weatherization upgrades in tribal members’ homes, such as insulating ceilings, sealing windows and doors, fixing leaks and repairing air ducts, the Cowlitz Weatherization Program quickly realized the importance of connecting their work with indoor air quality. Moisture from water leaks creates mold, which is an asthma trigger. Air entering homes from under the kitchen sink, where cleaning solvents and chemicals are usually kept, pollutes the air with hazardous chemicals. They helped families understand that they weren’t just fixing water leaks and air sealing drafty cabinets; they were improving the health of their homes, inside and out. They began providing educational materials about indoor air quality to homeowners so they could learn about other simple changes that could add up to big differences in their home’s health. By connecting the dots between weatherization and indoor air quality, the Cowlitz Weatherization Program created a recipe for success.

Top of page

Key Strategies

Cowlitz built strong partnerships with CAP agencies, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, and the U.S. Department of Energy, allowing them to bridge the gap between the need for assistance in tribal homes at the local level and the financial support available at the state and federal levels. Engaging outside groups empowered Cowlitz to form their own initiative tailored to their community’s needs, giving them independence in the delivery of weatherization and indoor air quality assistance to tribal members in need. This allowed the Cowlitz Weatherization Program to extend its services to other tribes in Region 10 in need of the same assistance.

Connecting indoor air quality and weatherization expands the Cowlitz Weatherization Program’s opportunities for funding through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Agriculture. It also saves them time and resources by addressing related issues in a single visit and helps tribal members understand the relationship between the indoor environment and their health.

Jerry Hause of the Cowlitz Weatherization Program conducts a home audit as an aspiring professional from another tribe looks on.

With the only Native American certified weatherization auditor/inspector and BPI Building Analyst Professional in all of Region 10, the Cowlitz Weatherization Program faced a challenge of scale; the number of homes that needed weatherization and indoor air quality assistance outnumbered their resources. Cowlitz and the Bonneville Power Administration approached other tribes in the region about how they could assist them in creating their own programs. They provided training, job shadowing and support for would-be professionals to take the Building Analyst Professional Certification test, a required certification to begin independent weatherization programs. Supporting the development of individual programs in other tribes requires a great deal of time commitment, but the result is a more expansive community of IAQ and weatherization programs and a greater network of families receiving the help they need to maintain healthy and energy-efficient homes.

The Cowlitz Weatherization Program also empowers the people living in the homes they help to improve. Home auditors/inspectors don’t just make repairs and improvements; they provide educational materials to household members about indoor air quality and talk to them about the connections between the quality of the air and the repairs they make. The materials also include information about small changes residents can make to maintain healthier air in their homes after Cowlitz auditors/inspectors have left. On follow-up visits, auditors/inspectors often notice that the residents have been inspired to make other changes to improve their home’s health.

When Jerry represented the Cowlitz Weatherization Program at a training event in Seattle, he connected with other professionals who were working on indoor air quality and initiating healthy homes movements in their tribes. He explained his work with the Cowlitz Weatherization Program and their holistic approach to improving tribal members’ homes. Inspired, they set about creating a regional initiative to support their collective efforts. They applied for an EPA grant to create the Healthy Homes Working Group. Since then, Cowlitz has presented to Working Group members about the connection between indoor air quality and weatherization. By sharing their work, the Cowlitz Weatherization Program is able to promote change on a larger scale and influence the way that weatherization and indoor air quality issues are addressed in other tribal programs.

The Cowlitz Weatherization Program has clear goals in mind for the future. The first is job creation. Cowlitz is currently training three tribal members to perform weatherization repairs. Not only will this help to make the program sustainable, it will also keep program funding within the community, creating a positive feedback loop for weatherization and indoor air quality improvements. The second goal is mentorship. Cowlitz is continuing to support training for tribes in Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho to help them develop independent weatherization and indoor air quality programs. They are also supporting the development of healthy homes initiatives through the Healthy Homes Working Group. Finally, the Cowlitz Weatherization Program plans to work to establish more direct lines of funding, giving other tribes more freedom to build holistic programs like theirs.

With the roll out of the new Illinois Home Performance with Energy Star, Building Performance Institute Building Analyst and Envelope certified contractors will have access to rebates and cash incentives, not available to other contractors. Already, Act on Energy’s Home Energy Performance program requires BPI trade allies to be certified.

In preparation for Illinois Home Performance with Energy Star (IHPwES) MEEA is building a searchable database of BPI BA+E certified contractors and energy auditors. After certification, contractors that sign the program agreement form will be highlighted on Illinoishomeperformance.org/ distinguishing them as leaders in the field of retrofit work.

Become a distinguished leader in the retrofit space. Soon, IHPwES will post a participating contractor agreement. After verifying your BPI BA+E certifications you will be added to the list of participating contractors.

What’s driving homeowner interest in IHPwES?

• Comfort Issues (Drafts, hot or cold rooms)
• Dust and allergies
• High utility bills
• Hazardous Materials
• Moisture
• Climate Change

DeVries created the PACE model in 2007 when he was chief of staff to the mayor of Berkeley, Calif. It lets homeowners avoid the steep upfront costs of installing solar panels or doing energy efficiency retrofits by allowing them to repay the work over 10 or 20 years through an annual surcharge on their property tax bills.  If an owner sells, the buyer takes over the surcharge and the energy savings that come with it.

But the government-backed mortgage-finance corporations Fannie and Freddie objected because PACE assessments have a senior lien status to mortgages, meaning they must be paid off first if a borrower defaults. Their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sent letters to lenders warning them away from PACE and forcing all but a few programs to close shop. (The Sonoma County, Calif., program, the nation’s largest, continues while warning participants about the dispute.)

PACE has widespread support from Congressional Democrats and state and local leaders, including Republicans such as San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it has lacked Republican backers in Congress, where House and Senate bills to restore the program failed to advance last year. Democrats found only two Republicans willing to co-sponsor the plans: Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina, who had already been knocked out of his primary race, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida.

Now that appears to be changing.

DeVries wouldn’t name names while PACE advocates court allies in Congress, but he said the support comes from both House and Senate Republicans.

“There are good signs from several key Republicans,” he said. “We have to see what happens once we get into the new session, but there are good signs from good folks that they’re going to be part of PACE legislation this year.”

Over the last several years, twenty-two states endorsed the model and encouraged municipalities to set up programs. San Francisco launched a program last spring and Los Angeles was getting ready to unveil its own. The Obama administration supported PACE with $150 million in stimulus-act funding (though it has since been timid in defending it).

A lawsuit seeking to restore the program – filed by the California Attorney General’s office, Sonoma and Placer Counties, the city of Palm Desert, and the Sierra Club — is working through federal courts, though settlement could take months or years.

That underscores the need for legislation to resolve the conflict, although no one knows how productive the new Congress will be on energy issues.

PACE isn’t the only game in town for financing home-energy improvements . And it’s not currently an option in Washington state, where the state constitution prohibits local governments from lending money to private entities.

But it is a tool that supporters want to defend. The advocacy group PACENow recently hired David Gabrielson as its executive director. He has worked in public finance at CS First Boston and JP Morgan and is a town councilman in Bedford, N.Y. [Clarification: PACENow was formed by Jeffrey Tanenbaum, an efficiency advocate and president of the private global investment firm Fir Tree Partners.]

The statewide program will be formally announced Jan. 21 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City.

Farmers will be offered energy audits that cost $1,500 per farm and $500 per home. They can recover those costs from the federal grant once they make improvements in energy efficiency.

University of Missouri Extension agents estimate the Missouri Agricultural Energy Savings program — or EnSave for short — will save farmers $500 to $600 a month.

The program is designed for livestock and poultry farms that are too small to receive a confined animal feeding operation permit. Officials hope to have 300 farms in the program.