DOE Home Energy SCORE

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Evan Mills on August 19, 2011 at 1:14am

Best thing is to get yourself on their official e-list by sending mail to homeenergyscore@ee.doe.gov

and you'll receive all the updates.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kathy Slenker on August 18, 2011 at 3:57pm

Is it similar to E-Quest?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jim Mikel on August 18, 2011 at 5:36pm

Kathy-

No. E-Quest is totally different.  The Home Energy Score is voluntary by the homeowner.  Look at LBNL's site:http://homeenergyscore.lbl.gov/

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Diane Chojnowski on August 25, 2011 at 7:31am

Check out this blog post for the latest update:

HOME ENERGY SCORE PROGRAM Pilot Summit Update to Stakeholders

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bud Poll on September 1, 2011 at 6:30am

Thanks, found the "x".  It didn't clean the thread completely, but it will eliminate the disconnect.  One of the mods may be able to clean up the rest.  As for the discussion, the original questions remain and need to be asked.  Since this is the score forum I would hope that an open airing of tough questions will be allowed.  Someone please warn me in advance not to proceed if we are just going to have to delete the posts.

 

Bud

Permalink Reply by Evan Mills on September 1, 2011 at 1:52pm

Jim, Bud, other interested parties:

 

DOE very recently posed an update over in the blog area.

You can find that here.

 

I gather that Jim and Bud deleted some of their comments because they found that they may not be factually correct.  I've encouraged the people in the know at DOE to keep posting here with first-hand info and updates.  Again, you will find a lot more background at the official DOE Home Energy Score Program site.

 

Bud - your original questions all seemed fine and I encourage you to repost them here (or under the recent Blog referenced above) so we can get some definitive answers.  One thing I can confirm is that there will be no charge for using the Home Energy Scoring Tool at http://homeenergyscore.lbl.gov. 

 

To support the software tool market, LBNL will be making the entire Home Energy Scoring Tool methodology available through APIs so that authorized third-party software developers can replicate the functionality within their existing tools.  It will be up to those companies what kind of business model they wish to do this within, but a free version will remain at the link provided in the last paragraph.  There will be no requirement from DOE that consumers pay for a full energy audit in order to get their Score results.

 

Another thing I can confirm is that the Home Energy Scoring Tool sessions will be able to be migrated to Home Energy Saver PRO, or the consumer-facing version of the tool (Home Energy Saver), so that consumers or practitioners can take the analysis deeper and more customized operational analysis without having to re-enter data.  This moves the assessment process beyond the Scoring Tool program proper and into the general stream of home energy improvement.... There will be no cost for use of HES PRO or the Home Energy Saver.

 

A very dedicated team of practitioners from the private sector and NGOs have been kicking the tires of the Beta tool for six months now under nine independent pilot projects across the country.  They have provided extensive feedback to DOE on program design and the tool itself.  It has been a very participatory process and the pilot testers have been extremely generous with their time in helping to make the program and tool a success.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gary Baggett on September 1, 2011 at 5:12pm

I'd like to thank Bud, Jim and Evan for all the comments, even the inaccurate ones. These are questions that need to be asked, and there will be misinformation from time to time. I am gratful for the questions and have been following along...and I think it's all good as we are striving for something better. Thanks guys!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bud Poll on September 1, 2011 at 5:46pm

Thanks Gary, Evan, and Jim as well.  I cut my teeth on lively debates and learned the value of airing all thoughts.  Jim's post at least tells me some of these issues have at least been discussed.  I'm also glad to hear from Evan that the online score will be free and I assume stay that way. 

I am editing my list of questions as some have been answered and newer ones need adding.  I will re-post when ready.

I'll close this post with one of my questions.  What additional training is necessary beyond our BPI and HERS certifications that can't be handled in an online fashion? 

Thanks again

Bud

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Evan Mills on September 1, 2011 at 5:51pm

Bud - All the info I've seen on training is posted here.

It doesn't seem that training won't be required beyond BPI or HERS (or, alternatively, DOE's own training).  That said, the program design is still taking shape and things could evolve before it is launched in earnest.  I don't expect the requirements to be onerous, and I think we would all agree that some form of training and quality control is a good thing all around.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bud Poll on September 1, 2011 at 6:13pm

My concerns are perhaps more personal as my hearing is so poor that a classroom approach is functionally impossible.  They always refuse to talk one at a time :).

To be fair, on the flip side, the link that discusses score and the math required to average insulation values (UA) may be more of a challenge than one would expect.  I created a short series of math questions along the same line to challenge one forums membership.  The topic ended after several tries primarily because few could handle the math.  Even one of my instructors (not to be mentioned) got confused with surface areas and just moved on.  Math is not a strong point with many, which creates a concern even with the simple approximations SCORE will be requiring.  Beyond the math, guesstimating is a skill all in its own and SCORE seems to require a lot of it.

 

Bud

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Evan Mills on September 1, 2011 at 7:41pm

Interesting that you mention that, as it was one of the lines of feedback from the pilots.  We're looking at building some "sub-calculators" into the tool to help take the burden off the user.  Self-paced "virtual" training is certainly something you might want to suggest.  Again, that email address is homeenergyscore@ee.doe.gov.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bud Poll on September 2, 2011 at 5:33am

Dr. Mills or others

I'm rather new with the mechanics of this forum so not sure where best to post these questions.  For now I will tack some on here until someone suggest a better location.

Q: Will Independent Energy Auditors (IEA's) be allowed to SCORE a home without being, or being associated with, a certified weatherization company prepared to perform the improvements? 

My thinking:  At this point in time there are millions of home owners out there that have no intention of hiring anyone to work on their home, even though they know they need to make improvements.  SCORE is the foot in the door that begins the education process and regardless of whether these home owners take action now or choose to wait, contact will have been made, a number attached, improvement areas identified, and in time those improvements will be made.  Just the low hanging fruit that should be identified during the walk through will make a significant difference.  Toss in health and safety and the proper sequence for weatherization and it becomes a very low cost bang for the buck.

Bud

 

 

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• …
• 6
• Next ›
• Page