Standard for Energy Upgrade Certificates of Homes released for public comment

The Building Performance Institute, Inc.’s (BPI)  BPI-2101-S-2013: Standard Requirements for a Certificate of Completion for Residential Energy Efficiency Upgrades is available for public comment until August 6, 2013, and will soon be published as a BPI standard. BPI-2101 identifies a standard set of data elements for certificates that document the completion of a whole-house energy upgrade (HEU) or individual energy conservation measures (ECMs) in existing homes. A certificate that complies with the requirements of this standard can be issued to homeowners by home energy upgrade programs or by entities implementing nationally recognized third-party quality assurance programs for inclusion in Multiple Listing Service (MLS) databases during the home re-sale process. The data elements in BPI-2101 are aligned with four other standards to promote consistency and transparency in the real estate, appraisal, and energy efficiency program industries: BPI-2200-S-2013 (Standard for Home-Performance-Related Data Collection), which serves as a data dictionary for the home performance industry; BPI-2100-S-2013 (Standard for Home Performance-Related Data Transfer), which defines a common standard for transferring energy efficient data; the Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS), which defines a common standard for transferring real estate-related data; and the Appraisal Institute’s Residential Green and Energy Efficiency Addendum, which provides appraisers with a standard template for collecting data about a home’s energy efficient and other “green” features. BPI-2101 was developed by a working group created by BPI’s Standards Technical Committee (STC) and comprised of subject matter experts representing a variety of interest categories and geographical locations. Following this public review period, BPI-2101-S-2013:Standard Requirements for a Certificate of Completion for Residential Energy Efficiency Upgrades will be published as a BPI standard. BPI-2101 is also currently in process to become an American National Standard. Once approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), it will be republished as an ANSI/BPI standard.