Building Type
Location
New/Existing
Home Energy Score Program
Overview
AEA is participating in a NYSERDA pilot project intended to help buyers and sellers of a home to understand how its physical characteristics – such as the heating/cooling systems and the components of the building envelope (foundation, roof, walls and windows, including insulation) – affect energy usage and costs.
Program Benefits
While homeowners know that energy costs can have a dramatic effect on the overall costs of owning a home, prospective buyers have lacked a reliable tool that would enable them to evaluate the likely energy costs of living in a home they are considering purchasing separately from the purchase price.
The US Department of Energy’s Home Energy Score (HES) is a rating system that does just that. It incorporates information about the size, physical characteristics and energy usage of the home to assign it a score of 1 – 10 (with 10 being the highest), ranking its energy use against similar homes. The HES report recommends improvements and estimates the annual savings and change to the score that would result from making them. While no score can accurately predict the portion of energy use that is driven by the behavior a future occupant, the HES can help prospective buyers to compare the energy costs and needs for improvement of different homes they are considering purchasing.
Working on a team with California Sustainable Energy and Earth Advantage, AEA provides training to selected home inspectors and contractors serving the borough of Queens to enable them to collect the information needed and assess the homes, properly using the HES tool to produce the score and report. Under the pilot program, costs of preparing the HES report are borne by NYSERDA. At this time, training is restricted to NYSERDA-approved home Inspectors and home performance contractors serving designated counties.
The NYSERDA pilot is intended to compare two different home energy rating software packages by testing and supporting their use in different regions in the state. The Home Energy Score is currently being implemented in Queens and Erie counties, and NYSERDA plans to open the program to other regions soon. (Another rating system, Pearl Home Certification, is being piloted in Syracuse and Staten Island.)
The Home Energy Score is part of a broader effort to ensure that the added value of energy efficient homes is better reflected in its market valuation. Like the score that results from benchmarking the energy use of multifamily buildings, the Home Energy Score of a home will be publicly available, so it can inform the decisions of any buyer, not just the one who requested the score. The Impact of the Home Energy Score is only beginning to be felt. As more states and municipalities follow the lead of Portland (OR), Boulder, Austin and Berkeley, by adopting or encouraging its use as a part of real estate transactions, the database of scores will grow, increasing its usefulness in home-buying decisions. In addition to stimulating home buyers to make energy efficiency upgrades, the availability of this information also creates an incentive for current homeowners to make such improvements before placing their homes on the market.
Overview
AEA is participating in a NYSERDA pilot project intended to help buyers and sellers of a home to understand how its physical characteristics – such as the heating/cooling systems and the components of the building envelope (foundation, roof, walls and windows, including insulation) – affect energy usage and costs.
Program Benefits
While homeowners know that energy costs can have a dramatic effect on the overall costs of owning a home, prospective buyers have lacked a reliable tool that would enable them to evaluate the likely energy costs of living in a home they are considering purchasing separately from the purchase price.
The US Department of Energy’s Home Energy Score (HES) is a rating system that does just that. It incorporates information about the size, physical characteristics and energy usage of the home to assign it a score of 1 – 10 (with 10 being the highest), ranking its energy use against similar homes. The HES report recommends improvements and estimates the annual savings and change to the score that would result from making them. While no score can accurately predict the portion of energy use that is driven by the behavior a future occupant, the HES can help prospective buyers to compare the energy costs and needs for improvement of different homes they are considering purchasing.
Working on a team with California Sustainable Energy and Earth Advantage, AEA provides training to selected home inspectors and contractors serving the borough of Queens to enable them to collect the information needed and assess the homes, properly using the HES tool to produce the score and report. Under the pilot program, costs of preparing the HES report are borne by NYSERDA. At this time, training is restricted to NYSERDA-approved home Inspectors and home performance contractors serving designated counties.
The NYSERDA pilot is intended to compare two different home energy rating software packages by testing and supporting their use in different regions in the state. The Home Energy Score is currently being implemented in Queens and Erie counties, and NYSERDA plans to open the program to other regions soon. (Another rating system, Pearl Home Certification, is being piloted in Syracuse and Staten Island.)
The Home Energy Score is part of a broader effort to ensure that the added value of energy efficient homes is better reflected in its market valuation. Like the score that results from benchmarking the energy use of multifamily buildings, the Home Energy Score of a home will be publicly available, so it can inform the decisions of any buyer, not just the one who requested the score. The Impact of the Home Energy Score is only beginning to be felt. As more states and municipalities follow the lead of Portland (OR), Boulder, Austin and Berkeley, by adopting or encouraging its use as a part of real estate transactions, the database of scores will grow, increasing its usefulness in home-buying decisions. In addition to stimulating home buyers to make energy efficiency upgrades, the availability of this information also creates an incentive for current homeowners to make such improvements before placing their homes on the market.