Clean Edison Blog

According to BPI: The Building Analyst Certification verifies that the workerhas a foundation in diagnostic and analytic building science. The Energy Auditor certification is specifically tailored to the job task of energy auditing.

BPI feels that the crew leader needs to have more experience than his or her crew. The OSHA 30 hour is one of the industry certifications that they felt was important to show this experience.

Each new certification has its own prerequisites, which are in the form of points earned through work experience and training. Each industry certification earns the candidate 5 points, but there is a maximum of 10 points that can be earned this way.

A major focus of these new certifications is to continue the education of experienced energy auditors. Therefore, a candidate must have completed 15 comprehensive energy audits before they are eligible to take the Energy Auditor exam.

The four new certifications are Energy Auditor, Retrofit Installer, Quality Control Inspector, and Crew Leader.

Representing the home performance contracting company to the customer, and developing and reviewing the work order is the role of the Crew Leader.

Every 500 hours of work experience earns the candidate 10 points, up to 30 points towards the 35 needed to take the Retrofit Installer exam. This is compared to the Energy Auditor prerequisites which only requires 1000 hours but which also gives less points per hour of training, and the work experience is a base, not points towards the requirements. The Crew Leader requires 4000 hours or 3000 hours with a Retrofit Installer certification. The Quality Control Inspector prerequisites give 10 points for 1000 hours of work experience up to 20 points of the 40 points required.

BPI is not making any changes to the accreditation process at the time of the pilot tests. They are discussing various options through an Accreditation Management Board that may decide to cycle the new certifications into the accreditation program over time.