You probably got interested in becoming a certified home energy rater because you enjoy analyzing and understanding how things work. Naturally, that inquisitiveness leads you to do your research on which organization you should choose (or did choose) for your HERS rater training and as your accredited Home Energy Rating Provider.
Whether you end up choosing Energy Vanguard Energy Ratings (EVER) as your HERS provider or go with another, we think you'll make the best choice by finding answers to the following questions as you research the various organizations.
- How quickly do they respond when you ask for information? Try calling and emailing the providers on your list and record how long it takes them to get back to you.
- What's their turnaround policy on files? If it takes them a week, can you live with that?
- What printing permissions do they give you on the reports? Some providers let you print every single report, label, and certificate. Some don't let you print any but instead will send you a select few reports and charge you extra if your want more.
- What do their certified raters say about them? If they don't list their raters on their website, ask for contact info so you can talk to some of them. This is your business, so check their references.
- How do they communicate with their current raters? How often?
- What's their business model? Are they going to be competing against you for home energy rating business? Or do they stay out of the rating business and focus on supporting their independent raters? If you choose a provider who does a lot of ratings in-house, and you're in their market, you may find it difficult to succeed in the rating business.
- What are their credentials? How much experience do they have? Are they fairly new to the rating business? Do they have experience teaching the HERS rater class? Do they have a strong technical background? When you ask them questions about building science, energy modeling, software, and similar issues, you want confidence that you're going to get good answers.
- What kind of business support do they offer? Do they provide sample contracts, inspection forms, and other tools that will help their raters? Do they help steer business to their raters through their website?
- What are they doing to help promote the HERS industry and expand markets?
- What are their policies and procedures?
- Do they have small print items that are questionable or objetionable? For example, do they claim to own any carbon credits generated by your home energy ratings?
- What are their fees? HERS providers have a variety of fee structures, and it's often difficult to compare apples to apples. You can try to piece it together, though, by calculating how much it's going to cost you in your first year with them, and then how much for succeeding years. (Notice this question about costs is at the bottom of the list. That's because this decision is too important to made on the basis of cost. There are providers who will let you in for little upfront cost, but then you can never get a hold of them or get your files returned after you sign up.)
If you want to find out more about EVER, see this page on why you should
choose EVER as your HERS provider.