Home Energy Score Program Launched to Grow Home Retrofit Industry

On November 9th, Vice President Biden and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu announced the launch of a pilot program to give homeowners information about the energy efficiency of their home. 

The pilot program is called Home Energy Score and will be available in Charlottesville, Virginia; Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts; Minnesota; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Indiana; Portland, Oregon; South Carolina; Texas; and Eagle County, Colorado.  The pilot program ends in Spring 2011 and the DOE expects to roll out this program on a national basis later in 2011.

With the Home Energy Score program, trained and certified contractors will evaluate homes in less than one hour.  A homeowner will then receive a grade from 1 through 10, along with a list of recommended energy efficiency upgrades.

Visit the Home Energy Score website to get full details on how contractors will calculate the score, and to see an example PDF of a score and recommendations.

The Home Energy Score initiative grew out of an effort from the Obama Administration that started in 2009 to develop Federal action to create “green” job opportunities in the United States and save consumers money by improving the energy efficiency of homes and businesses.  While the Administration’s Home Star (“Cash for Caulkers”) effort is stalled in the Senate, it appears they are still making progress toward their goal by the release of the Home Energy Score pilot program.