Your home energy rating involves an AEA analysis of your home’s building computer model (or construction plans for new homes), onsite inspections and off-site data analysis.  If your plans are not available, we recreate them.  Based on the home’s plans, your AEA Home Energy Rater uses the REM/Rate software package to perform an energy analysis of the home’s design. This analysis yields an existing pre-improvement HERS Index (or pre-construction HERS Index if it is a new house). Upon completion of the building model or plan review, your AEA rater will work with you to identify the energy efficiency improvements needed to ensure the house will meet ENERGY STAR performance guidelines. Your AEA rater then conducts several onsite inspections and tests, typically including a blower door test (to test the leakiness of the house) and a duct test (to test the leakiness of the ducts). Results of these tests, along with inputs derived from the building review, are used to generate the HERS Index score for the home.  Once enough improvement have been made to reduce your score to 80 your house is listed by the EPA as Energy Star house, you are awarded an Energy Star certificate and an Energy Star Label is attached to your home's electrical panel.

The HERS Index

The HERS Index is a scoring system established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) in which a home built to the specifications of the HERS Reference Home (based on the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code) scores a HERS Index of 100, while a net zero energy home scores a HERS Index of 0. The lower a home’s HERS Index, the more energy efficient it is in comparison to the HERS Reference Home.

Each 1-point decrease in the HERS Index corresponds to a 1% reduction in energy consumption compared to the HERS Reference Home. Thus a home with a HERS Index of 85 is 15% more energy efficient than the HERS Reference Home and a home with a HERS Index of 80 is 20% more energy efficient.