Home energy rating, building labeling, and carbon scoring: these are different names for assigning a number to a building’s energy performance. However, an energy rating is more than just a number: home energy ratings are a conversation starter to drive community climate action.
Click here to download the paper “15 Questions Homeowners Are Asking About Home Energy Ratings (And How to Answer Them)”.
For climate-conscious governments and efficiency organizations, home energy rating programs are a “first step” to engaging and empowering homeowners to perform energy efficiency retrofits, deliver impactful and inclusive efficiency programs, and accelerate to net zero with superior energy and emissions data. After all, you can’t change what you can’t measure.
What are some common home energy rating systems?
What are the advantages of standardizing home energy rating systems?
What is a home energy rating program or building labeling program?
What are some examples of home energy rating programs?
How does home energy rating and disclosure reduce GHG emissions?
Does home energy rating and disclosure increase the energy efficiency of homes in a region?
Is it possible to assign a home energy rating to thousands or millions of homes?
What are the different ways to assess the energy efficiency for homes?
Why is it better for home energy assessments, ratings, and reports to be digital?
How can home energy rating legislation benefit communities and policymakers?
Download “Home Energy Ratings : 15 Questions Homeowners Are Asking (And How to Answer Them)”
A home energy rating measures a home’s energy usage and/or emissions. Sometimes called a home energy score, carbon score, or home energy label, this rating typically reflects the home’s energy use under standard operating conditions. A rating is often accompanied by a more extended home energy report with an energy breakdown, emissions breakdown, and energy efficiency retrofit advice.
But why are we talking about home energy ratings now? New technologies are transforming how (and how quickly) this conversation happens, which is critical timing as the climate emergency grows more urgent.
Home energy rating systems evaluate and score the energy efficiency of homes. The evaluation considers various aspects of the home, such as insulation levels, heating and cooling systems, air leakage, and other energy-related components.
Several popular home energy rating systems are in use today, such as EnerGuide (Canada), the RESNET HERS Index (US/Canada), LEED (US/Canada), and NHER (UK).
The most popular rating systems have much in common (such as considering many of the same building features), but the differences make a standardized approach very challenging. Standardization across jurisdictions would provide five key advantages.
Allow for accurate and direct comparison of building performance, making it easier for stakeholders to understand and trust ratings.
Streamline the deployment of national policies and incentive programs like rebates and tax credits, improving policy outcomes and compliance.
Improve the reliability and usability of aggregated data, enabling more robust analysis across regions.
Reduce the administrative and operational costs of managing multiple disparate rating systems.
Facilitate collaboration between stakeholders, including government, utilities, financial institutions, and technology providers.
A home energy rating program (sometimes called a “building labeling program” or “home energy rating and disclosure [HERD]”) is a project undertaken by a government, utility, or private entity to assign energy ratings to all homes in a region. Depending on the region, homeowner participation in this program could be voluntary or mandatory, and the rating might only be disclosed at certain times, such as when a home is sold.
Home energy rating is the foundation of a broader decarbonization strategy. It’s challenging to drive citizen climate action without having a meaningful conversation with every homeowner. A personalized home energy rating and report is a conversation starter that introduces the homeowner to the numerous benefits of energy-efficiency upgrades: comfort, lower operating costs, the availability of financial incentives, and more.
Driving impactful energy efficiency upgrades doesn’t happen overnight – it’s a long-term strategy involving careful planning, thoughtful messaging, and data-informed programming to engage homeowners.
Research by Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors shows an effective pathway to long-term market transformation using home energy ratings includes the following steps:
Yes, there is strong evidence that home energy rating and disclosure programs lead to more homebuyers implementing energy-saving upgrades. Ratings typically include a report with recommendations for improving the building’s energy efficiency. There is also a correlation between higher energy efficiency ratings and property value. Over the long term, these factors combine with increased trust in ratings and improved energy literacy to reduce the energy consumption of homes in the region.
Home energy assessments are used to generate home energy ratings and reports. There are many methods for conducting home energy assessments, each with different rates of accuracy and speed. Some are highly manual, while others leverage AI, cloud-based software, and video conferencing to speed up the process and digitize it for improved accessibility.
The four most common types of energy assessments are on-site, remote, survey-based, and AI-powered touchless.
This manual approach requires sending an energy professional into every home. Although generally considered accurate, it isn’t scalable and only covers approximately 3% of the market annually.
This approach connects a homeowner with an energy professional via video call. Remote assessments are an excellent option for many homes, mainly in rural or remote areas, and are three times faster than on-site assessments.
This approach is usually done online and uses data gathered through surveys or questionnaires. It’s highly scalable, but accuracy varies and depends on the survey respondent’s familiarity with the building and systems.
This rapid approach uses AI to create a personalized report for every building, achieving about 80% accuracy compared to on-site assessments. AI-powered assessments are highly scalable and accessible.
Historically, home energy assessments have been performed on-site with a report delivered as a physical binder and sometimes as a digital PDF. Digitizing home energy ratings and reports provides five advantages for homeowners and the ecosystem that serves them:
Implementing a mandatory or voluntary home energy rating program brings three main advantages to help governments achieve their net-zero goals.
Governments, efficiency organizations, and private entities who want to explore home energy ratings for their region should start by finding an experienced partner and technology provider. At Climative, we aren’t shy about our expertise as a technology provider and project partner for home energy ratings. We’ve executed several building labeling projects with a flexible platform that supports and accommodates all levels of engagement, from AI-powered touchless assessments to on-site assessments, to help our customers create a program that suits their unique net zero goals. Partnering with Climative means harnessing advanced AI for precise carbon solutions on a secure, scalable platform backed by proven expertise, robust support, and a commitment to privacy, driving the decarbonization of the built environment with innovative, data-driven solutions.
Book a call with the Climative team to start the conversation.
When it comes to assigning ratings to houses, homeowners understandably have many questions.
The top 15 questions fall under four themes:
Winston has 25 years experience as a leader in the telecommunications and utility industries. His in-depth knowledge of energy analysis and large-scale web-based platform deployments informs Climative's strategy in his role as CEO.
Sources:
[1] Morton, Winston (January 4, 2024). 7 Takeaways from Remote Home Energy Assessments Pilot: High Satisfaction, Engagement, and Accuracy. https://www.climative.ai/8-takeaways-from-remote-home-energy-assessments-pilot-high-satisfaction-engagement-and-accuracy/ (Accessed June 25, 2024)
[2] Keleher, Jenny (March 1, 2024). Climative and Dunsky Selected by the City of Ottawa to Provide Low Carbon Plans for All Homeowners. https://www.climative.ai/climative-and-dunsky-partner-with-the-city-of-ottawa-to-develop-better-homes-ottawa-portal/ (Accessed June 25, 2024)
[3] MacDonald, H., Kelly, R., Morton, W. (April 2023). Remote Energy Assessments for Residential Homes. https://www.efficiencyone.ca/impact/remote-energy-assessments-for-residential-homes/
Climative provides a collaborative AI-assisted data platform for organizations to enable personalized advice and offers to building owners, taking the guesswork out of building upgrades and transforming the low carbon economy.
