At the current rate of building energy assessments and upgrades, it will take over 140 years to retrofit North America’s existing building stock to the level required to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Today’s manual approach to building energy assessments and retrofits doesn’t scale and will fail to meet climate targets. A virtual home energy assessment approach deployed alongside on-site assessments provides the following benefits:
Achieving net-zero emissions in the North American housing stock by 2050 will require the annual retrofitting of nearly 6 million residential buildings, or 3-5% per year.
Home energy assessments are the leading tool to engage homeowners in the retrofit journey and grant access to financial incentives. This approach is not scaling to meet the significant challenge before us. At its present capacity, the supply chain can assess only 1-3% of the building stock annually, with a post-retrofit audit rate of about 0.7%. At this rate, it will take 142 years to retrofit all homes to net zero.
Home energy assessments are used to assess a building’s energy efficiency and carbon emissions. In some jurisdictions, energy assessments unlock access to financial assistance for retrofits. A professional home energy advisor typically performs these assessments on-site and includes over 200 data points. The assessment often includes energy coaching and retrofit recommendations.
The current approach to home energy assessments needs to be digitized and accelerated; otherwise, homeowners will not initiate the retrofits required, and we will not achieve net zero emissions. A virtual home energy assessment approach deployed alongside on-site assessments provides the following benefits:
A virtual home energy assessment estimates a home’s energy performance in a virtual space instead of physically examining the building on-site. It uses building structure data collected from reputable sources. Like an on-site assessment, a virtual home energy assessment can provide detailed home efficiency retrofit advice.
Virtual home energy assessments are categorized into three types based on the effort required for data collection. They include: no-touch mass market assessment, survey-based assessment, and remote assessment.
Learn more about the three types of virtual assessments by downloading our free whitepaper.
A no-touch mass market assessment is a virtual home energy assessment that leverages public data, such as property tax assessment data and weather data, in conjunction with an artificial intelligence (AI) platform to evaluate the energy efficiency of homes. This method offers broad coverage of all residential buildings without needing additional input from energy advisors, homeowners, or program managers. If this approach is backed by sound data and a well-conceived machine-learning algorithm, 100% of homes in an area receive a unique and actionable low-carbon retrofit plan.
Download the free whitepaper to learn more about survey-based assessments and remote assessments and how they’re being deployed in the market.
Climative’s web-based platform combines all industry-leading types of home energy assessments in a single workflow. By combining data from no-touch assessments, survey-based assessments, remote assessments, and on-site assessments, we can leverage the best attributes of each.
This approach enables:
At Climative, we have turned a highly manual process into a super-efficient digital process with rich energy data at the center. Climative’s AI-powered approach and platform is the leading choice in the industry with unique advantages, including the ability to assess over one million homes per day.
Download the whitepaper to keep reading. Here’s what you’ll learn:
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.
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.