New BPI standard and the value of a HPwES Certificate

On September 11, 2013, the Building Performance Institute (BPI) approved BPI-21010S-2013: Standard Requirements for a Certificate of Completion for Residential Energy Efficiency Upgrades as a BPI standard. Cynthia Adams, LEAP’s Executive Director, participated on the national panel to create the standard.

BPI-2101 identifies a standard set of data elements for certificates that document the completion of a whole-house energy upgrade (HEU) or individual energy conservation measures (ECMs) in existing homes. A home performance certificate that complies with the requirements of this standard can be issued to homeowners by LEAP as the administrator of the nationally recognized Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program for inclusion in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) database during the home re-sale process.

“As summarized by one of the Co-Chairs for our working group, this standard will provide real estate professionals, appraisers, and underwriters with credible information that they can use to educate potential buyers, as well as assess the home’s real value,” said Adams. “The standard is designed to promote the accurate valuation of homes that have received energy efficient upgrades by standardizing the way energy efficiency improvements are represented in the real estate sales process.”*

Real estate agents or appraisers seeking more information or wanting to obtain a certificate for their clients should contact LEAP (info@leap-va.org).

*BPI-2101 has been aligned with four other standards to promote consistency and transparency in the real estate, appraisal, and energy efficiency program industries: BPI-2200, which serves as a data dictionary for the home performance industry; BPI-2100 (HPXML), which defines a common standard for transferring energy efficient data; the Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS), which defines a common standard for transferring real estate-related data; and the Appraisal Institute’s Residential Green and Energy Efficiency Addendum, which provides appraisers with a standard template for collecting data about a home’s energy efficient and other “green” features.