The U.S. Department of Energy is currently working to create easy and affordable tools for homeowners to find out about and improve their home’s energy use. The DOE’s vision is to create a program for homes that is simple, effective and familiar for homeowners, like the mile per gallon rating on a vehicle. A Home Energy Score would also allow homeowners to compare their score to other similar homes, identify smart home improvements and estimate potential utility bill savings.
The Home Energy Score provides a 1 to 10 rating, with a 10 representing the most efficient homes.
CNT Energy is a pilot Home Energy Score Pilot partner. Using trained assessors, our team produced over 100 Home Energy Score labels for local homes this spring. Because of our deep capability with energy data and energy efficient home improvements, CNT Energy was able to provide valuable feedback to DOE about the local score results and home improvement recommendations. Our feedback ensures that Home Energy Score will provide accurate, reliable and actionable information for the Chicago region’s climate and housing stock. We also surveyed participating homeowners to assess their satisfaction with the scoring process to further influence future designs of the program.
The Home Energy Score Pilot, was launched in the fall of 2010 as part of the Recovery thru Retrofit effort. CNT Energy is one of ten sites that participated in the pilot. Nationally, the Home Energy Score pilot partners have trained dozens of home energy assessors and scored over 1,000 homes. DOE is assessing the extensive pilot results to further improve the program before a national launch of Home Energy Score.
CNT Energy will continue to lead the way in creating accurate, reliable and actionable resources for homeowners through DOE’s Home Energy Score and other emerging programs.
