Score the Homes. Help Homeowners Act. Build the Local Workforce to Deliver.
A Practical Home Energy Advisory Pilot for Cities
efficiencyUSA helps cities and local energy programs connect home-energy information to actual improvement projects.
Start with a small Score → Explore → Renew the Core pilot combining local workforce training, Green Home Predictor, homeowner advisory support, and contractor handoffs on real homes.
Start with 10–25 homes · Train local professionals · Work with existing systems
Training can be delivered with GreenHome Institute and other qualified training partners, depending on pilot design.
One Shared Pathway
Score → Explore → Renew the Core
Build on the people, programs, assessments, contractors, rebates, and community organizations already in place. Test the connections that help a homeowner move from information to a project.
01 / UNDERSTAND
Score
Understand the Home
Use Home Energy Score or another appropriate assessment pathway. Before a formal assessment, GHP can begin with a preliminary guided Home Snapshot.
- What do we know?
- What needs confirmation?
- What should we look at next?
02 / ADVISORY SUPPORT
Explore
Give the Score Somewhere to Go
A trained advisor helps the homeowner understand priorities, possible costs, incentives, and which decisions need more information.
- What comes first, and what can wait?
- Which trades and checks are needed?
- What is ready for contractor pricing?
03 / PROFESSIONAL DELIVERY
Renew the Core
Move the Project Into Action
Bring in the right contractors, assessors, designers, specialists, and quality-assurance professionals.
- Verify conditions and finalize scope.
- Select equipment and confirm pricing.
- Install, test, and certify as required.
Don’t Stop at Scoring the Homes. Help Homeowners Renew Them.
Use what already exists. Do not make the homeowner start over.
Municipal Examples
What Happens After the Score?
Portland / Scale
Make Home Energy Part of the Housing Conversation
Portland requires a Home Energy Score and report for most homes when they are listed for sale. Its program shows how energy information can become a routine part of buying and selling a home.
The next question for a city: how does that information lead to improvements?
Ann Arbor / Advisory Support
Connect Disclosure With Homeowner Guidance
Ann Arbor pairs Home Energy Rating Disclosure with a Home Energy Advisor program: assessments, tailored improvement pathways, contractor connections, incentive and financing guidance, bid review, and ongoing support.
In December 2023, City Council approved a three-year, $900,000 agreement with Walker-Miller Energy Services to administer the advisor program.
How Can More Communities Build Score → Explore → Renew the Core?
Many communities already have assessors, inspectors, contractors, utility programs, nonprofits, financing, and workforce organizations. The missing piece may be the workflow connecting them.
Not every city is ready to procure a large custom advisory implementation. efficiencyUSA helps communities test the essential functions first.
The Turnkey City Pilot
Start With 10–25 Homes Before Building a Large Program
efficiencyUSA coordinates program design, recruitment, training, the GHP workflow, field support, and evaluation. An example pilot package includes these deliverables, with the final scope and participant count agreed with your community.
1 Local Pilot Plan
A documented delivery pathway, participant roles, and recruitment plan for 5–10 local professionals and 10–25 homes.
5–10 Professional Training Places
Role-specific cohort training with qualified partners and practice on actual homes. Any credential pathway has its own completion requirements.
GHP Access for the Pilot Cohort
Access to the planning workflow for participating professionals: Home Snapshot, Review Findings, Contractor Workscope, and Budget & Quote Readiness.
10–25 Home Advisory Records
A reviewed assessment or Home Snapshot, homeowner priorities, verification needs, and next-step handoff information for each participating home.
Field Support & Handoff Review
Participant troubleshooting, advisor support, contractor feedback, and documented lessons from testing the handoffs.
1 Municipal Scale-Up Playbook
Pilot results, per-home economics, advisor workload, participant compensation, bottlenecks, and recommendations for a larger program.
The pilot ends with a tested local delivery model—not another planning study.
What will the city learn from the pilot?
Measure the Workflow
Track intake time, use of existing HES reports, advisor time, missing information, specialist escalation, contractor handoffs, bids received, and project progression—including where homeowners pause.
Define the Local Delivery Model
Evaluate per-home economics, participant compensation, training needs, verification gates, contractor participation, and homeowner response. Recommend which roles and processes to carry forward.
Two Homeowner Starting Points
Where Green Home Predictor Fits
Before the Score
Selling a Home?
Get Ahead of the Score.
Enter known Home Facts, preview likely issues, and explore improvements you might consider before an official assessment or listing. Homeowners and real estate professionals can start with what they know.
Start With Home Facts →After the Score
Buying a Home?
Turn the Score Into a Plan.
Upload a Home Energy Score to explore the findings, priorities, possible improvements, and planning-level costs. Prepare for a more informed conversation with contractors.
Upload a Home Energy Score →Seller: use GHP before the score. Buyer: use GHP after the score. City: create the bridge between them.
GHP provides preliminary, planning-level guidance. Qualified professionals confirm conditions, final scope, design, pricing, and required testing; official assessment, rebate approval, and quality-assurance requirements still apply.
The Human Connection
A Score Needs Somewhere to Go.
A Home Energy Advisor Keeps the Project Moving
Review the HES or Home Snapshot, explain priorities, sequence decisions, identify missing information, refer specialists, and prepare contractor requests.
Help homeowners understand planning budgets and incentives, compare bids, coordinate contractor conversations, and decide on their next step.
Test Who Can Deliver That Support Locally
The advisor could be an assessor, home inspector, nonprofit advisor, Green Home Coach, Green Home Sourcing Professional, whole-home contractor, independent advisor, or city-selected provider.
The pilot determines which local model works best.
One Home. Many Trades. Too Many Separate Scopes.
- HVAC
- Insulation
- Air sealing
- Electrical
- Ventilation
- Moisture
- Remodeling
These systems affect one another, but their work is often scoped separately. Conflicting recommendations and poor sequencing can mean duplicate visits, redesign, added cost, and homeowner confusion.
The House Operates as One System. The Project Should Too.
Specialized Energy Modeling Is Important. It Should Not Always Be the Front Door.
Not every field professional needs to become an energy modeler before participating. Formal assessment, diagnostics, and design remain essential when the project or program requires them.
Split the Work Instead of Duplicating It
Field Intake & Planning
Collect Home Facts, review existing documents, take photos, identify uncertain information, organize homeowner priorities, and prepare a useful specialist handoff.
Specialized Technical Work
Qualified professionals perform official HES and HERS work, BPI modeling, blower-door and combustion-safety testing, Manual J calculations, electrical evaluation, engineering, and required QA or certification.
Information Should Move Forward With the Home.
The homeowner should not have to rebuild the same project information every time another professional enters.
Build the Local Workforce
Start With People Who Already Know Homes
The pilot gives experienced residential professionals a practical role in home performance, with training and handoffs matched to what they are qualified to do.
HES Assessors / Raters
Give the report a next step: explore priorities and prepare a professional handoff. Assessors can support homeowner action without becoming contractors.
Home Inspectors
Build on systematic walkthroughs, condition reports, photos, and homeowner explanations to create an early Home Snapshot.
HVAC Contractors
Use an urgent comfort or equipment need to surface envelope, duct, electrical, ventilation, and moisture issues that affect the project.
Remodelers / General Contractors
Build on existing trade coordination. Get home performance a seat at the table before walls close.
Envelope / Insulation Contractors
Contribute shared Home Facts about insulation, air leakage, moisture, and conditions that affect other trades.
Whole-Home Contractors
Bring multiple trades together and potentially carry the homeowner through most of the pathway, with specialist support where needed.
Training for the Role. Practice on Real Homes.
Training can be delivered with GreenHome Institute and other qualified training partners depending on pilot design. GreenHome Institute is a U.S. Department of Energy Home Energy Score Partner.
Green Home Coach
Home Facts, homeowner priorities, basic building science, GHP use, missing-information recognition, specialist referral, and practical next steps.
Green Home Sourcing Professional
Project sequencing, contractor sourcing, bid preparation and comparison, trade coordination, and follow-up.
Whole-Home Contractor Pathway
Integrated project development, cross-trade coordination, the GHP planning workflow, verification gates, and final proposal development.
Established credentials and applied pilot roles
Established credentials may include DOE Home Energy Score Certified Assessor, HERS Rater, BPI credentials, Certified GreenHome Professional, and relevant trade licenses or certifications. Their own requirements remain in place.
Green Home Coach and Green Home Sourcing Professional are applied pilot roles, not DOE credentials. Training partners provide education and professional development; qualified local professionals deliver assessment, guidance, verification, design, pricing, installation, and QA.
AI Assists. Human Know-How Delivers the Results.
efficiencyUSA coordinates the program. Green Home Predictor supports the planning workflow. Trained people provide judgment and homeowner guidance.
The Action Gap
Diagnosing the Home Is Not Enough.
A 2018 evaluation of Minnesota’s Home Energy Squad Residential Engagement Pilot shows why follow-through belongs in the delivery model.
Someone still needs to help homeowners move through Score → Explore → Renew the Core.
of web survey respondents had completed none of the recommended improvements.
of respondents who completed at least one upgrade said they would not have done the recommended work without additional pilot services.
Source: Maddie Hansen and Cael Warren, Evaluation of the Home Energy Squad’s Residential Engagement Pilot, prepared for CenterPoint Energy and the Center for Energy and Environment, Wilder Research, April 2018, pp. 5 and 9. These are self-reported findings from that pilot, not GHP results.
Fit the Local Program
Build the Missing Connections. Keep the Systems That Already Work.
GHP can support planning before or between assessment, modeling, rebate, approval, and QA steps. Existing implementers, nonprofits, and contractor networks remain part of the local delivery system.
- Home Energy Score
- HERS
- BPI
- Utility audits
- Home inspections
- City disclosure ordinances
- Rebate systems
- Implementers & nonprofits
- Contractor networks
- QA systems
Working alongside these systems does not imply an automated software integration or substitute for their required procedures.
Designed to Complement Existing Energy Programs
HOMES & HEEHR
Organize home information, missing facts, and project sequencing before required program steps. Official eligibility, savings calculations, rebate approval, and compliance remain with approved systems and qualified professionals.
TREC & Workforce Programs
Use real homes for applied contractor training and development, building on prior residential experience. Program participation and funding depend on the sponsoring program’s requirements.
Many Funding Sources. One Local Delivery System.
Potential sources include municipal sustainability, state energy, utility, workforce development, contractor training, and rebate administration funds; philanthropy, market transformation, corporate sponsorship, and homeowner-paid services; or public/private combinations.
Funding eligibility and compliance depend on the specific program and funding source.
Bring Score → Explore → Renew the Core to Your Community.
Every community should have a practical way to understand its homes—and a practical way to help homeowners improve them.
Score the Homes. Explore the Opportunities. Renew the Core.