IRS released critical 45L clarification and rules. Importantly, homes must be certified and builders must collect the ENERGY STAR or ZERH certificate to substantiate their certification. No longer will an ‘affidavit’ report be needed. In this article we summarize the IRS notification to give you everything you need. to know about the requirements.

We’re introducing a new series where we highlight innovative products that raters and builders can use to optimize the energy performance of new homes. We’re kicking off this series with Aeroseal, a provider of proven air-sealing solutions for HVAC ductwork and building envelopes. By combing through our HERS data, we’ve found some major opportunities for builders to leverage their technology.

We’re thrilled to announce that RESNET’s Carbon Rating Index is now available in Ekotrope RATER in beta. The Carbon Rating Index provides a more accurate metric for measuring emissions that addresses when energy is used and how much of it is used. It calculates the carbon impacts of an individual house or building, without requiring any additional inspections. If you want to start modeling homes using the Carbon Rating Index in Ekotrope RATER, please reach out to us!

The Reports API feature enables tighter integration between Ekotrope RATER and your project management systems. It eliminates the need to manually complete repetitive tasks like sending batches of reports and certificates for different energy models and different programs to your builder clients. The Reports API integration with Inspection Sync allows you to automatically upload your inspection information to Ekotrope RATER and then, once the inspection results are completely updated, send all of the necessary reports to your builders.

After many months of work and gathering feedback from our rating partners, Ekotrope is proud to announce that our Reports API tool is officially live! The Reports API is a new tool that will allow project management software to request a specific report - like a code compliance document, HERS Certificate, or ENERGY STAR Certificate - for a specific energy model. The Reports API will then return a PDF report that your software can automatically email to a client, export, or post to a shared cloud drive.

Until now, the homebuilding industry has primarily relied on the combination of annual average emissions and the HERS Rating Index to measure the energy efficiency of new homes. While the HERS Rating Index is instrumental towards this effort, it does not paint the entire picture of carbon emissions. RESNET’s new Carbon Rating Index gives our industry reliable, accurate way to measure a home's energy usage and subsequent emissions. It signifies a critical shift towards decarbonization for the new construction industry and a major step in reaching our global climate goals.

2023 brings with it lots of changes to the regulatory landscape. There are many changes and opportunities for raters, builders, product manufacturers, and other industry stakeholders to decipher. But raters, builders, and building product manufacturers can overcome the housing market and regulatory challenges by strategically leveraging data to find low hanging fruit opportunities for these rebates and incentives and continue the growth in HERS Ratings and energy efficient products. We took a look at some high performing products with adoption discrepancies to understand the impact that better equipment would have on rebate and incentive compliance. In this analysis, we found thousands of dollars in untapped incentives.

Last month, we chatted with a few members of the EnergyLogic team about their roles at EnergyLogic and how they leverage Ekotrope’s Inspection Sync tool with their DASH platform to streamline the inspection and field data collection process. During the session, Sam and Jackson shed some light on how their organization uses Inspection Sync with DASH, how it’s sped up their processes, and more.

IECC 2021 was approved and finalized in 2021 and has gradually been adopted by states across the country. Montana, Nevada, Colorado, New Jersey, and a handful of municipalities have already adopted the new code while others such as Minnesota, Michigan, and Massachusetts have plans to adopt the code in some form in 2023. In this article, we will discuss the current state of homes passing and failing IECC 2021 based on Ekotrope Rating data as well as the building products that have significant impacts on passing rates.

Last month we sat down with Chris Urbanus, Director of Energy Services at Burgess, to discuss their business and how they leverage Ekotrope's Scenario Modeling tool to provide faster and more comprehensive guidance to their builders. You can read the highlights from our conversation here.

Growing a successful building product manufacturing business is more difficult than ever, but our 3 step process for attracting and winning more builder customers is designed to take your marketing and sales strategies to the next level.

Discover the value of scenario modeling for business product manufacturers with Ekotrope. Our builder portfolio comparison tool helps you connect with the right builders and provide value with insightful business analytics. Learn more with Ekotrope!

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has retroactively extended the previous version of the 45L Tax Credit to cover all homes purchased through the end of 2022. We see 19,798 energy models that pass 45L which have not downloaded their 45L compliance report. We are offering a turnkey analysis and report printing service for the 45L Tax Credit. By opting in to this service, you can save time and ensure your builders don’t leave any money on the table.

At the start of this 2022, it was announced that the SEER2 and HSPF2 product regulations go into effect January 1, 2023. The DOE determined that changes to the test procedure to better represent the average use cycle were warranted. They also determined that higher efficiency levels were technologically feasible and economically justified. As a result, there are a variety of changes that make the regulations more stringent and will impact modeling heating and cooling equipment in Ekotrope RATER.

The process of developing an effective new homes program however, is a tedious and difficult task. There are a lot of factors involved, and selecting the specific program requirements as well as the associated incentive amounts are difficult choices to make - made even more difficult because those decisions have huge financial impacts. Scenario Modeling can model how any individual or set of changes will impact the energy efficiency performance of recently constructed homes in your territory. This tool takes the guesswork out of developing and implementing a successful new homes program.

The version of the 45L Tax Credit that our industry has leveraged for over 15 years expired on December 31, 2021, meaning that there is no active 45L Tax Credit for homes built and sold in 2022. The new 45L Tax Credit - if the bill passes - will be extended for 10 years, using Energy Star and the DOE’s Net Zero Ready Home program as baselines for eligibility.

The issue of duplicate data entry in the field data collection process is one that pervades throughout the rating industry. It’s tedious, time-consuming, and prone to error. Eliminating duplicate data entry from process would save you time, money and unnecessary headaches. That’s why we’ve developed Inspection Sync! Read more to learn about how it works and to check out a step-by-step tutorial for easily integrating it with your existing workflow.

Our team is very excited to share that we have officially eclipsed 750,000 HERS Ratings completed in Ekotrope RATER. Our team has been working tirelessly to continue to improve the application for all of our customers and we are so grateful to all of you who trust us with your livelihood each day. We are committed to developing tools that make your work easier and that aid you in supporting your builders needs. Thank you all for your continued support!

While air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) are the second most popular heating system for new construction homes in the U.S. they still only account for about a quarter of all heating systems in homes submitted via Ekotrope RATER. As we continue to strive to meet our nation’s goals for efficiency and electrification, ASHPs will be an increasingly important piece of that puzzle. We’re diving into why ASHPs are so underutilized and how we can change it.

The first in-person RESNET Conference since 2020 is almost here! Ekotrope’s own Ziv Rozenblum, Cy Kilbourn, David Pedrick, and Jacob Kamen will be presenting 4 sessions that inform you on how to find the right energy efficient products for your projects, how to utilize our Scenario Modeling tool to achieve net-zero emissions, understand the impact of IECC 2021 for you and your builders, and a demonstration on how to make your field data collection process seamless utilizing Ekotrope tools.