5 things you can do to ensure High Quality, Consistent Energy Audits for your Weatherization Program
Posted on Wed, Mar 09, 2011 @ 07:44 PM
During a meeting today, a Weatherization Project Leader asked us: “How can I tell if my energy auditors are performing their audits correctly?”
It’s a great question. Energy auditors are a critical part of your program - they identify the existing state of a dwelling through a detailed analysis, identify the measures that should be taken to reduce the energy consumption of a home, and record their findings for use by agencies and subcontractors. Auditors are a pivotal part of the process.
With so much riding on the auditors’ work being consistent and accurate, it is important to help the auditing team achieve high caliber results.
But, how can you ensure audits are consistently implemented?
1) Give Auditors a tool which enables thorough, consistent examination of homes.
The first key to success is to provide auditors with a tool that enables consistent, easy entry of all critical home analysis components for all home types they will be analyzing.
Make sure you provide them with a tool that walks through all critical home components including: Lighting, Windows and Doors, Walls, Attic, Basement, DHW, Air Infiltration, Combustion, Zonal distribution, and Heating and Cooling.
The tool must be easy-to-use, and flexible enough to ensure that homes in different climates with different variations on condition, make, and type are able to be input without a hassle.
One tool that enables a complete, field-tested and state approved data collection system is HEAT for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Check out this video to see how easy it is to use, your auditors will love it.
2) Have Auditors Take & Upload pictures during the Audit.
The DOE found that consistency is better achieved when images of the findings are recorded at each stage of the weatherization program – from audit and implementation to inspection. Provide your auditors with a solution, like HEAT , where digital images can be taken of all of the areas of an audit, and stored with the electronic audit results – during every stage of the program.
This enables the images of areas to be compared before and after measures have been implemented. Storing the images with the digital audit results ensures that the audit can be revisited at any time, and analyzed accurately.
3) Make Auditors Enter data only once: on site
Handwriting has long been the bane of prescription translators, and weatherization prescriptions are no exception. A major way inconsistency and failure are introduced into the weatherization process is through data entry errors.
If your process requires someone to type audit results or measures into the work order system, or if you are handing paper, you significantly increase error and interpretation failures.
Ensure you have a system that brings you through the entire process without ever requiring repeat data entry – from client intake to reporting output. One system is WAP Online (which includes the HEAT energy Auditor solution), proven to be the soup-to-nuts solutions for audits and weatherization by eight states and more than 200 agencies.
4) Bring the data back to a centralized system that You can review. Live.
It is not enough to record the information digitally. You have to bring it all back to a centralized system which enables your auditors, inspectors, and monitors access the data through an internet connection for consistent handling of the job.
Once in a centralized location, you can perform spot checking on the data entry, compare it to the pictures, and run the entire process transparently.
See how the State of Maryland completed this across all of their agencies using the Hancock System and in the process increased their energy audit efficiency and quality throughout the state. With the centralized system, they are also able to determine which auditors and sub-contractors were performing at par vs ones who failed measures and spot-checks consistently.
5) Spot check from your chair
With all of your audit data centralized and access to the pictures of the area instantly, your internal team can perform checks on the audit quality without ever having to bother a home owner.
Take a few minutes to look at the audit data. Are there SIRs that are clearly out of line with other audits on similarly aged and modeled homes? Measures recommended that are inconsistent with photos? A lack of photographic evidence in general?
Performing these cursory checks can help you identify employees who need additional training, and eliminate failures before they ever reach a subcontractor.
The auditors I have met have been highly skilled technicians with a passion for energy consumption reduction. Giving auditors the integrated Energy Audit tool they need to perform their job eliminates the need to spend their time in the office performing data entry. It enables the auditors to concentrate on their passion – achieving a higher level of audits and consistency throughout the program - and gives you complete transparency into audits.
A full weatherization management solution added to a centralized auditing system will enable you to gain complete transparency and consistency on your full weatherization process.
A win-win.
See a demo of Hancock’s affordable Weatherization solutions today. http://www.hancocksoftware.com/demo/