Quality Assurance Procedures

Quality assurance is a required component of any Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program

and essential to maintaining a good reputation. It also reassures homeowners that participating

contractors will be held accountable for the work they perform. A quality assurance plan should be an

integral part of the program design and the policies and procedures for participating contractors.

Having a plan will help streamline delivery and avoid information gaps that some programs have

experienced. It will determine how and what information contractors will submit for review. This

information will become the basis of future program evaluation activities.

Home Performance with ENERGY STAR requires quality assurance through either: (1) a rigorous

certification and accreditation process; or (2) oversight and inspection by a qualified third party.

These two quality assurance options are described below.

Certification and Accreditation

This quality assurance approach requires certification and accreditation of participating

contractors that is at least as rigorous as accreditation and technical certifications of the Building

Performance Institute (BPI). Accreditation indicates that the contractor (business) commits to

perform all work according to consensus-based building science standards and use certified

technicians to oversee appropriately-trained crews. To meet accreditation requirements, the

contractor must also establish internal quality control and consumer complaint procedures and

agree to oversight by the certifying/accrediting body or program administrator. Certification

indicates that technicians possess minimum competency in core subject areas for participation

in the program. The certification requirements must include both written and performance-based

skill evaluations, which focus on consensus-based building science standards in all relevant

subject areas .

Inspection Oversight

In this quality assurance approach the program administrator is responsible for ensuring that

participating contractors receive building science training sufficient to perform diagnostic testing

and properly install improvement measures. The program administrator, or a designated agent,

must also directly inspect the completed work at no less than a 15% sampling rate to ensure that

cost-effective recommendations are being presented to homeowners and improvements are

completed according to established standards. Program administrators should develop a

sampling protocol to randomly evaluate each participating contractor’s work, including a review

of home assessments, evaluation of recommended and installed measures, and on-site field

verification. Job inspection sampling should reflect the contractor’s entire geographical service

area and various technicians to gain an accurate sense of the contractors’ performance.

New York’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program is a good example of the use of the

certification and accreditation approach. Participating contractors are required to be accredited by

BPI. BPI accreditation applies to a company and must be renewed annually. Accreditation

requirements include: having at least one technician on staff who has a BPI specialist certification;

liability and worker’s compensation insurance; and use of a qualifying quality assurance system.

Contractors agree to perform all work to BPI standards and report on a semi-annual basis to BPI. The

New York Energy Research and Development Authority reimburses a portion of the accreditation fees

for participating contractors.

A good example of the use of the inspection oversight approach is Austin Energy’s Home

Performance with ENERGY STAR program. All participating contractor’s supervisory staff, sales staff

and key weatherization personnel must attend classroom and field training sessions. Contractors

must also complete an annual program registration and attend monthly meetings about the program.

Austin Energy staff complete field inspections on at least 15% of projects completed by each

contractor and review 100% of the paperwork for incentives.

Corrective Actions

All program administrators need to establish policies and be prepared to respond to poor contractor

performance. If a contractor continues to deliver poor quality or disregard program requirements after

intervention by the program administrator they should be restricted from participation in the program.

If a contractor negatively affects the health and safety of homeowners, corrective actions should be

taken immediately to limit the contractor’s participation and review their performance.