The Certification Guarantee
When you’re working with NHCO™, we walk you through every step of the process to make it simple to get ENERGY STAR® or Zero Energy Ready Home certification. We guarantee that every home you complete while following our process and utilizing our trained National Home Certification Verifiers will achieve the desired certification level.
ENERGY STAR®
The Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® program has become an international staple in the energy performance industry since it launched in 1992, and achieving ENERGY STAR® certification is the gateway to tax incentives for builders, developers, and owners. More than 2 million units, both single-family and multifamily, have earned the ENERGY STAR® certification since the certification program started in 1995.
With the new provisions in the Internal Revenue Code Section 45L, tax credits are available for homes that meet the building requirements for certification under the ENERGY STAR® Residential New Construction Program. For each single-family new construction residence, a builder is eligible for $2,500 in tax credits for meeting ENERGY STAR® Residential New Construction Program requirements, and each unit in a multifamily construction project can earn $500 or more for meeting the ENERGY STAR® Multifamily New Construction National Program requirements.
NHCO™ wants to make those incentives even more accessible by guaranteeing that builders who work with them will achieve ENERGY STAR® certification so long as they follow the NHCO™ established certification process. Each builder will have a personalized consultation, evaluating the current building processes to find optimizations and opportunities. We will build you a punch list to ensure ENERGY STAR® certification. As long as you adhere to these guidelines created in conjunction with NHCO™, we guarantee that your homes will be ENERGY STAR® certified.
Don’t leave money on the table – work with NHCO™ to ensure that you are getting every possible credit for the hard work you do building energy efficient homes.
Zero Energy Ready Homes
Since 2013, The Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Homes program has maintained the highest standards for energy efficient building in the United States. Their standards are designed to ensure that any home The Department of Energy certifies as Zero Energy Ready Homes have “outstanding levels of energy savings, comfort, health, and durability”, and their rigorous requirements ensure that each home with their mark meets this standard. These homes are considered high-performance, because they are so energy efficient that a renewable energy system could offset most or all of the home’s annual energy use.
If you’re building incredibly energy efficient homes, you might qualify for tax credits under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Homes program. Getting ZERH certified is more rigorous than ENERGY STAR®, but doing so comes with even more tax benefits. Each single-family ZERH home qualifies for $5,000 in tax credits, and a multi-family unit qualifies for $1,000 – meaning you could double your credits if you make the leap!
NHCO™ is prepared to review your building processes and market to ensure you take every step necessary to get your homes certified as DOE Zero Energy Ready Homes. Building from our ENERGY STAR® certification guarantee, NHCO™ will help you create a punch list of energy efficiency building standards that will guarantee your home to get ZERH certification. As long as you adhere to these guidelines created in conjunction with NHCO™, we guarantee that your homes will be ZERH certified.
WaterSense
WaterSense labeled homes meet consumers’ demand for a whole-house solution to help them save water, energy, and money while maintaining a high level of performance.
WaterSense labeled homes must be at least 30 percent more water-efficient than typical new construction. Under the Homes Certification System, they are verified and certified to meet EPA’s Mandatory Checklist and achieve EPA’s water efficiency criteria demonstrating that the home will use at least 30 percent less water than a typical home. Each Home Certification Organization (HCO) uses its own WaterSense Approved Certification Method (WACM) to measure this. When paired with a mandatory checklist, the requirements of the WACM ensure that a WaterSense labeled home is both water-efficient and high-performing.
NHCO is a certified EPA WaterSense HCO, and can provide verification on homes built and verified through NHCO.
Indoor airPlus
Indoor airPLUS is a voluntary partnership and labeling program that helps new home builders improve the quality of indoor air by requiring construction practices and product specifications that minimize exposure to airborne pollutants and contaminants. Clean air is good for everyone’s health, but it can be especially important to those who have chronic respiratory conditions.
To earn the Indoor airPLUS label, the builder includes additional design and construction features to help protect occupants from moisture and mold, pests, combustion gases and other airborne pollutants. Before the home officially earns the Indoor airPLUS label, it is inspected by an independent third-party to ensure compliance with EPA’s rigorous guidelines and specifications.
NHCO™ is a verification organization for Indoor airPlus certification, and can provide verification on homes built and verified through NHCO.
Nationally Standardized Calculations under NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM
NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM offers cloud-based software advisory and consulting services, and more.
If you’ve worked in the energy efficient building industry for a while, you are familiar with the complexities of modeling and verifying a home. Every rater has built their own process that they apply to all of their homes, but every rater’s process has always been different.
That’s where NHCO™ is different.
NHCO™ has built a comprehensive NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM services software that takes the calculations out of the shadows and into the light.
Each National Home Certification Verifier will follow the same process, and our NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM software handles the rest. This way, builders can be sure that every home that is rated with NHCO’s NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM software services meets a national, rigid standard of accuracy and quality. And, at the same time, under such NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM services software offered to others, it allows for the development of specific accreditation standards for commercial and residential construction services providers to the order and specification of others. And, as a result, the NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM software services allow others to test, analyze and evaluate commercial as well as residential construction service providers to determine conformity with established accreditation standards relating to that structure’s energy consumption. Our National Home Certification Verifiers can also feel confident knowing that their ratings are being done the right way the first time, and with less effort on their part.
The complexities in the rating process are no longer a variable tying a builder to a single rating organization – meaning builders have more flexibility to find new verifiers and verifiers have a whole new market of builders to work with. We want to help you build your business in an environment that gives you the support you need for success, whether you’re a builder or a National Home Certification Verifier.
Our NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM Software
NHCO™ has built its proprietary NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM software that changes the energy rating game.
If you’ve worked in the industry, you know that the existing software is outdated, and places all of the hard work on the shoulders of the verifiers. There are too many variables and inconsistencies – leading to different raters doing their work differently, and giving builders inconsistent results.
Our NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM software does things differently.
Utilizing the unified home modeling software and online verifier tools, we have built a bullet-proof foundation set on nationally standardized calculations, all within our NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM software. This makes the job of the verifiers faster and simpler – only tasked with reviewing and confirming the details of construction with our tablet application or online forms. No more difficult calculations or complicated spreadsheets to get your final rating – and more money in your pocket.
In addition, as another feature within our NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM software services, one has the added function of being able to collect data to assess oil and gas well production. Moreover, our NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM software services enable others to test, analyze and evaluate the goods and/or services of other third parties to determine conformity with established certification standards.
The NHCO™ Energy Rating Index
You might be familiar with other organizations and their rating indexes – NHCO™ has their own index to help give you context on how your home rating compares to others in the industry. This energy rating index is created based on the NREL OpenStudio ERI software, where the information added to the NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM software is used to create a reference home which the NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM services software can then compare to the projected energy efficiency of the actual home. This comparison gives us the Energy Rating Index value based on how the actual home performs, which will help us determine if a home is ENERGY STAR® or ZERH Certified.
To learn more or to request NATIONAL HOME CERTIFICATION SYSTEMSM, please contact us via the below “Contact Us” link.
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