AlabamaWISE and Energy Star Contractor Training Requirements

AlabamaWISE is a community energy non-profit and AlabamaWISE works with homeowners to ensure complete satisfaction with contractor performance, quality work standards, measurement and verification of home performance and energy savings toward community energy self-sufficiency goals. Our energy modeling tools, home energy label, financing, and consumer information are designed to empower homeowners to take control of monthly home energy costs by cutting waste and inefficiency – right in our own homes!

Our Advisor blog is here as a resource to simplify the often confusing array of choices and completing claims for green homes. Energy efficient home improvements help keep homes affordable for owners and renters. Don’t fix your home without it! AlabamaWISE has a climate specific solution for almost every home improvement – kitchens, baths, laundry, siding, windows, duct systems, air sealing, crawl space encapsulation, attic encapsulation, plus, the core energy system – insulation and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning).

Training requirements for AlabamaWISE contractors cover building science knowledge and use a systems approach to home improvements impacting energy, health and comfort performance and they align with the EPA Home Performance with Energy Star program.

Traditionally every trade in construction has only been concerned with their own specialty — the heating contractor installed HVAC systems, the insulation contractor only installed insulation. This often results in a mismatch between components, resulting in wasted energy, rooms too hot or too cold, mold, moisture and indoor air quality problems. Home performance contractors have added skills to address those common home comfort issues with solutions that also work better and save energy.

Buildings use about 40% of all energy in the US economy and researchers started looking at how homes use energy. This research developed a systems understanding of homes using building science principals with diagnostic tests to quantify building characteristics. Performance tested home improvement is the added benefit from AlabamaWISE contractors.

The Building Analyst Certification from the Building Performance Institute (BPI)verifies each contractor has the training and competency to apply building science concepts of the house as a system to optimize home performance results. BPI standards include diagnostic testing to identify health and safety benchmarks for indoor air quality, such as ventilation requirements, Carbon Monoxide levels, moisture, vermiculite, roof leaks. The BPI certified AlabamaWISE contractors.