The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved the Air Conditioning Contractors of America’s (ACCA) “Existing Homes Evaluation and Performance Improvement Standard” (ACCA 12 QH-2011). The standard is the first industry developed nationally recognized consensus standard on home performance. It sets the performance requirements for energy audits and home energy performance improvements. The standard was developed in cooperation with RESNET. The RESNET Energy Smart Contractor Task Force led RESNET’s participation in the development of the ANSI building performance standard. The ACCA ANSI standard incorporates the following RESNET standards: • “RESNET National Home Energy Audit Standard” (Chapter 7) • “RESNET Standard for Performance Testing and Work Scope Enclosure and Air Distribution Leakage Testing” (Chapter 8 ) The new ANSI standard establishes how to: • Collect data on different aspects of a home (energy, water use, comfort and indoor air quality • Compare the data collected to benchmarks of performance and perform cost/benefit analysis on the recommended performance improvements • Prioritize and present the performance improvements to the client. • Perform the work to improve the energy performance of the home • Perform test-out inspection and testing of the work that was performed. “ACCA is proud to offer the home performance community with the first standard for existing homes that is in line with our other ANSI recognized standards,” said Paul T. Stalknecht, ACCA president and CEO. “This new standard provides clear guidelines for how to properly evaluate homes, provide homeowners with appropriate solutions, and then perform the work. And, by requiring third-party verification to ensure that the work was performed correctly, gives more credibility to the contractors who are following the standard and sets them apart.” “We are happy to work with ACCA to create this standard for existing homes,” said Steve Baden, executive director of RESNET. “RESNET will use the standard as the foundation for its Energy Smart Contractor designation. Having an ANSI standard for existing homes will make the entire industry stronger as a whole.” To download the standard, click on http://www.acca.org/Files/?id=824
