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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the CBPCA Home Performance Contractor Verification Process

Your first Verification comes free with your CBPCA membership. Upon completion of your first Verification, you will be eligible to use CBPCA & ENERGY STAR logos, access to the password protected section of both websites, your company will be listed on the CBPCA website, and you will be first in line for homeowner referrals.

Q: How do I become a Verified CBPCA Home Performance contractor?
A: Participation in the CBPCA third-party verification program is a requirement for using the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® (HPwES) logos and name in your business marketing and materials. We are enforcing this requirement because HPwES requires our participating contractors to report their jobs quarterly and be third-party verified.

In order to qualify for access to the HPwES program logo and materials, you can become a Verified CBPCA Home Performance Contractor. Your first third-party verification is included with your membership at the Home Performance Contractor level. To join, you must have attended at least our HPwES Levels 1-2 training, complete the Professional Membership Application, pay the membership dues and use the CBPCA jobs data template to report any home performance jobs for 2008-09 that haven’t already been submitted electronically or in writing. Then contact CBPCA to schedule the appropriate number of verifications. Details are provided in the FAQ below.

Q: How do I stay eligible?
A: In order to stay eligible, trained contractors need to comply with the job reporting and verification requirements described below.

If a CBPCA Home Performance Contractor utilizes subcontractors for remediation and/or testing, we encourage the use of home-performance-trained subcontractors and testers. If a lead contractor teams with subcontractors and/or outside testers, then the lead contractor submits the job report and cooperates with verification requirements.

Here are the CBPCA Home Performance Contractor requirements::

1. If you haven’t already, complete the CBPCA Contractor Participation Agreement and follow the instructions on the CBPCA Home Performance Contractor application.
2. Use the CBPCA Jobs Data Reporting Template (xls) or Jobs Data Reporting Template (pdf) to report all home performance jobs. We suggest that you incorporate this information into your testing process and records collection system so you can be sure to collect this information while you are on site.
3. Work with CBPCA staff to schedule verifications for an average of 5% of your jobs. After verifying the first three to five jobs reported, CBPCA will select the jobs to be verified at random, and work with you to contact the homeowner and schedule the verification.See the CBPCA Verification Policy for details.
4. Contractors are required to maintain their jobs reporting and verification activity on an ongoing basis with CBPCA. Contractors who do not report jobs and/or participate in the verification program for a given quarter will be dropped from the CBPCA Home Performance Contractor membership to the CBPCA Professional level and removed from the CBPCA website. No refunds will be given for the change in membership status.

Q: What if I am a subcontractor, tester, or a consultant who helps the homeowner pull together a team for a home performance job? Can I participate in the CBPCA Home Performance Contractor?
A: We recognize and value the participation of non-contractors who facilitate home performance jobs and encourage homeowners to sign up. We may establish categories for such participants in the near future with an appropriate set of benefits and requirements.

In the meantime, we encourage participants to sign up as CBPCA Member, if they haven’t already, so they can access our member benefits. We will use CBPCA Professional input to develop future benefits, including benefits for those members that aren’t currently eligible for the CBPCA Home Performance Contractor membership category. As the program grows, we hope to build a support structure that benefits all advocates of home performance. We support your advocacy of home performance and will always welcome feedback.

Q: What if I’m already a CBPCA Professional Member? What is the difference between "Professional Member" and the new "Home Performance Contractor"?
A: CBPCA Professional Members will retain all of their benefits until the end of their current 1-year membership cycle. Any paid Professional Member that qualifies for the new Home Performance Contractor category will be moved to this category automatically. Any Professional Member that does not yet qualify for the CBPCA Home Performance Contractor category will become a CBPCA Professional. Contractors may renew under one of the new categories at the end of their current 1-year membership cycle.

Q: For reporting, what counts as a “job”?
A: Each reported home performance job should include multiple measures that improved the energy efficiency and/or lowered energy waste in the home—savings that were possible because of what you learned through CBPCA training.

However, we understand that home performance jobs may be performed in stages, with only some of the multiple measures completed at a time. Please report what work has been completed and, if possible, what work is pending. For all jobs, please include any blower door/duct blaster testing results.

Please note: We are currently working with the utilities to develop the criteria for the 2010 home performance incentives. We will notify all CBPCA Home Performance contractors of the expected incentive program criteria as soon as they have been set. At that time, the requirements for participation may be revised to complement the new incentive program.

Q: Why do we need to report so much information on each job? Is all of this needed?
A: Much of the “required” data on the jobs reporting template are needed to properly calculate the energy savings achieved, which is a requirement of our sponsors, the utilities. The utilities provide the home performance incentives to CBPCA-verified contractors and their clients only if demonstrable energy savings can be documented. Your reporting is the only way we can track this and qualify you/your clients for incentives. We will do the energy savings calculations for pre/post-job reporting, although you can also do your own savings estimates earlier for sales purposes. .

Q: Do you need a copy of the actual utility bill for each homeowner I report? Can I provide annual averages of utility bills? Do you want the dollar amounts?
A: Please note that the utility bill data we need is the monthly energy units, not the dollars. We cannot use annual averages. Instead, we need the month by month energy used for 12 months. This is part of the energy savings modeling required by the utilities. We do not need actual copies of the utility bills, but we will accept them (in paper, FAX, scanned, etc.) if you do not have the monthly summary available to you.

Please note: we have instructions for homeowners on how to obtain a summary of monthly energy use from their utility’s website or by phone from their customer service hotlines—please feel free to share this document with your clients.

We also have third-party release forms for Southern California Edison/SoCal Gas and for PG&E. These forms are completed by the homeowner and give CBPCA access to their billing history for a two-to-three-year window, during which we will collect utility billing data for program analysis. We will work with the originating contractor to provide updates on customer energy use when reported to us directly. Contact Scott Fable for more information.

Q: Who will have access to this data?
A: CBPCA has recently posted its Privacy Policy. CBPCA will treat all contractor records—including jobs data – as confidential. Customer contact information may be shared with a utility sponsor under certain circumstances, in which case the utility sponsor will treat the information as confidential per the utility sponsor’s privacy guidelines. Sales data and contact information for individual homeowners will not be provided to any participant within CBPCA or other entity, except when expressly permitted by the originating contractor. The sponsoring utilities and ENERGY STAR require that we provide quarterly sales data by contractor, which will be held confidentially per their privacy guidelines. We may report aggregated sales averages for the entire CBPCA program. Please read the online Privacy Policy for details. Contact us if you have questions or concerns.