Readers Discuss Issue of BPI Certification

[Editor’s note: The following letters are in response to Mike Murphy’s editorial “Why BPI? Where is NATE? Where is HVAC Excellence?” May 17.]

Where's the BPI Testing?

I am a BPI analyst. We as a company have been trying for a year to have our employees tested in BPI’s [Building Performance Institute’s] Heat Professional and BPI’s AC/HP Professional. It is not available in the Southeast, although I have a “we might offer” Heating Professional this upcoming September and November from those BPI Training Affiliates that offer these certifications; there is no commitment, though. (And we are a predominantly heat pump area so really need the other offering as well.)

To become a BPI-certified firm offering HVAC, we need these certifications. As I see it now, only a few states will benefit from BPI-certified contractors in HVAC as current Home Star legislation is written, just due to lack of opportunity for those certifications.

I have absolutely no problem with third-party verification, or that my “certified workers” have to be NATE certified. I have a problem with a law that is limited by lack of available resources to even think about investing in compliance before it is even signed into law.

Laurie Schumann
Comfort Central
Pisgah Forest, N.C.

Working Together to Make It Work

It is far easier and more beneficial for everyone (homeowner, contractor, our nation) if we encourage the industry to adopt the BPI [Building Performance Institute] standards rather than dilute the Home Star requirements. Diluting the requirements would remove the very component that will make it the most successful - the thorough analysis of the home’s performance on which a plan of action is based.

As Murphy mentioned, there is a lack of BPI-certified individuals. BPI and RESNET [Residential Energy Services Network] have standards in place that will make the training of the HVAC industry easier and quicker than reinventing the wheel.

I believe that a partnership between the HVAC groups Murphy mentioned and BPI makes the most sense. It’s not a matter of whose name is on the bill. It’s a matter of how successfully the program is implemented.

Isaac Savage
Home Energy Partners
Asheville, N.C.

Send correspondence via e-mail to letters@achrnews.com.

Publication date:06/14/2010