A Home Energy Rating (HERS) is a key component of a home energy audit, a tool to help your home meet ENERGY STAR Efficient Guidelines. Why is this important for solar installations?
Going solar is an exciting decision to make, but you should take certain preliminary measures before you install a system. An energy audit is one of those measures and arguably the most important. Reducing your energy usage means that a solar energy system will offset a greater percentage of that usage: you’ll save more on electricity costs in the long run, and your home solar system will pay for itself more quickly. Some states even encourage energy audits by rewarding homeowners who do them with a higher solar rebate level.
The HERS rating is essentially a total analysis and diagnosis of how energy efficient a home’s construction plan is. What comes out of the HERS inspection is an index scoring, which is established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET).
The index score (0-100) is given by comparing the inspected home to a HERS Reference Home: the HERS Reference Home has a score of 100 (least energy efficient), while a net-zero energy home has a score of 0. Each one point score reduction is equal to a one percent reduction in energy consumption compared to the reference home. For example, if a home receives a HERS score of 70, that means it is 30 percent more energy efficient than the HERS Reference Home.
An energy audit that gives your home a HERS rating is an important step to take before investing in a renewable energy system because once you receive your initial score, the auditor will work with you to make energy efficiency improvements–the lower your score after the improvements are made, the more energy efficient your house is and the better prepared you are for solar. And incidentally, a solar installation or other on-site power generation won’t reduce your HERS score.
To find out other steps you should take before going solar on your home or business, check out 5 Things To Do Before You Get Solar.
Good Blog on HERS rating. You don’t see enough solar companies promoting home owners to improve energy efficiency. Since a HERS rating is done by a third party the home owner can have confidence in the reports accuracy. A whole house energy audit including a Duct Test and Blower Door Test are important to determine the amount of leakage in a home.