Frequently Asked Questions—Accredited Contractor
Program
BPI Accreditation is a
standards-based home performance program that aims to help you
differentiate your business from the competition. By ensuring
certified staff, quality management, and the delivery of consistent,
high-quality services on every project, BPI Accreditation helps you
raise the bar in home performance contracting. Accreditation is
voluntary, but it does require a true commitment to approach each
project from a house-as-a-system perspective and to meet
nationally-recognized BPI standards every time.
BPI Accredited
Contractors stand out from the crowd. By offering real solutions—not
quick fixes—you show that you’re serious about home performance
contracting.
- By educating customers on the value of the whole-home approach
and providing a comprehensive evaluation of their homes’ problems,
you avoid direct competition with the low-bid gang.
- Our recognized, stringent Quality Assurance Program gives your
customers peace of mind with an independent, third-party
verification that your work conforms to BPI standards.
- Accreditation earns you the right to use the BPI mark in
support of your sales efforts, differentiating your business based
on proven performance—not price.
Becoming a BPI Accredited Contractor is
relatively simple. Take the following steps.
- Review and agree to all BPI policies and procedures for
Accreditation and Quality Assurance
- Create quality management systems and customer dispute
resolution policies to ensure standardization and customer
satisfaction
- Employ BPI Certified Professionals
- Plan your approach for staging your Accreditation
- Submit all required forms (see Accreditation Application
Checklist)
- Pay the initial Accreditation and Quality Assurance fee of
$1,500
- Sign and return the individualized Accreditation Agreement
sent to you by BPI
- Renew accreditation every year
Yes. We offer
marketing support in the form of a national advertising campaign,
customized collateral material and public relations items that
include prepared articles you can offer to your local media to
educate your community and promote your business.
Employing BPI
Certified staff is proof that that your team has gone through
rigorous, credible training. BPI Certified Professionals know how to
apply house-as-a-system techniques in upgrading the performance of
homes. Your customers will appreciate that your staff can locate the
real problems and fix them without jeopardizing other systems in
their house. Happier clients mean more referrals, fewer callbacks
and greater profitability.
No, because it’s
not always necessary. However, you should let your customer know
that, as a BPI Contractor, a home performance assessment is always
an option.
The BPI Quality
Assurance Program (QAP) supplies you and your clients with an
independent, third-party inspection to ensure the delivery of
quality work that conforms to BPI Standards. We hire independent
inspectors—with no vested interests—to review your files and then
randomly sample a percentage of your sites for inspection. For you,
the program provides an essential quality feedback loop that can be
used for quality improvements. For your customer, it offers the
confidence of a job done right.
You can start by applying the
fundamentals of whole-home performance to all of your projects,
ensuring that you meet BPI Standards. You can now offer home
performance assessments to your customers. Make sure you’re
advertising your BPI Accreditation to give you the competitive edge
based on performance.
Homeowners need to
appreciate that all of the products and materials in their homes
produce a relatively complex system of interactions. Air leakage or
insufficient insulation, for example, can compromise the performance
of heating and air conditioning equipment. Leaky ducts may draw in
dust and other contaminants into the air that homeowners breath and
lose valuable conditioned air to the outside. That is why it is
important to help homeowners understand the importance of the
house-as-a-system approach.
Anyone. While no formal
experience is necessary to participate in most examinations, we
strongly recommend that you seek training from a BPI Affiliate and
have some experience in the building performance industry before
attempting any BPI certification designations. Of course, to achieve
certification, you must pass both written and field examinations as
set by BPI and proctored by BPI or one of its Affiliates.
The value
of being a BPI Certified Technician is in:
- Understanding the relationship between all the systems in the
house and its effect on occupant health, safety and comfort,
energy efficiency and durability
- Finding the real problem and fixing it, instead of putting a
bandage on one of the symptoms
- Getting the edge over low-bid, fly-by-night contractors
- Having the comfort of our Quality Assurance Program,
verification that your work was done right the first time
Want to learn more? Click here to download more information
For Small Homes Certification, you
can take:
- Building Analyst
- Building Envelope
- Manufactured Housing
- Heating
- Air Conditioning/Heat Pump
For Multifamily Building Certification, you can take:
- Multifamily Building Analyst
- Energy Efficient Multifamily Building Operators
- Multifamily Hydronic Heating System Design
- Multifamily Advanced Heating
No. Successful completion of
one certification examination (written and field practical) is
sufficient to become BPI Certified. If you want to expand your skill
set and business offering, we encourage you to take other BPI
certifications.
When we say that
we are “raising the bar in home performance contracting,” we’re
serious. We want to challenge technicians to get the skills
necessary to help homeowners diagnose and solve their home’s
problems. The 100—question written tests and two-hour field tests
are challenging. Not everyone passes. Those who fail the test can
schedule to take the test again.
|
