How participating builders get incentives for building better homes
Steps for taking advantage of the program's highest incentive tier...
Talk to a participating Rater
The key to maximizing your rebates is working closely with your HERS Rater. Your Rater will evaluate your current plans and specifications, develop upgrade options, project your rebates, and process rebate applications on your behalf.
View the list of Participating Raters.
Sign up
The next step is to sign up as a participating builder. Check out the Home page to sign up.
You can participate selectively or across all of the homes you build. There is no penalty for failing to meet the Program's requirements.
(The participant application includes a number of fields that are not marked with red asterisks. These fields can be safely ignored.)
Upgrade
After working with your rater to decide on a set of upgrades that comply with the HERO code, begin installing upgrades in your new starts. Insulation levels can be "traded" in the HERO compliance calculations (handled by your rater). For example, you can reduce attic insulation if you make up for it by adding wall insulation or framed floor insulation. (Each home design will behave slightly differently and trade-offs should be considered with a Rater's input.)
The program requires that all homes achieve 4 ACH50 on blower door testing and 4% duct leakage (LTO) on duct blaster testing. All rebates are based on kWh savings.
Get verified
Your HERS Rater will inspect each home at least twice: at insulation/rough-in and at final. The inputs the Rater verifies and gathers onsite will be fed into that home's energy model. After HERO compliance is confirmed at final, your rater will submit the needed documentation to the program.
Get paid
After your Rater submits your home for incentive processing, the program will review the documentation. HERO compliance and annual kWh savings will be verified using the same incentive calculation process that your Rater used to develop projected incentives at the beginning of the process.
Builders receive incentive checks in the mail within 4-6 weeks from submission date.