Optimizing Building Performance
The Essential Role of Energy Raters in Quality Assurance and Sustainability
Published October 29, 2024
The Unique Role of Energy Raters in Quality Control and Assurance
Energy raters occupy a somewhat unique position in the building ecosystem. The nature of our work, at scale, means that we work with and see an incredibly broad swath of the building industry in the geographies we work across. We work with a diverse range of builders, from high-end custom builders to large-scale production builders. Our role centers on identifying errors or misalignments—essentially, pinpointing what went wrong. Of course, that is the nature of quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA), which are intimately related. Many, perhaps most of our partners, don’t fully recognize that in our work as HERS Raters, we are addressing both QC and QA when we do our work well.
From Detection to Prevention
Most of our work, as it currently stands, centers on quality control, with a focus on detection and correction. We identify problems, choose an appropriate path for correction, and move on, confirming corrections later. However, when at our best, we use this information to enhance quality assurance, shifting the focus to prevention and proactive measures. When done thoughtfully and with intentionality, QA and QC are iterative and inform each other seamlessly. We realize that our work is limited in scope, as we only work on energy and sustainability-specific aspects of the build.
Empowering Builders Through Insightful Analysis
We are also a very data-driven company. We have a truly staggering amount of data available to us. As you might expect, much of it isn’t particularly useful or actionable, but much of it is. Our greatest desire is to help our builder partners leverage the data we have to do better. We are at our best when we recognize a pattern of failed inspections that can lead us to action. That action might be as simple as a one-to-one conversation within a specific project. Or we may see a systemic failure on the part of a specific trade that would likely lead us to want to do some training and education to try to course-correct.
DASH: Your Data at Your Fingertips
All of this data is readily accessible on your Builder Dashboard in our DASH system, available to both you and our team with just a click. On your company-specific page, you can see a wide range of relevant data and how you compare to our other clients. This data is a powerful tool for reducing errors and re-inspections, helping keep projects on track. It’s one part of what we have built over nearly two decades of work in our industry, and we’re always excited to talk about it.
If you are interested in diving into your Builder Dashboard, reach out and let us know. We'll help you get started right away.
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