Wood Stove Energy Audit Update

The Alliance continues to press for energy auditors to include wood stoves in their audits. Discussions with EPA, NYSERDA, BPI, state officials and others point to a near unanimous agreement that wood stoves deserve better representation in energy audits. The Alliance approached two of the main institutions in the energy audit space, BPI (Building Professional Institute) and RESNET (Residential Energy Services Network) and began initial exploratory talks.  We were also directed to the four companies who have accredited home energy software tools used by auditors. We contacted the representatives from these companies and found that none of the four include checklists for wood stove safety, which means home energy auditors who use this software most likely are not checking wood stoves.

The good news is that most of these software designers are interested  and willing to include information on wood stoves in future editions of their audit software. Andy Bardwell who represents the energy audit OptiMizer software said, “We'd like to include this type of safety checklist for wood stoves in future editions,” after looking over the wood stove energy audit checklist that the Alliance for Green Heat is developing.

The Alliance urges professional auditors and software developers to take a look at our checklist here and give us with feedback on how wood stoves can be better included in home energy audits.

2014 Update: BPI adopted voluntary standards for BPI accredited energy auditor to inspect wood and pellet stoves and make recommendations to homeowners.  However, because they are voluntary, as of 2017 it appears that they have not been used much.  To get these standards used by energy auditors,  state may have to make them part of the mandatory energy audit.  We expect states like New York, Vermont,  New Hampshire and Maine could benefit from this.  Please contact us if you are interested in helping to get these standards used more.