As we all know, the New Year often brings a sense of starting fresh – a clean slate. And while this usually encourages resolutions, what if this year you took the opportunity to make the career change you’ve been after for years?

New Year, New Career?

You may already be aware, but heating costs are one of the top monthly expenses for homeowners. Heating and cooling costs can cost homeowners an arm and a leg if a home’s insulation isn’t up to snuff and there are heat leaks throughout the home, which is a common occurrence as homes age and settle. And this is just one area that a home energy assessor will learn to indicate and investigate for their clients. Becoming a Home Energy Advisor and learning the techniques and skills to help fix problems like these is an invaluable skill to either base your career on, or add to your existing skill set. Alone, you can use these skills to become a Home Energy Advisor, or you can get the certification and use these skills as a marketable add-on to your home repair, home inspection, or general contracting business. Either way, the fresh new start of a new year is a great time to consider this new venture.

Get Certified (Registered)

The certification (registration) process is relatively straightforward and should be an easy add-on to anyone who has already been trained as a home inspector, for instance. The course is relatively short, but it is intense and requires a fair amount of dedicated time. First you will need to complete an application and undergo an initial discovery meeting.

Upon acceptance into the program, your training will be broken into the following segments:

1. Prepare for and write a government entrance exam. Don’t worry, we have a training program for that.
2. Once successful, you will be enrolled into our online, Interactive Home Study Modules.
3. Attend 2 home energy assessments with an experienced energy advisor.
4. In Class ‘hands On’
5. Walk through the modelling of at least 2 home energy assessments with your instructor.
6. Three “On-Site” Home Energy Assessments, reviewed by your instructor.
7. Online BuyWise Academy practice exam in preparation for the final NRCan exam.

In order to be a certified (Registered) Energy Advisor, you will be required to complete the Energy Advisor Exam, and you will be able to undergo exam preparation for this to help ensure you are ready.

Once you’ve been completely certified (registered) and you’re out in the field, your education and hands-on experience will only help bolster what you’ve learned in the course, as every situation can provide unique learning experiences. There’s lots to know about the academy, and you can learn more and inquire here.

How You’ll Help

So you have the skills, the knowledge, and the certification (registration). What does it all mean? First and foremost, you’re in the business of saving people money. By making the homes you audit more efficient, you can be the saviour to the homeowner by slashing their electricity costs. The higher the efficiency, the better the home’s systems work, the less money it takes to keep them running at the same output. Secondly, you’re making the home more environmentally friendly and extending its lifespan. Using less electricity to do the same work is better on the environment as you’re cutting the kilowatt hours used, possibly drastically. There’s a handful of smaller benefits to these services as well, ranging from potentially increasing the home’s value, to possibly qualifying for rebates and refunds if any renovations are needed. Anyway, you cut it, performing energy audits will only benefit the home and the homeowners from almost every angle.

Ultimately, you could be a serious tradesman who only wants to expand your knowledge of homes and offer the widest range of services possible for your clients. Or possibly a general contractor looking to focus on a specialty service. Or, you are ready for a fresh start in a new career that is on the forefront of industry demands. In any case, getting into the business of providing home energy audits is not only a smart business move providing expanding horizons, but it’s a profoundly useful skill set to provide a money saving service that will have many subtle impacts over the course of the home’s life. As regulations and code also evolve, you’ll be future proofing your skills as these kinds of services are going to become extremely commonplace and needed by almost everyone in the real estate sphere, from realtors to home builders. Get ahead of the curve, learn it now to get in the experience people will be looking for when it becomes required.