Recertification in the Home Performance Journey

Improving a home’s performance brings plenty of fantastic benefits — greater comfort, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, resilience, safety, smart capabilities, water conservation, and value. Achieving high home performance is not a destination, but a journey. As technologies advance and appliances age, we must continue to make improvements toward creating a home that benefits our families, the environment, and our wallets through energy savings!

The Home Performance Journey

Every home is unique, as are the homeowner’s priorities. Therefore, there are many routes you could take on your home performance journey, and you can login to Pearl’s free Green Door app to create a customized Pearl Home Investment Plan^® to get you there. Although there is no one right route, a comprehensive home performance journey may look like:

1. Home energy audit with blower door test

2. Air sealing

3. Insulation

4. ENERGY STAR^®-rated windows

5. ENERGY STAR-rated exterior doors

6. Energy-efficient HVAC or heat pump

7. Solar panels

8. Tankless, heat pump, or solar water heater

9. Kitchen faucets, refrigerator, dishwasher, induction stovetop, and range hood

10. Smart home technology

11. Bathroom faucets, showerheads, and toilets

12. Electric-vehicle charger

13. Resilience against natural disasters common to the local climate

14. Home Certification

15. Revisit earlier steps that may need addressing

16. Recertification

Although you may not complete all the above steps, each improvement raises your home’s performance in a vital way.

What Is Recertification?

Of the above steps, recertification probably looks the most unfamiliar. Recertification is the process of adding new assets and home improvements to your Green Door account and then applying for a new certification.

Why Do I Need a Recertification?

A home certification captures a home’s performance level at a certain point in time. As you replace old appliances and make new improvements, your home’s performance improves, but unless you apply for a recertification, your existing certification does not capture the true, current state of your home.

Just as technologies (e.g., smart home devices, appliances, etc.) and building codes evolve, so must Pearl’s scoring system. Pearl reviews its scoring system at least every three years to ensure that our Pearl Certification captures the latest industry standards and trends. Just as a 2020 heat pump decreases in efficiency with age, so must the asset’s point allocation diminish with time. A recertification reflects how your home performs compared to current homes and modern building codes.

When Do I Need a Recertification?

Recertifications are essential to obtaining the maximum return on investment when refinancing or when selling your home. Many home performance features, such as insulation, air sealing, and windows are either hidden behind walls or their energy-efficient status is not apparent just by looking at it. Therefore, a recertification provides investment-grade documentation, including a completed Appraisal Addendum, to ensure your home is properly valued by real estate agents, appraisers, lenders, and potential home buyers.

What’s Next?

Make sure your Green Door profile includes all your home’s appliances, improvements, and other energy-efficient features by submitting the necessary information in the My Home’s Assets tab of Green Door. After your profile reflects the points earned from the new assets, submit a request for recertification, also in the My Home’s Assets tab. The Pearl team is just an email away! Please send your questions to [email protected].