Passivhaus Builder certification and BPI Building Analyst certification
Hi,
I am at the beginning stages of getting my Class A Builder’s License in Virginia. Apart from that whole process of getting a contractor’s license, I was wondering if getting certified as a Passivhaus Builder or BPI Building Analyst is beneficial not only for expanding my knowledge and creativity, but also from an economic and networking standpoint. Has anyone received new clients or jobs from being listed as Passivhaus or BPI certified? Has anyone gotten hired to a great new job from being certified?
I understand I will learn a lot from the courses, but at least for the Passivhaus training, is it worth $800 and a week off to go to New York or Vermont? It seems a lot of the concepts are already covered here on GAB and dozens of other places on the web (JLC and Fine Homebuilding).
I have already applied a lot of Passivhaus concepts when I built my first house on my farm. Currently, I’m building another house using a double stud wall. See picture.
I am hoping some of the members on here who have taken these or other certifications/courses can give their reviews and opinions.
Sincerely,
Jimmy Nguyen
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
Jimmy,
GBA has published a few articles and Q&A threads on the training required to become a Passive House Consultant. Here are some links:
So You Want to Be a Passivhaus Consultant?
Passive House Training, One Year Later
Passive House Consultant training
Jimmy,
Here are links to a GBA article and Q&A threads on BPI certification:
Designation Exhaustion
BPI certification
BPI certification options
Building science options
Thanks Martin. You are like an encyclopedia. It looks like I'll try to do both. I was thinking that getting more certifications would also help in getting loans to build spec houses. Banks may want to see qualifications other than "I built my own house."
It seems I also have to apply to be accepted into the PHIUS training. I hope it's not too stringent of an acceptance process.
Jimmy,
Depends on what your end goal is.
-If you want to be a consultant from the get go then the classroom is the route as they will teach the paperwork end of the process.
-But if the goal is to actually build one then your time on site is most valuable. This is where everyone who takes the classes really learns the lessons.
Your house design is pretty straight forward and the easiest route to learning WHILE getting it done is to work with a consultant on your first project who has done it before. They will model the house for you and share the details and materials necessary to go from typical to PH. There are many good consultants in VA already.
Putting a week of your time on the site to do the air sealing (while talking to your consultant or asking questions on GBA) will be much more educational than a week in the classroom. And, a good consultant will impart most, if not all of the knowledge gained from the class to you during the project process. And the knowledge will be precise to your building type and region.
Just depends on where you want to take it.
BTW, I've built many PH so far and banks don't seem to care yet. In the same way they don't care about resiliency or back up generators. Unless their is a strong market segment that changes their mind then it's just another house to them. Maybe they'll care about PH + solar for net-zero? We'll see. (Specialized private investors are a little different.)
AND, in 6 years I've never been asked if I'm a certified designer. It all has to do with that first project and what level of success it was.
Good luck.
Update - I finished the Building Science class by a certified BPI instructor and it was great. A lot of the information was basic, but there were sections that cleared up a lot of concepts for me. For example, the sections about relative humidity, dew points, and condensation was great. The math refreshers were great too (learning about BTUs, Kwhs, therms, U-factor, Pascals, CFM, ACH, and converting between the units and using them in equations).
Of course, the best part of the class is the in-depth questions you can ask the teacher and your fellow classmates. I also learned a lot from my classmates. For example, one classmate was a pest inspector and told me termites are not that much of a problem for us in Virginia. He says he gets hundreds of calls to deal with pests, but in a given year only 2-3 are for termites. He guesses that disease or change in climate has reduced the termite population.
Also, two other classmates were Ambit Energy contractors who educated me on natural gas and electricity deregulation. Their business model is to get customers to sign up 15 other people and they would get free gas or electricity for life. What a great model! They were taking the BPI class to get certified in order to do Dominion Home Energy audits were they could also sell homeowners on their energy program.
Lastly, my teacher sent me Michael Blasnik's Simple Spreadsheet for Energy Modeling. I was looking everywhere for it online and couldn't find it.
For $175 and 4 classes - I think it was worth the money. Next up - the BPI building analyst class.
Jimmy,
Thanks for taking to time for an update, and good luck!
Jimmy-
I'm wondering who your teacher was -- no one has a license to share the spreadsheet version of the calculator with anyone. I licensed the rights to the algorithms to a couple of software companies and so haven't released any public version. Your copy is not only pirated, but is also almost certainly outdated -- it has undergone several revisions and bug fixes that haven't been shared with the small group who had received copies of the original version.
Jimmy-Ambit energy appears to be a multi-level marketing scheme. Whether it's a great business model or not is open to debate. Personally, I'd be seriously upset if I engaged an energy auditor who tried to sell me on using a particular electricity supplier because the auditor would get a commission from the supplier.
Michael Blasnik's post raises a different ethical concern.
I'd be interested in whether anyone from Virginia can confirm the alleged lack of termites there.
I'm glad the course proved useful to you.
Hi Michael,
I was not aware that your spreadsheet was not available to the public. I will definitely tell my teacher about this issue. I will gladly pay for my pirated version or delete it if you prefer.