RESNET's standards are officially recognized by the U.S. mortgage industry for capitalizing a building's energy performance in the mortgage loan, certification of "White Tags" for private financial investors, and by the federal government for verification of building energy performance for such programs as federal tax incentives, the Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR program and the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Program.

RESNET Ratings provides a relative energy use index called the HERS^® Index - a HERS Index of 100 represents the energy use of the "American Standard Building" and an Index of 0 (zero) indicates that the Proposed Building uses no net purchased energy (a Zero Energy Building). A set of rater recommendations for cost-effective improvements that can be achieved by the Rated Building is also produced.

RESNET standards encompass three areas:

• Software accreditation achieved by passing a battery of software verification tests developed by U.S. National Laboratories and RESNET
• Definition of knowledge base and skill sets that a rater must demonstrate through passing an online RESNET National Rater Test
• A quality assurance evaluation that features each Rating Provider employing a certified Quality Assurance Designee. The Quality Assurance Designee must annually independently verify internal consistency of a minimum 10% of all building input files and independently field verify the accuracy of a minimum of 1% of each certified Rater's homes

For more information on RESNET click on What is RESNET.

For information on membership to RESNET click here.