Educating students on environmental science has been a growing trend, but as energy efficiency continues to experience an innovative industry overhaul, more schools are beginning to see the benefits in educating the next generation of HERS raters. Ekotrope recently partnered with Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Arizona, Daran Wastchak of Learning Edge, LLC, and Arizona Public Service (the largest electric utility in Arizona) to offer a course on building science, energy efficiency and home energy ratings.

Despite expiring on December 31st of 2017, the Federal 45L Tax Credit has been retroactively extended through 2018 and 2019 and will continue to be effective throughout 2020. The credit incentivizes energy efficient homes by giving builders a $2,000 tax credit for building them. There have been no modifications made to the original credit prerequisites and requirements. In order to be eligible for the credit, participating homes must…

2019 was a big year for us--thank you for choosing to use our software, and for your continuous feedback and inspiration! More than 100,000 HERS ratings were completed with Ekotrope for 2019. We want to take this opportunity to share our sincere gratitude for those who supported us in hitting this milestone, and reflect on what an amazing year this has been.

Last week, our co-founder and VP of Engineering, Cy Kilbourn, attended an exclusive workshop hosted by SWEEP, which gave industry leaders a platform to discuss recent news, challenges, and opportunities. As part of a continued effort to share industry news with our audience of energy professionals, we’ve gathered a few takeaways from the workshop and have shared them below. Thank you to SWEEP for including Ekotrope in this workshop, and to Cy for representing us.

As part of our expansion into the Northwest, Ekotrope sponsored and attended the 2019 Home Efficiency Forum (HEF) in Portland, OR which gave us the opportunity to learn from home efficiency industry leaders, as well as demonstrate our software and share our story. Our team was represented by Brian Cope, Nick Sisler and Jacob Kamen who networked with other attendees, attended panel discussions and visited an energy efficient Habitat for Humanity development. We were also able to share the exciting news that raters will now be able to use Ekotrope for Energy Trust of Oregon’s (ETO) EPS program starting next year.

We’re excited to announce that Ekotrope has been named a finalist in the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC)’s search for the Emerging Company of the Year!Between moving to a new office in the heart of Boston and rolling out countless upgrades to our apps, we’ve grown a lot this year. Ekotrope is now the most-used HERS analysis software in the US, with roughly 1 in 6 new homes using our technology and deployment at over 30 utility programs nationwide.

All submissions to Duke's Residential New Construction (RNC) Energy Efficiency Program in North Carolina now go through Ekotrope RATER. Home Energy Raters participating in the program can enter all necessary information and submit for a rebate application entirely within Ekotrope.

This week, we have added support for adoption of the NCTCOG 2018 Performance Path, which is based on IECC 2018 but with relaxed requirements for ACH50 and window SHGC. Users can now print reports to show that the home passes NCTCOG 2018 for homes in Texas. You can find this report under the State Amended Codes section of the report selection dialogue within Ekotrope.