News Advisory

State offers incentives for Energy Rater Training

The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is providing rebates of $1,000 towards  training costs to individuals who successfully complete a five-day energy rater training course like the one that will be held January 30-February 7 at Camp Grant Walker in Pollock, La.

Upon receiving certification as Home Energy Raters from the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET), these individuals will be qualified to perform home energy audits. The raters will also be eligible to receive rebates of up to $5,000 for equipment used on the job.

Louisiana‘s Home Energy Rebate Option (HERO) Program offers rebates to homeowners who make energy improvements to their existing homes.  With federal funds made available to the state through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the state has expanded the HERO program to offer incentives for building new energy-efficient homes and for making energy efficiency improvements to existing commercial buildings. The funding will also cover the cost of rater training and equipment rebates.

Licensed architects and engineers will be allowed to show compliance under this new program for existing commercial buildings, however, for all other phases of this new program, participants will be required to have an audit conducted by a Home Energy Rater certified by RESNET – the national certification entity.

The upcoming RESNET certification class is scheduled at Camp Grant Walker in Pollock from January 30 through February 7.  The class includes the required training, the national examination, and five supervised ratings to be conducted in only five work days.

Information on the upcoming class can be found at http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/execdiv/techasmt/programs/residential/hero/ and for more about RESNET certification, visit www.resnet.us

The training cost rebate of $1,000 and $5,000 equipment rebate for individuals actively performing audits under the HERO program will only be available until such time that a sufficient number of auditors have been trained. For more information about these incentives, contact Buddy Justice at 225-342-1399.