Celebrating Weatherization Day Throughout the Seasons
As winter approaches, many families are grappling with a difficult choice: suffer the cold temperatures or drain their bank accounts to stay warm.
Low-income households typically spend upward of 14% of their income on energy, compared to 3% for higher-income households. Weatherization and energy efficiency upgrades can significantly reduce household bills—so that they do not have to choose between safe temperatures or financial stress.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) provides free weatherization services to more than 30,000 homes every year, ensuring that thousands of families can feel safe and comfortable in their homes.
For over a decade, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has supported workers in the weatherization and home performance industry through technical assistance and research, giving them the tools that they need to continue to deliver life-changing upgrades through WAP.
"As the weatherization industry continues to grow, it is important to have high-quality resources to ensure a qualified workforce," said Juliana Williams, NREL weatherization lead. "Our team works closely with the WAP network to create tools that will be of the most use to them."
This year, NREL's weatherization team is ringing in Weatherization Day with new, high-impact resources for professionals.
Taking WAP Retrofit Installer Badges to Next Level
The Retrofit Installer Badges Toolkit is getting a digital makeover—aiming to make this resource more accessible to the WAP network.
The toolkit includes 25 badges representing different energy efficiency tasks that a retrofit installer could perform on a home, like insulating walls or repairing cracked glass in windows. Workers can earn badges by completing each task and receiving approval from a qualified supervisor. Also included are requirements for obtaining those badges and a checklist for supervisors to verify the number of times a task was completed while ensuring requirements have been met. The original toolkit, released in 2019, allowed WAP grantees, subgrantees, or other training providers to download and modify it as needed to fit their own badging programs.
The new WAP Installer Badges Digital Platform, which will be hosted on the WAP Learning Management System, still will allow for customization, while adding more structure and consistency to help streamline badging implementation.
"We wanted to enhance the accessibility and tracking capability of the badging process but maintain flexibility," said Jal Desai, NREL researcher and project lead. "The badges will be neatly organized in our online learning system, and training centers can integrate them with their training courses or badging programs in a way that best suits them."
Users can be assigned to specific badges by their supervisors based on the requirements of their jobs. Since WAP implementers may have different requirements across their badging programs, the platform will allow users to select the applicable badges and number of successful jobs required to complete the badge.
The platform is currently in the pilot stage and is expected to fully launch later this year.
Exploring Manufactured Housing From a New Perspective
On-the-job training is vital for WAP employees, but a physical training environment may not always be readily available, due to schedule conflicts, travel distance, or other unforeseeable factors like illness and weather.
Now WAP trainees can pursue learning opportunities at any time of day, rain or shine, with the new manufactured housing interactive 3D house.
This 3D house can be used as a self-guided learning tool by anyone interested in learning more about retrofit strategies of common weatherization measures. The tool can also be of use for a more structured learning experience when paired with a learning activity or trainer-led demonstration.
Developed with support from NREL and Simonson Management Services, areas in the house map to the manufactured home job aids. These step-by-step visual guides assist home energy professionals with effective, durable, and safe energy efficiency upgrades. By combining the 3D house and relevant job aids, trainees can easily navigate to more information about the home energy upgrades they are interested in.
The house serves as a complement to the single-family interactive 3D house, which together give trainees instant access to a variety of common housing characteristics, from the roof to the underbellies of manufactured homes.
Picturing Impacts of WAP With Weatherization Image Gallery
At the heart of WAP is its workforce, climbing into attics and ducking through crawlspaces across the country to improve families' lives.
The Weatherization Image Gallery is a free resource that highlights that workforce in action. The gallery is a growing collection of high-quality images showing energy retrofit measure installations, mechanical equipment, and materials that align with WAP's standard work specifications.
"We hope to continue building a gallery that will help organizations showcase the great weatherization work being done by a diverse group of men and women," said Cory Chovanec, NREL weatherization lead. "The work they do every day directly improves the energy efficiency of our nation's existing housing stock, and our team is proud to highlight them through this resource."
These photos can be used in field guides, presentations, marketing, or other training materials. The WAP network can also submit photos of their own using the Weatherization Image Gallery Submission Form, part of NREL's effort to develop a robust and inclusive image gallery.
Supporting WAP on Weatherization Day—and Beyond
To learn more about weatherization, or to partner with us, visit NREL's weatherization page or contact weatherization.support@nrel.gov.