The Registration Delay, and How Raters Have Become More Efficient
As the demand for HERS Ratings has increased, so have the expectations of builders. They expect homes to be completed and registered with RESNET as soon as the HERS Rater breaks down their blower door. The HERS Rating industry has responded by reducing the registration delay by 59% over the last 2 years.
What is the Registration Delay?
The registration delay is the number of days between the Rating Date (the day of the final inspection), and the RESNET Registration Date. This period is when the Rater enters the inspection information into Ekotrope, collects final documentation, processes the photos and site visit report, and then registers the home with RESNET. Below, you can see the median registration delay for all single-family and townhomes registered in Ekotrope since the beginning of 2023.
How did the HERS industry reduce its Registration Delay?
The chart above includes over 580,000 homes, so it is remarkable there has been such a transformative trend in registration delay. There are multiple ways Raters have achieved these results. We suspect all of these contribute:
Raters have expedited photo and site visit report processing to allow for quicker project turnarounds via process improvements.
Fewer delays in documentation collection from HVAC and other stakeholders due to increasing familiarity and usage.
Raters have invested in technology to streamline their workflows.
How have raters improved their processes?
There are many ways Raters have improved their process. Employees at rating companies have specialized in specific steps in the process. For instance projected modeling, scheduling, utility program submission, data entry, and confirmation/registration are all individualized jobs. The division of labor allows for smoother and more durable workflows that accelerate project processing after the final inspection.
Raters have also used technology to shorten the Registration Delay. Setting up house plan templates before the final inspection reduces the work required between Final Inspection and Registration. Raters are connecting their house plan templates (in Ekotrope) to their inspection tools, scheduling tools, and project management, so actions in one software can save time for another team member later on in the process.
How have Raters invested in API connections to streamline their workflow?
Rating companies have streamlined their workflows by using project management software, inspection apps, and Ekotropes APIs.
Ekotrope has a robust API that allows Rating Companies to connect all of their software tools to Ekotrope and bring almost all information in a Rating company’s Ekotrope account into their own project management or inspection software. This enables numerous streamlined processes such as, copying template projects, updating inspection results, registering ratings with RESNET, sharing with your provider, analyzing results, sending code, HERS, and ENERGY STAR reports and certificates, and syncing projects in project management and inspection apps. These can allow your team to quickly process projects without having to go into the Ekotrope application.
Ekotrope also offers a feature called Inspection Sync. The feature allows inspection software to automatically upload results from site visits into Ekotrope. Raters can then review the sync and move forward with processing the rating with no duplicate data entry. Inspection Sync has seen a corresponding rise in popularity to the decrease in registration delay. This is an add-on feature to the RATER application. Many Inspection Sync users started with our free API and built up their software tools until Inspection Sync provided extensive value to their process.
In the 4th quarter of 2024, nearly 40% of homes registered in Ekotrope used the Inspection Sync feature. While there are many reasons the rating registration delay has reduced, the widespread adoption of Inspection Sync with Ekotrope has certainly played a part. The graph below shows the Median Registration delay for users of Inspections Sync. As the usage of Inspection Sync has grown throughout the industry the median Registration Delay has decreased and Inspection Sync users have remained well below industry average.
If you would like to learn more about the workflows we’ve seen succeed, the Inspection Sync feature, or learn what other workflow enhancements are offered by Ekotrope, please reach out to info@ekotrope.com.