Make Money Saving Energy

If you are like most people, you are worried about not having enough money to pay the bills with no backup plan because you spent all your hard earned savings during 2009. Now you’re looking for a way to take advantage of the millions of dollars in environmental stimulus money given out by President Obama’s Administration.

Green Energy Jobs Are In Demand

According to recent articles by Yahoo! HotJobs, Time Magazine, and others green energy jobs are poised for significant growth during this recession. Due to the combination of being eco-friendly while helping people reduce energy costs, energy efficiency jobs just can’t be filled fast enough. The top career for people looking to work in energy efficiency is as an Energy Auditor.

More Energy Auditors Are Needed Due To Enormous Demand

Energy auditing has been around sine the 1970’s but has recently increased in popularity due to several key events. Probably the largest single factor that has more and more people looking into having home energy audits or commercial energy audits are the number of federal tax incentives in addition to cash rebates being offered by city electric and gas companies. Never before in history has the government been so focused or spent so much on the environment and energy efficiency.

The 4 Big Events That Have Caused "Super Demand" for Energy Audits

1. Gasoline reached $4 gallon – This singular event had a ripple effect that kicked off the economic recession of 2008. With the recession came new talks of economic and environmental changes. The term "Eco-Friendly" began being blanketed by the 24 -hour news networks.
2. Obvious Signs of Global Warming – With more and more catastrophic events such as typhoons, hurricanes, droughts, and flooding occurring public awareness of global climate change is no longer a myth debated by scientist. The fear of global warming has now become part of our national consciousness with new terms such as "Eco-Friendly" "Energy Efficient" and "Green" becoming very real fixtures iin our way of living and speaking.
3. Economic Recession – The economy went into recession in 2008 and has continued to stay that way into 2010. One area that homeowners and business owners alike focus on during recessionary times is saving money. Now more than every people are hyper-focused on saving money on things like their monthly energy costs
4. Tax Incentives, Credits, and Rebates- The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a trillion dollar stimulus bill that earmarks billions of dollars for Energy. For the first time ever, there are numerous tax incentives, rebates, and credits available for homeowners who invest in energy conservation

These vital factors have created the opportunity for energy efficiency/energy savings positions to flourish and become one of the Top Jobs for 2009. The idea of having a “Green” career is no longer just something Hippies dream about in their VW Vans, the time is now and people are acting and so can you.

How to Become an Energy Auditor

There is currently not a nationwide certification requirement in the United States. That means that nearly anybody could perform an energy audit. However, state and local public utility companies are now requiring energy audits be conducted by a certified energy auditor in order for homeowners to claim eligible rebates and incentives. This change has caused an instantaneous flood of people looking to get trained and certified. The new demand to learn energy auditing has spawned a plethora of new energy audit training and certification companies. Let’s take a look at some energy audit training and certification options available to you:

Energy Audit Training Providers

There are only a handful of recognized training and certification companies in today’s marketplace. Two legacy training companies stand above the rest due to their connection to the government and Energy Star – they are RESNET and BPI. These legacy training companies provide "advanced" training. Their programs cost around $1,000 and take around 1 year to fully complete (including apprenticeship time). They also request their energy auditors purchase a "kit" that includes a blower door, duct blaster, thermal imaging camera, and manometer for around $20K to $30K. As an energy auditor certified by one of these companies, you will be asked to perform "diagnostic" energy audits for your clients that take 4-6 hours to complete and cost your clients an average of $400 – $600 per audit.

While this type of training is phenomenal, not every home needs a "diagnostic" energy audit and more importantly, not everyone can afford to spend $400 – $600 on an energy audit right now. Fixed income and low income housing clients in particular will be unable to afford this type of audit but may be open to a low-cost option that will educate them on energy efficiency while helping them get their tax incentives, rebates, and loans to upgrade their homes.

New Energy Audit Training Opportunity

By getting trained at the Energy Audit Institute, you will learn a fresh new approach to energy auditing at a cost of about $250. The programs from the Energy Audit Institute only take about 2 weeks to complete and don’t require you to purchase any additional equipment.With the education you acquire from the Energy Audit Institute, you will be able to provide low-cost energy audits to low income clients and others. By getting trained in their unique energy auditor training programs, your audits will still find 80% of what the more expensive “diagnostic” audit finds. The average time to complete an energy audit using the methods taught at the Energy Audit Institute is only around 1-2 hours at an average cost of $100 per audit for your clients.

Energy Audit Training Without The Classroom

What makes the Energy Audit Institute unique is their home based training approach. Unlike other training programs, the Energy Audit Institute allows you to learn at your own pace. There is no need to travel to a training facility, dedicate a block of time for online training, or change your current schedule in any way. You will receive all the same Dept of Energy standard energy audit training you would in a classroom but at a substantial savings! The total amount of study time for most of our graduates is about 12-18 hours. Then the online certification exam takes an additional 1-2 hours to complete. So in as little as 2 weeks studying part-time from home you can be a fully certified energy auditing with your own business.

Conclusion: Never Been A Better Time To Become an Energy Auditor

With the introduction of the new HOMESTAR program, nicknamed “Cash for Caulkers,” there is an even higher demand for energy audits now than ever before. The Cash for Caulkers program is designed to provide on-the-spot government rebates to homeowners who make their homes more energy efficient by installing new windows, doors, insulation and other materials (from an approved list).

Here how it will work. If a homeowner decides to do work on his or her house — to put in new windows, to replace a heating unit, to insulate an attic, or redo a roof — the homeowner would be eligible for a rebate from the store or the contractor for 50 percent of the cost of each upgrade up to $1,500. A whole house retrofit can get a maximum rebate of $3,000. This money is in addition to the rebates homeowners will receive from the local public utility companies.

Now Is The Perfect Time To Start Your New Energy Career

So if you are looking to get started in the new energy rebate movement, now is the perfect time. You can have a very lucrative business that will make money saving energy. You will help homeowners understand where their homes are wasting energy and they can then have them upgraded and updated while save thousands in the process. Truly a “win-win” for the environment and homeowner.