For those of you who are thinking about adding home energy audits and blower door testing to your skills, you’ve likely come across BPI Certification in your research. It’s a nationally recognized certification program for home energy professionals and contractors. So, how much is BPI Certification?

Well, it depends on which BPI certification you want to pursue. There are 14 certifications to choose from.

Quick background: What is BPI? What is Everblue?

BPI stands for the Building Performance Institute, a nonprofit organization that created ANSI-accredited standards for home energy auditing.

BPI relies on a network of partners, like Everblue, to provide BPI training courses and to administer the BPI certification exams.

There are some organizations out there that only provide training but are not approved to offer the exams. As an approved BPI Test Center, we at Everblue do provide all necessary BPI training & testing in one package, making for an easy one-stop-shop experience for you.

So as you ask “How much is BPI Certification?” remember to keep in mind that there are costs associated with training and exams. Best case scenario, as is here at Everblue, you register for a program that includes both – because you need both.

How to Get BPI Certification

Most of the BPI certifications require that you pass a written exam and a field exam.

• The written exam is a computer-based test comprised of 100 multiple-choice questions.
• The field exam is a one-on-one proctored experience where candidates demonstrate proper use of the energy auditing equipment and knowledge of how to correctly perform the corresponding diagnostic test.

As a BPI Test Center, Everblue staff is responsible for proctoring all certification exams. And the exam fees paid by participants are actually hard fees that we then pay to BPI.

Typically, a written exam will cost about $400 and a field exam will cost about $700. Note that these fees are per designation.

The bulk of the expense is in those exam fees…and you can’t really avoid that! If you need to be certified, then you need to take and pass the certification exams.

Although many of the BPI certifications have a similar process of training + written exam + field exam, the question of “How much is BPI Certification?” then depends on which – and how many – BPI certifications you intend to pursue. After all, you might choose to get certified in 1, 2 or 3+ areas, which means that you have to pass multiple written exams and multiple field exams. Each of those exams has a cost associated with it.

Which BPI Certification should I get?

Excellent question! As I mentioned above, there are 14 professional certifications from BPI that you can pursue.

The most popular BPI certifications are:

• BPI Infiltration & Duct Leakage – meant for technicians who need to get certified in blower door and duct leakage testing (typically for state energy code compliance reasons)
• BPI Building Analyst – meant for professionals who want to offer whole-house energy audits, blower door testing, air quality testing, combustion safety testing, and retrofit improvement recommendations

There are natural overlaps in subject matter among these three certifications, so we’ve packaged our BPI training program in such a way that participants can pursue 2 or 3 designations at once. This ultimately saves you time and money.

For more detailed information about all of the various BPI certifications, view our BPI Certification Explained page.

Now, how much is BPI Certification?

As I mentioned earlier, the cost of BPI Certification first takes into account training + written exam + field exam.

Then, you have to factor in which – and how many – BPI certification(s) you want to pursue.

Please visit our course pages below to see current pricing rates:

BPI Infiltration & Duct Leakage (IDL)

BPI Building Science Principles

BPI Building Analyst

HEP Energy Auditor

HEP Quality Control Inspector

BPI Multifamily Building Analyst

While it’s important to set the expectation of how much you’ll be spending to earn BPI Certification, remember that the expense is an investment in your future and your success.

We’ve trained many experienced industry professionals who came out of BPI training saying, “Wow, I’ve been doing this work for years…but I actually learned a lot of new skills and equations during this course.” Check it out for yourself! Visit our Everblue Training Reviews page to see what past participants have said.

More often than not, those who take a BPI certification course typically work in related fields, such as HVAC or insulation, and need to learn specifically about building science principles and blower door testing to capitalize on new business opportunities. Experienced industry professionals get BPI certified because they want to go into business for themselves and/or obtain the necessary certification required by their state to continue doing business.

Not sure if BPI certification is right for you? Give us a call at (800) 460-2575 and we’ll talk you through the options that make the most sense for you.