Here is the transcript of the webinar "Data Standards Roadmap Priorities and Actions for Driving Data Standardization in the Residential Energy Efficiency Industry" from February 2018. View the webinar.
Linh Truong:
Hi everyone. I’m Linh Truong with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. And I’d like to welcome you to today’s webinar hosted by the Home Performance Coalition and the Better Buildings program. We’re excited to have three experts with us today for our webinar on data standards roadmap. Before we begin I’m going to quickly go over some of the webinar features. For audio you have two options. You can either listen through your computer or telephone. If you choose to listen through your computer, please select the mic and speakers option. By doing so it will eliminate the possibly of feedback and echo. And if you select the telephone option you should already see a box on the right side with the telephone number and pin. Panelists we ask that you please mute your audio device while you are not presenting. If you have any technical difficulties with the webinar, you can contact the GoToWebinar's helpdesk for assistance.
And if you'd like to ask a question please use the questions pane to type in your question. We are recording today’s presentation and copies of the presentation will be posted both on the Better Buildings website as well as the Home Performance Coalition website. This webinar will provide an overview of the priorities and actions for driving data standardization in the residential energy efficiency industry. Our panelists today are Julia, Julie Caracino with the Home Performance Coalition. Dale Hoffmeyer with the U.S. Department of Energy. And Noel Merket with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Julie is the director of research and standards for the Home Performance Coalition. In this position Julie directs and implements the organization’s research initiatives. She has been instrumental in establishing the open data standard, HPXML as the common software language for the industry’s transactions. She also works closely with the real estate and appraisal industries to create a capital market for energy efficiency through the valuation of homes.
Dale is the senior housing policy analysts with the U.S. Department of Energy. His experience began at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® program developing an online home energy benchmarking application, continue to lead the reporting and evaluation activities for the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program. Today, Dale is focused on data management strategies to streamline home energy upgrade program and technologies to improve home energy performance.
Noel joined NREL in 2010. He leads the residential building development of Energy Plus building energy simulation software. He also develops and maintains the home performance HPXML data transfer standards and supports its adoption in the industry. His prior research experience was on two phase liquid vapor heat transfer for thermal management of small satellites. With that, I’d like to invite our first speaker, Julie, to start today’s presentation.
Julie Caracino:
Great. Thank-you, Linh. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I’m Julie Caracino. I’m the director of research and standards for the Home Performance Coalition. HPC is a national nonprofit organization that advances the residential energy efficiency industry through research and education. On the slide you can see some of our key projects. Next slide. Today, Dale, Noel, and I are going to walk you through some of the key outcomes of the data standards road mapping process that HPC initiated in 2016 with the Department of Energy and the HPXML working group. Over the next hour, we’re going to cover these key topics, roadmap, purpose and vision, the value of data standardization in the residential energy efficiency industry, HPXML in the market today, challenges to adoption of HPXML and to data standardization in general, roadmap strategies and next steps. Next slide.
Before I start, I think it will be helpful to know who is on the line. So we’re going to bring up a poll question for you just to get a sense of what kind of organizations are represented today. Please take a moment to vote. Are we able to see the results? Great. So it looks like we have a pretty even split with programs being most represented. So I also want to go to our second poll. We’re going to be talking a lot today about HPXML. And before I get started I’d like to get a sense of how many people on the line are familiar with this open data standard. So please take a moment to select one of these options. Great. So it looks like the majority of people on the line are familiar with it. For those of you who aren’t, I’m going to be talking about it, giving a brief introduction.
Next slide. So in 2016, HPC initiated a road mapping process with the Department of Energy and the HPXML working group to increase data standardization in the residential energy efficiency industry specifically to achieve this goal. We focused on how to increase the value and use of HPXML which is an open data standard. And we also focused on identifying strategies for promoting the use of HPXML data collection templates that program administrators can use for specific use cases. For example, the audit data collection template can be used for data reported by a home performance contractor after an energy audit.
Next slide. So by way of an overview, HPXML is an open data standard that was published by the Building Performance Institute in 2013. Like other data standards HPXML establishes how data is defined, formatted, transmitted, structured and used so that there’s a clear understanding of how data is represented in the industry. HPXML also promotes the cost-effective exchange of information through a standard XML data transfer protocol. During this webinar, it’s important to keep in mind that the roadmap focuses on standardizing data that is defined in HPXML.
This includes data that is commonly used in home performance to describe residential energy performance, energy conservation measures and the physical and operational attributes of the home. The standard cannot easily define or exchange time series data that you would get from a smart meter or smart thermostat for example. So although this type of data is being targeted for standardization at this point we have not included it in this version of the road map. And on this slide, you can see the link to the HPXML website where you can go for more information.
Next slide. So the use of standards makes data usable to more than just the project or person that created the data. This was an important point because our goal is to consider how HPXML deployment can be used as a market transformation tool to accelerate the adoption of residential energy efficiency products and services. An example of this would be enabling contractors to use the standard data that they collect currently mainly for the benefit of a program, to use that data that they collect for the benefit of their businesses or to develop new business models. Next slide.
To further illustrate this point, the next three slides diagram the benefits of HPXML as it’s currently being used in three different situations. These diagrams show the main flow of HPXML’s data and don’t include every possibility of data transfer. But hopefully this is a useful visual tool to show how HPXML is being used today. So this diagram here shows a typical home performance program run by a utility or state and a program that is using HPXML. What I’d like to highlight here are the potential quality assurance, quality control savings that programs can see from adopting HPXML.
So if you look at this diagram, the starting point is the home. So home performance contractors are collecting standard data using the audit and upgrade HPXML data collection templates. So the way this diagram is made, they pull that data – they collect data from the home and then they enter it into data collection tools, which can include energy modeling tools. And because the value of HPXML is high in a multiple software environment because each data collection tool transfers standard data to the program for validation which improves data quality, reduces data redundancy and improves the consistency and efficiency of data collection. So if you’re working in a program market where there are multiple data collection tools in the market HPXML ensures that the program receives the same data in the same format.
So because the program is receiving standard data from the data collection tools, the program management software can build in automated data checks to validate against multiple program criteria. This reduces manual data entry, review and approval. And this is where some of the savings can be seen from adopting HPXML. And finally, if there is a third-party evaluation of the program, one of the benefits of HPXML is that programs can send a clean data set to evaluators potentially reducing the data management labor costs.
Next slide. So this is a relatively new use case for HPXML but one that is growing in importance. HPXML can help establish a market in energy labeling consistency because the standard is aligned with the real estate standards organization data dictionary. This is a real estate standard that standardizes terms used in multiple listing services nationwide. The data flow in this diagram also centers around the program, but contractors may also be working with a nonprogram entity that facilitates the transfer of energy efficiency information into multiple listing services.
So HPXML includes a standard data collection template, which is also a BPI standard. Its number is 2101 and it’s sometimes called the home performance certificate. This template specifies requirements for documenting a home’s energy efficiency features. A BPI 2101 compliant document can be branded and issued to the homeowner by a program after the completion of an energy efficiency project. The document may be attached to an MLS listing sheet to demonstrate the home’s relative energy efficiency. Appraisers and underwriters may also use the document as a source of information about characteristics of a home related to energy consumption and energy savings. The purpose of this data standard is to facilitate the auto population of multiple listing services with energy efficiency information.
So the way this would work is that the program would import data into a data repository. An example of this would be the Helix project, which is currently being developed by the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership. So this is a data repository that would contain energy efficiency project information. And it would then facilitate the flow of that information to multiple listing services, which would populate home sale listings with energy efficiency information.
If you’re using HPXML, if a program is using HPXML or if there is a Home Energy Score approved software, it’s also easy to generate home energy score by using the HPXML translator. So the HPXML translator was developed by NREL. Software exporting HPXML files can generate input to Home Energy Score and the translator is available open source as a standalone script or it can be incorporated into the Home Energy Score API. And you can find that data flow at the top of the diagram. And of course, the home performance contractor may also be a qualified Home Energy Score assessor in this case.
Next slide. So the final diagram also illustrates an emerging use case for HPXML. This shows a performance-based incentive system or pay-for-performance model in which contractors are sending data to aggregators who then aggregate the data for utilities. So in a performance-based system, advanced M&V software is the basis for payments to contractors via aggregators or implementers. The software continually measures a participant’s usage to determine savings as well as to identify usage or other performance trends.
There are three inputs to advanced M&V software that includes meter data which would come from the utility, weather data and project data, which would be HPXML compliant and would be collected by the home performance contractor. Data standardization of project data enables the advanced M&V software to become more efficient, scalable and inner operable with other systems. Because project data is in HPXML software can be adopted across jurisdictions with little customization resulting in savings for users.
Next slide. When the use of HPXML is widespread, data becomes more meaningful, more comparable and easier to exchange and store for all stakeholders in the industry. Our vision in the roadmap is to see broad based adoption of HPXML and related open data standards to enable efficient transparent access to high-quality residential billing energy data that would inform decision makers and grow the market for residential energy efficiency projects and services.
Next slide. The roadmap has been written for stakeholder groups who use and benefit from data collected by home performance contractors during a home energy upgrade or the installation of individual energy conservation measures. These groups include software developers, program administrators, implementers, regulators and government. It’s also relevant to regulators including public service commissioners, the governor’s office, state legislators or members of county boards or city councils who are able to advocate for and support the use of HPXML in their states.
Next slide. So the roadmap focuses primarily on advancing HPXML in the market. However, HPXML is mapped to two other open data standards in the market. The first one is BEDES, which is published by the Department of Energy. This is a dictionary of terms, definitions, and data formats created to facilitate the exchange of data on building characteristics and energy use for the commercial, multifamily, and residential industries. BEDES is a data dictionary and because HPXML also contains a standard XML transfer protocol, HPXML is the most widely used implementation of residential BEDES. So the two data dictionaries are aligned.
HPXML is also aligned with the RESO Data Dictionary, which I mentioned before. It standardizes terms used in multiple listing services nationwide so that information can be easily shared and understood in the real estate industry. And we’re in the process of updating that alignment since new versions of both the standards have recently come out. Next slide. So I’m now going to hand the presentation over to my colleague, Noel.
Noel Merket:
Thank-you, Julie. So the point of this slide is to talk about, to make the point that we are – we’re not just getting started here. We’ve been at this for a little while. HPXML has been in a draft form or under, been working on for the past seven years now. And we are – we started out as this BPI working group, iterated on a draft for quite a while. In 2013 we published it and people started using it. And I was in a public service territory and LEEP and I sort of piloted this for that home performance use case. And several different software, auditing software began to use as their data transfer standard.
And over the years as we’ve gotten feedback and needed to support more use cases, we’ve been updating HPXML and adding features and cleaning up things that weren’t working quite right. We’ve been doing work on outreach to help people that haven’t been using HPXML to pick it up and get started. So there’s the implementation guide out there. There’s different – there’s this Home Energy Score translator. And recently, we’ve had this home upgrade program accelerator through the Department of Energy to kind of get more people online with this. And today, we’re – we have a set of tools I’ll talk about a little bit later that through the Department of Energy and NREL we’ve developed this kind of suite of tools to help people use HPXML and to connect it to different services throughout the federal government.
Upcoming in the future there’s a lot of good things on the horizon. We have – we’re fortunate to align with real estate standards organization. We are looking to align with an energy rating. So to align the HERS ratings and use HPXML as the data transfer standard for those. And we’re going to continue just reaching out. Farther off in the future the weatherization assistant will be using HPXML and the goal is of course total world domination of HPXML being used. And any time you want to send residential energy data, that will be your go to format.
So this is where we are today and where we’ll be soon. There on the left side of the screen is a long list of software vendors and programs that are using HPXML now or will be using it soon as denoted by the asterisk. And a smaller list on the right where we’re not there yet. So the scale is starting to tip towards using HPXML. It’s an exciting time to be involved there. The next couple of things I wanted to talk about are some of the connections and tools we’ve been making available through the federal government. We’re really trying to get behind this and make it so that if you want to talk building energy out of data to homes to any federal government tools that – it will speak HPXML. It will be the lingua franca.
So the first one here as Julie mentioned is Home Energy Score. A couple of years ago we worked with their team to develop an interface that imports HPXML data into Home Energy Score. And the idea behind it is there’s a lot of very specific things in the Home Energy Score data entry forms. And this kind of makes it to where if you can support HPXML you’re most of the way there to being able to run a Home Energy Score and we can make it work. So the nice thing about that, it’s built into their API and it minimizes the need to customize like if you have your assessment software and you want to do Home Energy Score by investing in HPXML you’re already able to do Home Energy Score.
Just this year, actually just last month, we added the capability to the Standard Energy Efficiency Data or SEED platform to have HPXML import and export capability to that application. So for those wanting to use SEED to aggregate residential building data, we now have a connection to plug in HPXML data, to store it, to archive it, to collect different versions of the same home as it changes over time. And it kind of opens up that use case, especially for the real estate transaction if this is the data aggregation platform of your choice. So it’s another way that the federal government is using HPXML.
Also, we have the ENERGY STAR Home Advisor. This is a tool to help you kind of complete a basic review of your own home. And if there – if you have an HPXML file you can upload it in there and it prepopulates all of their fields and they can start to make their recommendations. It can also export from there or on its way to be able to do that to interact with other systems. So there’s – if you use any of these tools if you have an HPXML file you just kind of send it over and it “just works.” There’s usually more to it than that but there is – it gets you most of the way there on the data entry is the goal.
So finally, I wanted to talk about for those interested in implementing HPXML, it’s a big data standard. There’s a lot to it and a lot – it does represent some work picking it up and writing it into your software. So we’ve done our best to build some tools and some guides and documentation to help you get off the ground with it. HPXMLonline.com as Julie mentioned spreads a lot of information about the standards, has the links and everything to our implementation guide. And this hpxml.nrel.gov is specifically developer-focused so that your software developers have some tools available to help them get started. So there’s a schema validator there where if you’re working on your export, you can upload your file as you’re working on it and it will check it and make sure it matches us to the schema that we have. And we’ll tell you what’s missing, what’s wrong and help you iterate to get it to where that your export is working.
There’s also, we have – we’ll check against the different publishes use cases that we have. There’s a documentation feature where you can navigate down, all the way down the tree of the HPXML file and see what data elements are available and how they are related to other elements and how they match to other data standards such as SEED. So that’s all kind of stored in that website if you’re working with something that needs to translate into or out of SEEDs or RESO, those links are all kind of documented there and that’s – the point of that is to kind of help you get off the ground. And now I’d like to turn the time over to Dale who is going to talk about the home energy upgrade program accelerator.
Dale Hoffmeyer:
Thank-you, Noel. Really appreciate and going over some of those tools that you’ve developed. For those of you on the webinar that are not aware, Julie Caracino and Noel are the co-chairs of the HPXML working group. Both of them along with the other members of the working group, which includes a number of software vendors and other interested program and implementer organizations, they are the ones that have really done a lot of work over the last several years to kind of create that standard and put in place a lot of these kinds of tools and work out a lot of the details to make this just kind of a data standard work. So I just wanted to like recognize them for that and a lot of the hard work that they have been doing.
The idea we have been collaborating with HPC on a data standards road map as Julie mentioned. A lot of that has gone through the Better Buildings Accelerators. There are two of these Accelerators that we have DOE that are focused on different kinds of challenges. The first one is led by my colleague Joan Glickman. It’s called the Home Energy Information Accelerator and it’s really working with partners to pilot auto-population of home energy information and real estate MLSs. And that’s that use case that Julie talked about earlier.
So there’s one accelerator that’s really focusing on that and of course the data standards are really key to that, making sure that this information is going to get passed and transferred, not creating errors, having it be streamlined and not be a burden on anyone. So how do you do that and so they’re working on that challenge and of course data standards are an important part of that. The other accelerator is the home upgrade program accelerator which I’ve been leading. And our objective is a little bit different. We’re really working with organizations to reduce administrative burden and cost of programs by improving processes for managing and tracking energy upgrades, reviewing quality of work. And really it cuts down to streamlining data collection, management and transfer. And of course, data standards are a key part of that, as well.
And Julie talked about that a little bit about how that’s important. You want to minimize errors. You want to minimize redundancies. You need to streamline those kinds of processes. So the partners that we’ve been working with, they’re really looking at the problem from a four-step process. They identify process improvements. They develop strategies and commit resources, implement the strategy and test it and then we’re really wanting to measure the impact of those improvements and that’s what we’ve been doing with the different partners we’ve been working with. Go to the next slide. So this is just a list of some of the partners that we’ve been working with, Arizona Public Service, NYSERDA, Build It Green in California, Enhabit in Oregon, Pearl Home Certification, Building Performance Institute, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and Neighborworks of Western Vermont HEAT Squad.
So they have all been implementing different kinds of process improvements. Many of these, the work that they’re doing does involve some data standardization. And most of them are using HPXML in some way in the solutions they are implementing or they’re at least considering that. But in most cases, there’s some kind of data standardization. When you want to streamline a process of data management or a data processing process you really need – you want to automate things and you need to be able to have a standard in order to make that happen. So it’s pretty fundamental to what those kinds of improvements you want to see.
Next slide. So collecting and processing of data for these home upgrade programs, it can be inefficient but it doesn’t have to be that way. And typically, it requires a commitment to step back and to map out the process and to identify if there are unnecessary steps, if there are bottlenecks. If there’s duplicate of data entry or data mapping that will be a source of data errors. So that’s really what it takes is stepping back. But making that kind of a commitment to do that isn’t always easy because really, it’s the immediate need that we have today. I need to get this task done. I need to get that task done. Those are really our priorities and it’s not always easy to step back and then look at a whole process and then look for where we can make improvements.
And so, some of the partners that we have been working with, they have done that or they’re in the process of doing that and that’s really a key thing that needed to happen. I find that it’s not uncommon that you’re working through some process and you say oh, this could be done better but hey, I’ve got to move on to the next task. I don’t have time to fix that. I’ll bring it up later. And then it never really happens so it really does take that commitment to step back and reassess what’s going on. Arizona Public Service is one of the first that really did this and we did a case study on them. Julie mentioned it earlier, as well. And through the improvements that they were making to their program, they were really able to realize some savings in time as well as increasing the satisfaction that the contract with participating in their program.
And that’s really what’s been driving some of this is that some of the contractors participating feeling like all this data collection is a bit of a burden on us and can’t we make this a little bit easier. And so that’s what’s been driving some of these kinds of changes and that’s what we saw in the Arizona case. They were able to accommodate a standard HPXML. The software that generates that file, extend it to the program. Then the program was able to automate processes for reviewing those files and that data. And that reduced their expense and time, as well. So there were a lot of lessons learned from that, as well as some of the other partners that we’re working with were continuing to document what those lessons learned are.
As we’ve been working with them what I’ve really seen are two opportunities. When a program or an organization can make a commitment to step back, step back and look at their processes and say how can we maybe improve things. There’s two opportunities I see. One is when an organization is releasing a request for proposals for managing a home upgrade program. That’s a time when they’re reassessing what they’ve done. They’re looking forward to who is going to manage the program going forward, maybe some changes, and that’s a good opportunity to put something into requests for proposal about how we want to have our data managed, how we want to see some standardization there and we want to realize some savings because of that. We want to be very efficient in those kinds of processes. So that’s one opportunity.
The other opportunity it seems is in with software vendors or software developers. As new software is being developed there’s going to be a need for using some type of a data standard for saving and storing and processing or transferring data. So that’s an opportunity if you’ve got new software being developed. For existing software though, it’s hard to make that kind of a commitment unless there’s some kind of major upgrade in process. And so those are probably really the opportunities for the software developers is when they’re developing some new software or if they’re making some major, major changes. So that’s just my observation, what I’ve seen working with the different partners that we’ve had. And we’ve been working with HPC and working on the roadmap and looking forward to seeing how we progressed. And I’m going to hand it back to Julie and wrap up the webinar.
Julie Caracino:
All right. Thank-you, Dale. So I want to just remind everyone of what our vision is for the roadmap. And just to recap what we’ve talked about so far. So we’ve talked about what the value of data standardization is particularly for building markets. And I think that’s what we want to be doing right now. And we certainly have, are seeing more market-based initiatives being piloted in the industry right now. We’ve also talked about the benefits of investing in HPXML. This is an open data standard that has been in the market for a few years. We’ve seen benefits. We’ve had a lot of people who have invested time and resources into building this data standard and in creating tools and resources to support it.
And we also have structured in place to make sure that we’re maintaining the standard. Specifically, we have a very large and diverse working group that meets on a regular basis to vet the standard and to add new data elements and to meet the needs of the industry. But having said all of that, like other data standards, HPXML is only really valuable if it’s broadly adopted by the industry. And that’s certainly what we want to encourage through this roadmap. Next slide.
So during the road-mapping process, we talked with working group members. We talked with programs and software developers that have not adopted HPXML to try to get a sense of what the value was of the data standards and also what the challenges are to deploying HPXML and to figure out why some software developers or why some programs have chosen not to adopt the standard and to perhaps build customized software from the ground up for example. So we found that there are a few challenges. First, we found that sometimes the value of HPXML and data standardization in general is unclear and unclear to decision makers who are in the position to support the standard. We also found that even the adopters who understood the potential value of the standard and how to clear a vision of how the standard would work often struggled at times to explain the value of HPXML to their partners.
Second, some industry stakeholders perceive HPXML as difficult or expensive to implement particularly outside of a planned software upgrade. One way to minimize this expense and also to make it easier to adopt HPXML is to implement the standard data collection templates that were created for various use cases. So for example, the templates that are called audit and upgrade that can be used by contractors before and after the implementation of a project. We also have the HPXML translator, which helps generate Home Energy Score from HPXML files and we also have the BPI 2101, which creates a standard document that is aligned with the real estate industry’s standard.
And third, we found that even the programs that are using HPXML and have adopted the standard data collection templates often continue to customize these standard templates to such a degree that it often adds quite a bit of software development cost to the implementation of HPXML and kind of negates the benefits of being able to minimize costs for software developers and also for programs. Next slide.
So this is an overview of the roadmap’s plan. In some cases, HPC will lead these tasks with the support of the HPXML working group. And in other cases, we’ve recommended actions that industry stakeholders can take to accelerate adoption. As they go through these actions it would be helpful for you to think about whether these make sense, whether you think these are the right strategies for increasing data standardization in the industry. There’s time to comment on this plan. We’re not going to release the final roadmap until March. So you certainly have an opportunity to submit comments to me. Also feel free to type in questions or comments in the chat feature.
Next slide. So priority one in the roadmap is to develop an education and outreach plan to really convey the value of HPXML and of data standardization to the stakeholders in the industry who are in the position to benefit from the standard. So we have a few tasks that we’ll be implementing to support this overall goal. We want to continue to develop case studies that demonstrate the impact of the standard. So we have one so far for Arizona Public Service. As HPXML is in the market longer, hopefully we’ll start to see additional impacts from additional programs and software developers. And we want to try to capture that in order to convey the value and help others understand what the value is.
We want to target out outreach to programs that are likely to adopt HPXML. So for example, programs that are implementing a whole home program or programs that wish to open the market to multiple software tools. As Dale mentioned, programmers or even software developers that are in the middle of a software upgrade will have more cost-effective opportunity to adopt HPXML. Also, if a program or other entity wishes to generate Home Energy Score or to incorporate standard project information into MLS systems, the value of HPXML is going to be high for that organization. We also want to continue to promote general education and awareness of HPXML. We have the website, which has comprehensive information on the standard and the link to all the tools and resources that can help organizations implement the standard. We want to continue to develop materials that reduce the cost of implementing HPXML. Noel mentioned some of these materials. We have an implementation plan. We also have sample files online that the software developers can use to check their compliance with the standards.
And finally, HPC and NREL often provide technical support to programs for software implementing HPXML. This could be assistance with reviewing the data requirements to make sure they make sense for in the context of the standard templates, working with programs to identify and add new data elements to HPXML to meet the needs of their program or their specific use cases. And at times we can also help to troubleshoot a specific technical issue. Next slide.
So this is our third poll question. So thinking about the education and outreach plan that I just described it would be interesting to get feedback on which stakeholder group you think is most critical to advancing data standardization. So this would help direct our education and outreach efforts. Just a couple more seconds to vote. So it’s actually fairly split again but it looks like the audience thinks programs is probably most useful to target. Thank-you for that. Next slide.
So priority two is to establish home energy documentation consistency. So this supports efforts that are gaining importance right now to get energy efficiency data into multiple listing services through the auto population of MLS systems. HPXML we want to be the national data standard for documenting a home’s energy efficiency features and performance for transfer to multiple listing services. This doesn’t negate other labels or scores that will exist in the market but rather just benefit the industry by making sure that we have a consistent way of describing improvements and that the way we describe improvements is aligned with how the real estate and appraisal industry recognize those improvements to homes.
So we’re in the process of aligning HPXML to the RESO data dictionary. And that’s going to be to primarily support the standard data collection template which is BPI 2101. We also want to pilot the BPI 2101. Right now, we have Arizona Public Service and Salt River project issuing this standard documentation to homeowners who complete the home performance with ENERGY STAR program. We hopefully want to work with MEEP to pilot the auto-population of information on this standard document to local real estate listings. We also want to include education on the value of being able to standardize documentation of improvements so that they are visible when you go to sell your home or buy a new home. And we want to continue to support auto population efforts which are for example going on now in California and in the New England states. Next slide.
So we want to continue to ensure that all necessary stakeholder identified changes, fixes, and additions to HPXML are made in a timely fashion through a transparent stakeholder process. Right now, we convene the HPXML working group four times a year. We also have a number of online platforms that the group uses in order to regularly post questions and recommendations for adding to the standard. And we have opportunity to kind of vet those online and to talk about them during the meetings. We use the Building Performance Institute’s data standards setting process, which works well.
Our second task that we want to include in this priority is to establish a timeframe for users to update software after a major version release of HPXML. This is a relatively new issue for us since we’ve currently had only one major version release. But we’re finding that it is important to make sure that if you’re using the data standard that everyone is actually using the same version of the data standard. Next slide.
So finally, we want to maintain alignment with other industry standards and this includes BEDES and the RESO Data Dictionary. Right now, the standards are aligned but all three standards periodically put out version changes. And so, we want to develop a process for maintaining the standards coordination after new version releases or the process of updating the mapping of HPXML to the RESO Data Dictionary. And we also want to map HPXML to the appraisal institute residential green energy efficiency addendum, which is used by appraisers to value energy efficient homes. Next slide.
Dale touched on this. There are some key opportunities for broader adoption that industry stakeholders can keep in mind when thinking about when is the most cost-effective time to adopt this standard. So for example, if a program is in the process of procuring due program management software you might want to require that software be HPXML-compatible when issuing your RFP or RFQ. Programs may also want to require audit software with HPXML export capabilities for participation in a program. For example, if a program wants to open up its market to multiple software or is in the process of choosing a new audit tool. Adopting HPXML during major software upgrades is also cost-effective. And finally, using HPXML data collection templates to standardize requirements for specific use cases like information collected during an energy audit or at the end of a project has potentially a lot of savings for contractor software and the program.
Next slide. So this is our last poll question. So thinking about what I just talked about, which tool or action do you think is the most important to advancing the HPXML in the market? Just another second or two. OK. OK. So it looks like all of the above and case studies as well. So thanks a lot for that feedback. Next slide. So unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll have much time today for questions but hopefully if you’ve typed in any questions or comments into the chat feature we can circle back around and contact you. Feel free to submit comments. You can email me or give me a call. Noel as well or Dale. And we’ll have the comment period open for another couple of weeks and we hope to release the final data standards roadmap on February 27, and of course this roadmap will be regularly updated as we start to meet the goals.
Noel Merket:
Julie, I think since we’re at the end I think we could take – we just have four questions in the question and answer thing. Maybe if we could just go through them and try and answer to the best of our ability in the time we have. So a couple more coming in. First one is from Ted Kidd. Is there a way to connect to Green Button data? And I’ll take this one. Not yet in HPXML. Unfortunately, HPXML and Green Button were developed at about the same time. So we have a space in HPXML for smart meter data where that kind of data can be stored there. However, it’s not being extensively used because of the popularity of Green Button. So I think something that would be a good future feature would be to replace that with being able to insert Green Button data directly into HPXML. I’ll have to look into the possibility to do that. So the answer is not yet but probably soon or some time.
The next time is from Kent Mitchell, who says our company is a small player in this process but are overwhelmed by various programs and data entry needed. We are encouraged by HPXML and hope it becomes widespread. Our question is how can we as a small verifying and rating company help move this forward. Dale or Julie, do you want to take that question or –
Dale Hoffmeyer:
This is Dale and one way I mean if they need any help obviously in implementing it and obviously getting in touch with Noel and he can help with any kind of questions as well as participating on the working group, the HPXML working group to – that would be another way to really get involved and to be able to move that forward. Julie might have some other things.
Julie Caracino:
Yeah. I think encouraging the use of the standard data collection templates is really useful. The purpose of creating those was to meet the needs of most of the programs around the country, meeting most of their data collection needs. And to adopt those, the standardized data requirements with little customization. So I think continuing to kind of promote the use of those as well will help minimize all the variation in data requirements.
Noel Merket:
So to the point Dale made there’s another question I can answer is how do I participate in the working group, which is something we encourage is all people wanting to do. To join the working group, the best way to do it is to go to www.hpxmlonline.com, and there’s some instructions there on how to participate in the working group. We have a mailing list through groups that group that we use to communicate and we have those regular meetings. And by joining that you’ll be invited to those meetings. So I encourage you to join the working group that way. Debra Little would like to know if we could explain further how California is auto-popping data to the MLS.
Julie Caracino:
Yeah. So as far as I know Built It Green has been working with PG&E to create a green registry that is a data repository that would be able to hold the project data. They’re also working with the California regional MLS to pilot the auto population. I’m not sure right now what the status of that pilot is but I believe they have the infrastructure in place needed to auto-populate the California regional MLS.
Noel Merket:
Yeah. And to answer your question, Debra, I think Torsten beyond what Julie just explained Torsten Glidden with Build It Green would probably be able to answer your question in great detail. So the next question we have are the data collection templates available now? Good use, yes, they are. Those are available if you go to HPXML online or hpxml.nrel.gov those data templates are available. It will redirect you to our GitHub repository where we have the schemas. And also, there’s some example files from each of the data collection templates so you can kind of see what those look like. So if you want –
Julie Caracino:
If you want to bring up my last slide that has the website on it. So thanks.
Noel Merket:
Thanks. But yeah. You can find those there. And if you need help with that please contact one of us and we can kind of point you in the right direction. So from Lindsay Baughman, will the roadmap and HPXML be discussed in greater detail at any HPC, upcoming HPC events? All right. Who planted her?
Julie Caracino:
Yes. I know. Yes. I think we have a session on that.
Dale Hoffmeyer:
Yeah. We have a session on that at the national conference in April.
Julie Caracino:
And we also have our in person working group meeting at the national conference in April and we do that every year.
Noel Merket:
So we’d be happy to talk to you there and discuss more. All right. Let’s see. So ok. Yeah. I think. It sounds like we have one more question about the green building registry in California. I think the folks leading the webinar today are probably not the best people to ask about that. So I think you probably want to get in touch with Torsten to find out more details there. So yeah. But yeah. I think that’s all the questions we had on the list. Thank-you, everybody.
Linh Truong:
Yeah. And we are a few minutes over, so thank-you very much for everyone who has stayed on the line. Thank-you to our speakers today, Julie, Dale and Noel. Thank-you for providing such great information. If anyone has additional questions feel free to reach out to our speakers and they’ll be happy to follow up after the meeting today. Otherwise thank you to everyone and have a wonderful week.
Noel Merket:
Thank-you.
Julie Caracino:
Thank-you.
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