AEE Becomes Certification Body for Single-Family Energy Auditor and Quality Control Inspector Certifications 

In an effort to support the growing demand for home energy professionals, the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) has entered into a license agreement to become a certification body for single-family Energy Auditor (EA) and Quality Control Inspector (QCI) certifications under the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). 

WAP is a federal program that aims to reduce energy costs and improve living conditions for low-income households by enhancing the energy efficiency of their homes. The program supports 8,500 jobs and delivers weatherization services to approximately 30,000 homes annually using funds provided by DOE.  

By making upgrades and improvements to increase energy efficiency, participating households can achieve significant yearly savings on their energy bills according to evaluations of the program’s impact. Since its inception in 1976, WAP has helped more than 7 million families enjoy more comfortable and affordable living conditions through weatherization services.  

The goal of WAP’s Guidelines for Home Energy Professionals project is to ensure that WAP has robust, nationally recognized workforce credentials to encourage quality work in the program, and to establish a permanent, sustainable infrastructure for a vibrant home retrofit market. 

AEE is a nonprofit professional association with more than 17,000 members and 32,000 certified professionals in more than 100 countries. Dedicated to the professional growth and development of engineers in the energy industry, AEE offers ANAB/ISO/IEC 17024 accredited certification programs in the United States and is well-suited to uphold the consistency and quality that are fundamental to the credentialing programs supporting WAP. 

Under the license agreement, AEE will develop certification examinations based on approved -family EA and QCI certification schemes from DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). All examinations will be available via remote proctoring, allowing certification applicants to take the exams at home, their business, or any location with a personal computer. Additionally, AEE will create a computer simulation practical examination to eliminate the need for applicants to travel to a fixed mock house location. 

“We are very excited to work with DOE and NREL to become a certification body for WAP,” said William Kent, Executive Director at AEE. “Those who benefit from WAP are often the most impacted by the lack of efficiency upgrades and high energy prices. By offering remote proctoring and computer simulation examinations, we plan to address the workforce development need for home energy professionals to meet the goals of the administration and the WAP provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.” 

The two programs will launch by early 2026. View the EA Job Task Analysis and QCI Job Task Analysis to learn more about the future certification exams.