GLOSSARY: (AKA – Alphabet Soup)

API

Application Program Interface: is a software interface that allows two applications to interact with each other without any user intervention. This is the interface that HERS Rater Software will use to communicate with EPD databases like EC3.

 

ASHRAE

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers

 

Carbon Damage

A negative outcome as a result of CO2 emissions by industry, transportation and commerce, primarily attributed to industrialization in the last 250 years.

 

Carbon Damage to the Atmosphere

A metric that NEHERS is proposing, measured in ton years, used to quantify the lasting impact of carbon in the atmosphere in order to directly compare the exponential curve of annual / operational emissions with the linear curve of embodied carbon emissions.

 

CO2

An acidic colorless gas with a density about 53% higher than that of dry air. Almost universally agreed that man-made CO2 is the primary contributor to Climate Change and Carbon Damage from Global Warming.

 

CO2e

The shorthand for carbon dioxide equivalents; it’s the standard unit in carbon accounting to quantify greenhouse gasses.

 

EERE

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

 

EPD

Environmental Product Declaration: a third-party verified document based on LCA models, written in conformance with international standards.

 

ERI

Energy Rating Index

 

GWP

Global Warming Potential: the heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, as a multiple of the heat that would be absorbed by the same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2).

 

GWSA

Global Warming Solutions Act

 

HERS

Home Energy Rating System

 

HERS Rater

A HERS Rater is certified by an accredited Rating Provider to inspect and test a home in order to evaluate each of the minimum rated features and complete a Home Energy Rating according to the RESNET Standards. 313,000 homes were rated in 2021.

 

IBC

International Building Code

 

ICC

International Code Council

 

IECC

International Energy Conservation Code

 

LCA

Life Cycle Assessment: a systematic methodology for compiling and examining the inputs and outputs of materials and energy, and the associated environmental impacts directly attributable to a building, infrastructure, product, or material throughout its life cycle.

 

PCE

Product Category Rule: used to define the parameters of an EPD.

 

RESNET

Residential Energy Services Network

 

RESNET Standard

The RESNET Standards are the benchmark of activity for the network of HERS Raters.

 

WBLCA

Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment

 

XML Data

The format that any of the three accredited HERS rating software systems can export data, which can then be imported into embodied carbon calculator or LCA software.