Using an orange vinyl sheet stretched across a doorway, a fan and a special meter, Dwight Doepel can turn a house into a vacuum.

It's no sleight of hand. Sucking the air out of a building allows Doepel, a specialist with Appolo Heating Inc., to gauge how airtight the place is. It's one of the factors that contributes to a home's energy efficiency, and one of the dozens he checks in an Energy Star home-performance evaluation.

"I look at the windows for sealing," Doepel said Wednesday, flipping through a multipage checklist during a demonstration in a small wood-sided house on Galway Lake. "I'll look at the doors."

Doepel is one of more than 900 technicians certified nationwide in such inspections by the Building Performance Institute, based in Malta. Since 1998, the nonprofit has been working with the state to take a federal energy-efficiency program into homes and, as a result, save money and reduce pollution.

By giving contractors a new skill to market, it also can boost their business.

BPI's program trains and certifies people to conduct holistic home assessments, and has been setting a standard for the rest of the country. This fall, BPI will begin a three-year effort to take its work nationwide, using a $1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"We've done a huge amount of development," said Courtney Moriarta, BPI's executive director. "We've been laying the foundation to be able to provide these certification services nationally."

The EPA started Energy Star in 1992 as a voluntary labeling program for power-efficient appliances. Today, the mark can be found on everything from water coolers to computer monitors to new homes.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority promotes the Energy Star program in the state. A few years ago, it partnered with the EPA on a program called Home Performance for Energy Star, for existing houses.

"New York was one of the first states to do it," said Robert Housh, executive director of the Metropolitan Energy Center, an energy-efficiency nonprofit based in Kansas City, Mo. The Energy Center brought BPIs program to its area a year ago.

NYSERDA tapped BPI, incorporated in 1996 as an effort to professionalize the home weatherization business, to do third-party certification. BPI now is based in NYSERDA's Saratoga Technology & Energy Park off Northway Exit 12.

"BPI is an organization that understands its building science," Housh said.

BPI, which has a staff of eight and an annual budget of about $600,000, works with building professionals around the country to develop standards for systems such as insulation and heating. The home assessments also include safety and health issues such as carbon monoxide and mold.

The Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES conducts weeklong training sessions in the program, and BPI tests and certifies people. It can cost a firm $5,000 to $8,000 to get BPI certified and accredited.

"As a company, we looked at it as an opportunity to expand our business," said Doepel, the Energy Star manager for Appolo Heating.

Appolo, which has about 120 employees and is based in Hopewell Junction, has sent a half dozen people through the training program. The company does an assessment or two each week, he said.

"As you have rising fuel bills -- gas, electric, propane -- people are looking for ways to save energy," he said. "Not energy -- save money."

The company charges $250 plus tax to do the assessments, which is credited to the cost of any equipment that gets installed.

Done alone, the inspections take about four hours, Doepel said. Afterwards, homeowners get a printout of the results, plus an analysis of how changes could save energy costs.

More than 5,000 homes have been inspected under the program, according to NYSERDA. The average energy savings per household was more than $500, according to BPI.

All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2004, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.

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