Pearl, a ratings and standards company, announced today that it is making its national home performance registry free for all public energy programs, including state energy offices, municipalities, and utilities. The move is designed to ensure that energy efficiency upgrades funded by taxpayer and ratepayer dollars are independently verified and permanently recorded in a home's profile, providing value that persists through home sales, appraisals, and refinancing.
According to Pearl, billions of dollars are invested annually in efficiency rebates, weatherization, electrification, and federal Home Energy Rebate programs. However, evidence of these upgrades often remains buried in rebate files and program records, invisible to the housing market. Pearl's registry aims to solve this by assigning each home a Pearl SCORE™ that reflects its performance across five pillars: Safety, Comfort, Operations, Resilience, and Energy. This score becomes a permanent record that stays with the home.
Pearl has provided certification services to public programs since 2019, most recently supporting state energy offices with the Home Efficiency Rebates (HER) Program, which requires third-party certification. Now, Pearl is offering this certification at no cost for these and other public programs. Homeowners in these programs will also gain free access to Pearl's tools to track their home's performance over time and document improvements.
The company's revenue model has shifted from charging fees for home certification to charging for products that serve home transactions, such as those for buyers, sellers, and agents. Pearl had already dropped fees for homeowners and now extends the same to public programs. Cynthia Adams, CEO of Pearl, stated, "Our $50 trillion housing market has a blind spot. Give someone a car's VIN, and they can tell you its engine, its fuel type, and its mileage. Give them a home's address, and they can tell you little more than its size and age. We built Pearl's registry to give every home the kind of durable record cars have always had."
Pearl's approach builds on existing industry standards, using the physics engine behind the U.S. Department of Energy's Home Energy Score. The company collaborates with organizations such as NASEO, the National Association of REALTORS, and the Appraisal Institute. Robin LeBaron, Co-founder and head of Standards and Research, noted, "We're building on trusted industry standards. That's what makes a Pearl SCORE™ hold up with appraisers, lenders, and state programs."
This announcement could significantly impact the housing market by increasing transparency around home performance, potentially influencing home valuations and buyer decisions. For public programs, it eliminates a cost barrier to certifying upgrades, ensuring that investments in energy efficiency are documented and recognized.
