Home Performance Coalition Announces the Merger of the Home Performance Forum and Home Energy Pros to Become the Premier Sharing Space for Home Energy Professionals

Creating a collaborative online community for home energy professionals, the Home Performance Coalition unites two premier communities into one dynamic, global social network.

For the past seven years, the home performance industry has had two thriving online communities where members openly discuss topics such as energy efficiency, building science, professional education opportunities, field procedures, program best practices, codes and standards, sales, marketing and business systems.

Home Energy Pros is a partnership between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Home Energy Magazine that began in 2010 with sponsorship from the U.S. Department of Energy. The Home Performance Forum, a community that started on LinkedIn in 2008, is now hosted by the Home Performance Coalition (HPC).

Today, HPC is proud to announce it will assume operations of Home Energy Pros and merge it with the Home Performance Forum to create a single online community for the home performance and weatherization industry – the Home Energy Pros Forum.

“In rapidly changing industries like ours, online communities that facilitate the ongoing exchange of ideas and information are a critical component to positive growth,” said Brian T. Castelli, CEO of the Home Performance Coalition. “HPC feels a great responsibility to enable the continued dialogue and assembly of resources that Home Energy Pros has built and provided for our industry to access. Home Performance Forum also possesses a deep archive of best practices and thoughtful debate on industry issues which we want to preserve. By merging these two communities and continuing their great work, we are able to catalog the great discussions of the past and become the gathering place for the information exchanges of tomorrow and beyond. “

Evan Mills, founder of Home Energy Pros explains, “One of the great things about our network is that for every member there are hundreds of non-members who drop in to browse the repository of technical content, which means that members making the effort to post get great leverage and visibility in the broader marketplace. Beyond content creation, our members routinely help troubleshoot one another’s jobsite challenges and exchange perspectives on building successful business models, which helps elevate the overall caliber and success of this industry. Through this merger, the community will continue to expand under the Home Performance Coalition.”

"Creating one central location for our industry to come together online will help ensure the long term viability of our forum as we continue the transition from LinkedIn to our new home with the Home Performance Coalition,” said David Butler, the Home Performance Forum’s leader. “As was the case when we moved to the new platform earlier this year, HPC is the ideal host for this new, larger community. HPC's role as an industry convener and catalyst makes this merged community a natural fit.”

Home Energy Pros Forum will officially merge in the coming month and launch directly from the HPC website homepage; we do not anticipate an interruption of service with either of the current forums prior to the switchover. “At HPC, we are mindful that collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. I can’t think of any endeavor more appropriate to this philosophy than serving as host to our industry’s preeminent online community. I want to thank David Butler and Evan Mills for their dedicated service. I believe our industry will receive tremendous value from the Home Energy Pros Forum,” said Castelli.

The Home Performance Coalition (HPC) is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization that works with industry leaders in the home performance and weatherization industries. HPC collaborates with like-minded organizations to ensure all homes are healthy, comfortable, and energy-efficient through projects, policy and education. HPC also organizes regional and annual conferences that bring together industry leaders to exchange ideas, solve problems and build momentum for the rapidly-growing residential energy efficiency industry. For more information, please visit www.homeperformance.org.

Lindsay Bachman Flickinger is the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Home Performance Coalition.