Renewable Energy Ready Homes (RERH)

The RERH Specifications were developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to educate builders on how to assess and equip new homes with a set of features that make it easier and less expensive for homeowners to install solar energy systems after the home is constructed.

The RERH specification and checklist takes a builder and a project design team through the necessary steps of assessing the home's solar resource potential and outfitting a home with the necessary minimum structural and system components needed to support a complete renewable energy system.

Meeting the recommended elements of the RERH specification may not be possible in all home building situations due to factors such as excessive shading on the proposed array location. To assist in evaluating each home, EPA has developed the Renewable Energy Ready Home Site Assessment Tool, which helps determine whether or not a proposed solar array location offers sufficient solar resource to support the operation of a future energy system. Builders are encouraged to use this tool to assess each home prior to making the home renewable energy ready.

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) RERH Specification (4.82MB) details the site assessment and structural and system components needed to make a home solar PV ready.

PV RERH checklist (134KB) includes a standalone copy of the RERH Solar PV checklist.

Solar Water Heating (SWH) RERH Specification (929KB) details the site assessment and structural and system components needed to make a home solar thermal ready.

SWH RERH checklist (91KB) includes a standalone copy of the RERH Solar Water Heating checklist.

The RERH Solar Site Assessment Tool helps builders and design teams determine if the proposed solar array location offers sufficient solar resource potential to meet the recommended elements of the RERH specification.

Builders and project design teams can download the RERH specifications and checklists below:

RERH Solar Site Assessment Tool Solar Photovaltaics RERH Specification Solar Water Heating RERH Specification

For questions about RERH please contact James Critchfield at critchfield.james@epa.gov or 202-343-9442.