Solar Canada is a BPI Test Center, authorized under agreement with the Building Performance Institute to administer its certification examinations — including the field exams, which are the ones that have kept Canadian candidates crossing a border.
Solar Canada is a BPI Test Center. That means one specific thing, and it is worth being precise about it: we are authorized under agreement with the Building Performance Institute to administer BPI certification examinations — the written exams and, more to the point, the field exams. It is an examination authorization. It is not a training endorsement, and BPI does not give those to anybody.
Most BPI certifications have a field exam — a timed practical evaluation with real instruments on a real building, watched by a proctor. Written exams travel. Field exams do not. BPI’s own Core handbook describes its practicum evaluations as taking place at Test Centers “across the United States”, and for the Energy Auditor certification BPI states flatly that “There is no allowance for bypassing the field exam in order to renew the EA certification.”
So a Canadian who wants a BPI field credential, or who holds one and needs to renew it, has historically had to arrange a border crossing to do it. That is the problem this centre exists to solve.
What we do not do: decide who is eligible, write the exam, mark the exam, or influence the result. Those are BPI’s, and any centre implying otherwise is misrepresenting what the status is.
This is the whole catalogue as BPI published it on 27 April 2026, not a shortlist of the ones we would rather sell you. The field-exam column is the one that decides whether you can get certified without leaving the country.
| Certification | Prerequisite | Written | Field | Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building Science Principles (BSP) | None | Yes | No | Lifetime |
| Infiltration & Duct Leakage (IDL) | None | No | Yes | 3 years |
| Building Analyst Technician (BA-T) | BSP | No | Yes | 3 years |
| Building Analyst Professional (BA-P) | BA-T | Yes | No | 3 years |
| Energy Auditor (EA) | Experience points and energy modelling | Yes | Yes | 5 years |
| Quality Control Inspector (QCI) | Active EA | Yes | No | 5 years |
| Healthy Housing Principles (HHP) | None | Yes | No | Lifetime |
| Healthy Home Evaluator (HHE) | BA-P, EA, MFBA or QCI | Yes | No | 3 years |
| Heating Professional | None | Yes | Yes | 3 years |
| Air Leakage Control Installer | None | No | Yes | 3 years |
| Multifamily Building Analyst (MFBA) | None | Yes | Yes | 3 years |
| Multifamily Building Operator (MFBO) | None | Yes | Yes | 3 years |
| Manufactured Housing | None | Yes | Yes | 3 years |
| Site Supervisor Certificate (SSC) | Various | Yes | No | Lifetime |
| Total Building Performance (TBP) | Various | Yes | No | Lifetime |
| Cold Climate Air Source Heat Pump Assessor | Various | Yes | No | Lifetime |
| AC / Heat Pump Professional | US EPA 40 CFR §608, Type II or Universal | Yes | Yes | 3 years |
The six highlighted rows are the ones we are standing up first, because between them they cover the realistic entry route, the two field exams with the fewest barriers, and the Energy Auditor chain that most Canadian programme work asks for.
BPI lists the prerequisite for AC / Heat Pump Professional as a United States EPA 40 CFR §608 technician certification, Type II or Universal. Canadian refrigerant handling credentials are not named as acceptable. If you hold Canadian ODP or TSSA refrigerant certification and nothing American, do not budget for this one until BPI has told you in writing that your credential counts. We would rather say that now than sell you a seat you cannot use.
If none of those describes you, say so on the booking form and we will tell you which exam fits — including when the answer is that none of them do yet.
Our exam fees and exam dates are identical for candidates who prepared with us and candidates who did not. We do not offer earlier dates, better rooms or cheaper seats to our own students. A testing centre that charges its own students less is not a testing centre — it is a sales funnel with a proctor in it.
BPI does not approve, accredit, endorse or recognise training, and it says so in its own brand policy. There is no such thing as a BPI-approved course, a BPI-accredited training provider, a BPI curriculum or a BPI-certified instructor. Anyone may teach BPI exam preparation without BPI’s permission, including us. If a provider tells you their course is BPI-approved, they are either mistaken or hoping you are.
The one thing BPI does approve, course by course, is continuing education for renewal — and that is a separate status with its own process. How renewal and CEUs work →
Prerequisites, exam components and certification terms: BPI certifications list, updated 27 April 2026. Retake limits, identification, proctoring and recording: BPI Core Certification Scheme Handbook, revised 9 April 2026. The Energy Auditor field-exam quotation: BPI Energy Auditor Certification Scheme Handbook, revised 23 July 2026. All figures on this page were read from BPI’s own published documents and checked on 21 October 2026.
BPI sets its own rules and changes them. Read the handbook for your own certification before you budget or book, and tell us if you find a figure here that no longer matches — we would rather fix it than defend it.
No, and we will not ask where you prepared. The fee, the dates and the room are the same either way.
No, and neither is anybody else’s. BPI does not approve, accredit or endorse training of any kind — that is stated in BPI’s own brand policy. Separately, BPI does approve individual courses for continuing education credit, which is a different thing with its own process.
Written exams are delivered online under proctoring, and you are observed and recorded throughout. Where you may sit from is set by BPI’s rules for each certification, not by us. Tell us which exam you want on the booking form and we will confirm the format available to you before you pay.
No. Eligibility is BPI’s decision alone, and for the Energy Auditor certification BPI issues an approval letter that you must present before testing. We administer examinations; we do not decide who may sit them.
BPI permits up to six challenges of a given exam in a one-year period, and allows twelve months from your first exam to complete the certification. Candidates who run out of attempts must wait until the one-year anniversary of their first unsuccessful attempt. Those are BPI’s rules, in BPI’s Core handbook.
Valid photo identification, with the name on it matching the name you registered under. BPI names driver’s licence, state or provincial ID, passport, military ID and employee ID card as accepted forms.
Yes. BPI requires that candidates are observed at all times by a BPI-approved proctor, and that the exam is audio and video recorded. That is not a centre policy we could waive if we wanted to.
That is a large part of why this centre exists. Renewal routes differ by certification — some accept continuing education in place of the written exam, some require the field exam again, and the Energy Auditor field exam can never be bypassed. Start on the renewal page.
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Tell us which certification, which format and roughly when. We register you, arrange the proctor, and confirm the date.
