Written exams travel. Field exams do not — somebody has to be in the room with the instruments. Here is which BPI certifications require one, what happens on the day, and what BPI says about renewal.
Almost everything written about BPI certification is about the written exam, because the written exam is the part that is easy to sell a course against. The field exam is the part that decides whether you get certified.
A BPI field exam is a timed practical evaluation. You turn up at an approved site with a proctor, you set up real instruments on a real building, and you are scored against a predetermined list while being watched and recorded. Some certifications are field exam only — there is no paper at all. Others pair a field exam with a written one, and one of them cannot be renewed without sitting the field exam again, ever.
| Certification | Field exam | Length | Pass mark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infiltration & Duct Leakage | Field only — no written exam | 1 hour 30 minutes | 85% |
| Building Analyst Technician | Field only — no written exam | 4 hours | 70% |
| Energy Auditor | Field and written | 4 hours | 83%, plus four gated items |
| Air Leakage Control Installer | Field only | Per BPI | Per BPI |
| Heating Professional | Field and written | Per BPI | Per BPI |
| Multifamily Building Analyst | Field and written | Per BPI | Per BPI |
| Multifamily Building Operator | Field and written | Per BPI | Per BPI |
| Manufactured Housing | Field and written | Per BPI | Per BPI |
| AC / Heat Pump Professional | Field and written | Per BPI | Per BPI |
| Building Analyst Professional | None — written only | 2 hours 30 minutes | 70% |
| Quality Control Inspector | None — written only | 2 hours 30 minutes | 72% |
| Building Science Principles | None — online exam | Per BPI | Per BPI |
Where the table says “Per BPI” it is because we have not yet read that certification’s own handbook end to end, and we are not going to put a number on this page that we have not checked ourselves. Ask and we will confirm it from the handbook before you book.
This is drawn from BPI’s own handbooks rather than from anyone’s recollection of sitting one.
They are not the hardest tasks technically. They are the tasks a working technician does so often that they stop narrating them — and a field exam scores what the proctor observes, not what you know. If you prepare for one thing, prepare to perform the safety sequence deliberately and out loud.
Written exams are delivered online under proctoring. Field exams are not: somebody has to be in the room with the instruments. BPI’s Core handbook describes its practicum evaluations as taking place at Test Centers “across the United States”, and its handbooks say in several places that fees and scheduling vary from Test Center to Test Center because BPI neither sets the schedule nor collects the fee.
For a Canadian candidate that has meant travel, accommodation, a border crossing and a day or two off work on top of the exam fee — and then the same again at renewal. For the Energy Auditor certification, BPI is explicit: “There is no allowance for bypassing the field exam in order to renew the EA certification.” Every renewal, for the life of the credential.
That is the cost this centre removes. Not the exam fee — the trip.
Renewal can be started six months before expiry on every certification we have checked, and an open complaint at expiry will block it. Renewal and CEUs →
We administer the examination. We do not mark it, we cannot see your score before you do, and we have no route to appeal it on your behalf — grade appeals go to BPI, within thirty days. We also do not offer guarantees, pass-or-repeat packages or anything that implies a result, because the exam is BPI’s and no centre or trainer can promise an outcome on it.
Field exam lengths, pass marks and gated items: BPI Infiltration & Duct Leakage Scheme Handbook, revised 9 April 2026; BPI Building Analyst Technician Scheme Handbook, revised 1 January 2023; BPI Energy Auditor Certification Scheme Handbook, revised 23 July 2026. Identification, proctoring, recording, open-book rules and complaint windows: BPI Core Certification Scheme Handbook, revised 9 April 2026. Which certifications carry a field exam: BPI certifications list, updated 27 April 2026. All figures on this page were read from BPI’s own published documents and checked on 21 October 2026.
That is what a Canadian BPI Test Center exists to make possible. Tell us which certification you need on the booking form and we will confirm the site, the proctor and the date.
Yes. BPI permits any references you want to bring; the only thing prohibited is assistance from another person. Scrap paper stays in the room and is destroyed by the proctor afterwards.
Tasks that must be performed correctly no matter what your overall score is. On BA-T and on the Energy Auditor field exam they are all safety tasks — instrument preparation, ambient carbon monoxide sampling, CO monitoring during combustion safety testing, and ensuring combustion appliances cannot fire during the blower door test.
It depends on the certification. Infiltration & Duct Leakage is one hour thirty minutes. Building Analyst Technician is four hours. The Energy Auditor field exam is four hours. Those are BPI’s published limits.
Ask on the booking form. Equipment arrangements are part of what we confirm with you before the date, and we would rather settle it in writing beforehand than have it become a question on the morning.
BPI permits up to six challenges of a given exam within a one-year period, and twelve months from your first exam to complete the certification. If you use all six without passing, BPI makes you wait until the one-year anniversary of your first unsuccessful attempt.
Yes, audio and video, by BPI's requirement. It is not something a centre can waive.
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The certification, the province, roughly when. We confirm the site, the proctor and the date before you pay a thing.
