Questions raters ask

A field documentation app for energy raters. It organizes inspection photos by project, stage and measure as you take them, runs the blower door and duct leakage math, holds the ENERGY STAR Rater Field Checklist, keeps the schedule, and prints PDF reports. It runs on the phone and needs no server.

A certified energy rater in Michigan who was tired of renaming photos at night. It started as a personal tool used on real inspections and grew from there. Every feature exists because it came up on a job.

No. RateCaddy documents the field visit and does the test math so you know pass or fail on site. The rating itself still happens in your rating software. RateCaddy is not a certification, rating or compliance authority, and verifying results against the applicable standard is still your responsibility.

No. It feeds them. The ZIP export names every photo by stage and measure so it drops into whatever folder structure your provider wants, and the reports are standard PDFs.

Every measure on the list is a tile. A tile with no photo is gray and says so. The stage card shows measures shot out of total. You leave the house knowing nothing was missed, not hoping.

You shoot from the tile. The photo is stored under the project, the stage and that measure at the moment it is taken. There is no naming step and nothing to sort later. On export the file is named by the measure and numbered, inside a folder for the stage.

No. They are stored in the app’s own database on the phone. That is what keeps them organized and keeps job photos separate from personal ones. Use the Library button on a measure if you want to bring a camera-roll photo in.

Yes. Every measure screen has Camera and Library. Library opens the phone’s picker.

For ENERGY STAR checklist items, yes. An item’s tile has Use a photo from this project, which attaches a photo already on a regular measure (the attic shot, the rim joist) to that item without taking it again. It shows on both tiles and exports under both names. Reuse between two regular measures is on the list but not in the app yet.

Photos are resized on capture to a maximum of 2400 pixels on the long edge and saved as a high-quality JPEG, plus a small thumbnail for the tiles. A typical shot is around a megabyte, so a 60-photo project exports as a ZIP you can still email or upload from the truck.

Yes. The information your camera recorded, such as capture time, camera model and GPS position if your phone records it, is kept in the saved file and travels with every ZIP export and backup. That matters when a QA provider wants proof of when and where a photo was taken. RateCaddy itself never reads that data, never sends it anywhere, and never asks for your device location.

Yes. Hold and drag a tile to move it. Drop it onto another tile to make a group with a heading. Groups collapse. Rename a group with the rename icon next to its heading; tap the heading to collapse it. These edits apply to that project only; the list in Settings is separate.

Anything the photo does not say: insulation type and grade, a model number, a defect. Notes print in the project notes PDF under the stage and measure name, and the PDF goes into the project ZIP automatically.

Yes, from the measure screen. Rename updates every photo already on that measure. Remove takes the measure off that stage after asking.

It is gone from the phone. The app asks first. There is no trash. If you might need it, export or back up first.

Volume is the sum of each floor’s area times its ceiling height, plus joist space between stacked floors (one cubic foot per square foot of overlap, which you can toggle off per floor). ACH50 is CFM50 times 60 divided by that volume. The readout also shows the CFM50 limit for your ACH50 target so you know the number to beat before you turn the fan on.

For an addition tested against the existing house. Enter the pre-test CFM50, the addition’s floors, and the final CFM50. The allowed final reading is the pre-test reading plus the addition’s volume times the ACH50 limit over 60. The report shows the pre and final dates and readings.

From Code requirements. Fresh installs default to ENERGY STAR v3.1 (4.5 ACH50, ducts 4% or 40 CFM25 rough-in, 8% or 80 final, 4% or 40 to outdoors). Set your own code in Settings once, with a name, a maximum ACH50, and duct limits as percent of floor area with optional flat minimums. Any project can override the default from the test screen.

Per system you enter conditioned floor area served, number of returns, and the compliance path. Under Energy Code the paths are rough-in with air handler, rough-in without, final, and ducts fully inside the envelope, each a percent of floor area from your code. Under ENERGY STAR they are the fixed 6.4.1 and 6.4.2 limits, with footnote 28 applied automatically when there are three or more returns.

Optional reading with its own limit. Under ENERGY STAR, if the total leakage already meets the outdoors limit the outdoors test is waived and the report says so. Under a code with no outdoors requirement the section is skipped.

Yes. The grade is computed from the same readings and floor area using the Task 2 duct leakage thresholds and prints on the report. It is a rating-model input, not a pass or fail.

Yes. Add a system per row. Each gets its own inputs, photos and result, and the report shows an overall result across systems.

Yes. The blower door has one results photo, and each duct system has a photo for total and one for outdoors. They print on the report.

Yes. Start a Performance Testing project with a blower door test, a duct test or both. Both tests share one appointment, since they are almost always done on the same visit. A project with only one test has no project screen: it opens straight to the test, with the date, address and contact at the top and the project actions at the bottom.

The ENERGY STAR Single-Family New Homes National Rater Field Checklist, Rev. 14 (01/15/2025), versions 3.1 and 3.2. Item text follows the EPA document. Footnotes 1 through 59 are in the app.

Items that call for a photo get a tile on the stage photo wall under the ENERGY STAR Requirements group, labeled by item number. Shoot them like any other measure. They export into an Energy Star Requirements folder named by item.

The official EPA PDF form, filled. Your Must Correct, Builder Verified, Rater Verified and N/A boxes, the address, permit date, version and notes land in the form’s own fields. It is the government form, not a recreation of it.

Yes. Only the columns the form allows for that item are enabled, and the Builder Verified allowance (for example "≤ 50 sq. ft." or "Pre-rock +50") is shown under the box.

No. ENERGY STAR is a registered trademark of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. RateCaddy is an independent documentation tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or certified by the EPA or RESNET.

From the projects. Each stage has a date and time, and each test has one. Set them on the project form, the stage screen or the test screen and they appear on Home, the week strip and the calendar. There is no separate calendar to maintain.

The soonest appointment: time, day, project, stage or test, and address. It stays for 90 minutes after the start time, then moves to the next one. Tap it to open that stage, or the test screen, with directions and the contact right there. Waiting and completed projects are excluded.

Optional and off by default. When on, the app sends the town and state from the next stop’s address to OpenStreetMap Nominatim to find map coordinates, then sends those coordinates to the National Weather Service for the hourly forecast, and shows the appointment hour. Only the town and state and the resulting coordinates leave the phone, never the street address, the project or your name. Turning it on shows this and asks first. The forecast is cached for an hour.

No. The forecast comes from the U.S. National Weather Service. Everything else in the app works anywhere.

A project parked between visits while the builder finishes. It leaves Up Next, the week strip and the schedule so they only show real stops. Booking or moving the last visit’s date brings it back automatically. It works on rating projects and on your own visits lists.

Yes. SettingsMeasure lists. Add, remove, rename, reorder and group measures for Pre-Drywall and Final Inspection. Changes apply to new projects; existing projects keep their own copy. Reset built-in lists to defaults puts the original back.

Yes. New makes a blank list and asks what kind it is: Energy rating (Pre-Drywall and Final Inspection, ENERGY STAR), One visit, or Two visits. Duplicate copies the selected one. Name them for a program, a builder, a QA provider, or a different trade. Rating lists are picked under Measure List when you start a project; visits lists are picked under Project Type. Primary sets which one is preselected.

On your own lists, yes. A visits list has one or two visits with names you choose (Inspection; Before and After; Rough and Final), and the Visits row in Settings renames them later for new projects. The Energy Rating type keeps Pre-Drywall and Final Inspection because the ENERGY STAR checklist and the default measures are built around them.

Yes. At the bottom of the stage wall, Save this list as a preset creates a measure list in Settings from that project’s current measures and groups.

Yes. Make a one- or two-visit list for your job and it becomes its own project type, with your visit names on the tiles and the dates. The photo wall, notes, Waiting and export are the same. See Beyond rating for examples and for what stays rater-specific.

A folder per stage (Pre-Drywall, Final_Inspection, and Energy Star Requirements when present), each photo named by its measure in capitals and numbered, and a project notes PDF. Export one stage from the bottom of that stage’s wall, or the whole project from the project screen.

Blower Door Test Results, Duct Leakage Test Results, Project Notes, and the filled official ENERGY STAR Rater Field Checklist. All are built on the phone with no upload.

Yes. SettingsReport info holds company, address, phone, email, rater name, credential line and initials. Add a PNG logo and it replaces the RateCaddy header at the top of every report. The rater block prints in the footer of every page.

Export opens the phone’s share sheet. Send to Mail, save to Files or iCloud Drive, AirDrop to the laptop, or drop into Dropbox or Drive. On a desktop browser it downloads.

On your device, in the app’s own database. Projects, photos, notes, test readings, contacts, report info and settings never leave the phone unless you export or back up. There is no account and no server.

None. There are no accounts, no analytics, no tracking, no advertising and no server of ours. The only network activity is the optional weather lookup (town and state to OpenStreetMap, coordinates to the National Weather Service), and it is off until you turn it on. Subscriptions are billed by Apple or Google under their own privacy policies; we never see payment details. Your photos keep the metadata your camera wrote, including location if your camera records it, but the app does not read it and it never leaves the phone except inside your own exports.

RateCaddy is a professional tool and is not directed at children under 13.

SettingsBackupBack up all data (ZIP). One ZIP holds every project, photo, test reading and photo, builder, measure list, report info and logo. Save it to Files or iCloud. Do this before switching phones or removing the app.

Back up on the old phone, install on the new one, SettingsRestore from a backup ZIP. Everything in the ZIP is added; nothing already on the new phone is deleted.

The data goes with it. Removing the app removes its database. There is no cloud copy today, so the backup ZIP and your exported job files are the safety net. Export at the end of every job and back up regularly.

It is planned as a later release, local-first: the phone stays the source of truth and the cloud is a copy, never a dependency. The current version is deliberately offline-only.

RateCaddy is an iPhone and Android app, available from the App Store and Google Play. Both listings are in progress; the badges on the overview page go live when they are approved.

Yes, every feature. Everything the app needs ships inside it. Photos, tests, checklist, reports and backups never touch the network. The only optional online feature is the weather chip.

Yes. The layout is built for a phone in one hand and centers itself on an iPad or Android tablet. Camera capture is wherever the camera is; use Library to add files that are already on the device.

Both. Same app, same features, same data format, so a backup made on one restores on the other.

Yes. SettingsAppearance. Same color grammar, deeper tints.

Motion follows the phone’s Reduce Motion setting by default. Set SettingsAppearanceMotion to Always to override it, or Off to remove it.

$29.99 a month or $299.99 a year, as an auto-renewing subscription through the App Store or Google Play. New subscribers get the first month free. Paying yearly saves over $59 against twelve monthly payments. The store shows the exact price for your country before you confirm.

It is the store’s own introductory offer on the subscription, so Apple or Google decides eligibility: one free month per store account, no card details typed into RateCaddy. Nothing is charged until the month ends, and cancelling before then costs nothing. The first time you tap New project the app asks the store to start it.

Creating new projects. That is the only gated action. Opening, editing, exporting and backing up everything already on the phone always works, with or without a subscription, so your job photos are never held behind a paywall.

Existing projects stay fully usable and exportable. New project asks you to subscribe again, and Restore purchases brings an active subscription back on a new phone or after a reinstall.

Settings, Subscription, Manage subscription opens the subscription in your Apple or Google account settings, where you switch between monthly and yearly or cancel. Cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Billing, renewal and refunds are handled by Apple or Google under their terms; RateCaddy LLC does not process payments and cannot issue refunds.

RateCaddy LLC, a Michigan limited liability company. The terms are governed by Michigan law.

Yes, with one subscription per rater through each rater’s own App Store or Google Play account; there is no company plan or seat billing at launch. Each phone holds its own data and each rater exports their own jobs. Team features are on the list; email if you want to be part of that conversation.

Email support@ratecaddy.net. Include the version from the bottom of Settings and, for a bug, what you tapped. Feature requests from working raters are how this app got built.

On this site: Terms of use, Privacy policy, Disclaimers and Licenses. The same text is in the app under SettingsLegal, readable offline. The short version: your data is yours and stays on your device, RateCaddy is a documentation tool, and verifying results against the applicable standard is your responsibility.