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Assessment Type

To begin a HEScore session an assessment type must be selected. The assessment type is determined from HPXML via the XMLTransactionHeaderInformation/Transaction and Building/ProjectStatus/EventType element using the following mapping:

Assessment Type mapping

XML Transaction Type	HPXML Event Type	HEScore Assessment Type
create	audit	initial
	proposed workscope	alternative
	approved workscope	alternative
	construction-period testing/daily test out	test
	job completion testing/final inspection	final
	quality assurance/monitoring	qa
	preconstruction	preconstruction
update	any	corrected

Assessment Date

HEScore requires an assessment date. If a date is stored in the element Building/ProjectStatus/Date, that date is used. If not, the current date is used.

Building Dwelling Unit Type

HEScore requires specifying whether the building is a detached house, a town house, an apartment unit, or a manufactured house through their building.dwelling_unit_type input. HPXML can specify this (and a variety of other house types) through the Building/BuildingSummary/BuildingConstruction/ResidentialFacilitytype data element. Not all facility types in HPXML can be modeled in HEScore. The table below shows how the possible enumerations of the HPXML field are translated into HEScore.

HPXML Facility Types to HEScore Building Dwelling Unit Type

HPXML	HEScore
single-family detached	single_family_detached
single-family attached	single_family_attached
manufactured home	manufactured_home
2-4 unit building	not translated
5+ unit building	not translated
multi-family - uncategorized	apartment_unit
multi-family - town homes	single_family_attached
multi-family - condos	apartment_unit
apartment unit	apartment_unit
studio unit	apartment_unit
other	not translated
unknown	not translated

Note

For enumerations that are not translated the HPXML file will fail to run in HEScore. Building/BuildingDetails/BuildingSummary/Site/Surroundings is no longer used for shared walls mapping in town houses. Each Wall is considered and the ExteriorAdjacentTo is mapped into a HEScore adjacent_to. See Wall InteriorAdjacentTo and ExteriorAdjacentTo

Manufactured Home Sections

HEScore requires specifying manufactured home sections if building.dwelling_unit_type is a manufactured_home. HPXML can specify this through the Building/BuildingDetails/BuildingSummary/BuildingConstruction/ManufacturedHomeSections element. Since that element was newly introduced in HPXML v4, the translator will also accept Building/BuildingDetails/BuildingSummary/BuildingConstruction/extension/ManufacturedHomeSections.

Note

CrossMod manufactured home will be treated as a single-family detached home in Hescore.

Year Built, Stories, Bedrooms, Floor Height, and Floor Area

The HEScore inputs year_built, number_bedrooms, num_floor_above_grade, floor_to_ceiling_height, and conditioned_floor_area are each retrieved from their corresponding HPXML elements shown below.

<HPXML>
   ...
   <Building>
     ...
     <BuildingDetails>
         <BuildingSummary>
             <BuildingConstruction>
                 <YearBuilt>1998</YearBuilt>
                 <ConditionedFloorArea>2400</ConditionedFloorArea>
                 <NumberofConditionedFloorsAboveGrade>2</NumberofConditionedFloorsAboveGrade>
                 <AverageCeilingHeight>8</AverageCeilingHeight>
                 <NumberofBedrooms>3</NumberofBedrooms>
             </BuildingConstruction>
         </BuildingSummary>
     </BuildingDetails>
   </Building>
</HPXML>

The HEScore input floor_to_ceiling_height will be calculated by dividing ConditionedBuildingVolume by ConditionedFloorArea if AverageCeilingHeight is omitted.

House Orientation

In HPXML the orientation of a house and orientations in general can be specified as either a compass direction (‘North’,’Southwest’,etc.) or an azimuth measured in degrees clockwise from North. HEScore requires a compass direction for the orientation of the front of the house. If the azimuth is available in Building/BuildingDetails/BuildingSummary/Site/AzimuthOfFrontOfHome the nearest compass direction is chosen. If the azimuth is omitted from HPXML but the OrientationOfFronOfHome element exists, the orientation is used.

Infiltration

HPXML allows the specification of multiple Building/BuildingDetails/Enclosure/AirInfiltration/AirInfiltrationMeasurement elements, which can contain either a blower door test or a qualitative assessment of “leakiness”. HPXML also allows the specification of multiple Building/BuildingDetails/Enclosure/AirInfiltration/AirSealing elements, which can contain a qualitative assessment of “leakiness”. Either of the elements above is required. HEScore can be used with either a measurement from a blower door test or by specifying whether the house has been air sealed or not (boolean). Preference is given to a blower door test measurement when it is available in HPXML.

Blower Door Test

The translator first looks for an AirInfiltrationMeasurement with units of CFM50. If more than one of the AirInfiltrationMeasurement elements have units in CFM50, the last one to appear in the document is used. If there are no measurements in CFM50, it will look for one in ACH50. If more than one of the AirInfiltrationMeasurement elements have units in ACH50, the last one to appear in the document is used. If the UnitofMeasure element has a value of ACH, then the value is converted to CFM using the building volume calculated by the floor area and floor height.

An example of the minimum expected elements in HPXML follows:

<AirInfiltrationMeasurement>
   <SystemIdentifier id="infilt1"/>
   <HousePressure>50</HousePressure><!-- Must be 50 -->
   <BuildingAirLeakage>
      <UnitofMeasure>CFM<!-- or ACH --></UnitofMeasure>
      <AirLeakage>1234</AirLeakage>
   </BuildingAirLeakage>
</AirInfiltrationMeasurement>

Air Sealing Present

When a blower door test is not available the translator looks for an AirInfiltrationMeasurement or AirSealing that specifies an estimate of leakage. An example of the minimum expected elements in that case looks like:

<AirInfiltrationMeasurement>
   <SystemIdentifier id="infilt2"/>
   <LeakinessDescription>tight</LeakinessDescription>
</AirInfiltrationMeasurement>

<AirSealing>
   <SystemIdentifier id="infilt3"/>
</AirSealing>

If more than one AirInfiltrationMeasurement is found that have the above elements, the last one to appear in the document is used. Whether the house is marked as having air sealing present is determined according to the following mapping from LeakinessDescription:

HPXML LeakinessDescription to HEScore Air Sealing Present

Leakiness Description	Air Sealing Present
very tight	True
tight	True
average	False
leaky	False
very leaky	False

If AirSealing is found, the enclosure of the house is assumed to be air-sealed.

Comments

The hpxml-hescore translator allows passing through comments. Since there’s no equivalent way to communicate this information in HPXML under the Building node, the translator will look for a specifically named element in extension of Building:

<Building>
    <extension>
        <Comments>Any comment</Comments>
    </extension>
</Building>

If there’s no comment found in extension element, the translator will look for the Project/ProjectDetails/Notes element for comments. Only the first Project node will be selected. For complicated cases where buildings are assigned to multiple projects, using the extension element is recommended.