RESNET's Combustion Safety Certification Test as a 3D Serious Game
RESNET, the Residential Energy Services Network, announced in November 2010 that its test for combustion appliance safety certification would run as a serious game. Interplay Energy built the 3D simulation with Caspian Learning's Thinking Worlds tool.
Updated
Why the test became a simulation
To be certified as a Comprehensive Home Energy Rater or a Building Performance Auditor, a candidate has to be trained to run combustion safety tests. Testing that skill in a real house is expensive and uneven. An experienced field proctor charged about $100 an hour, a test could take two to three hours, and the house had to be a volunteer's home. Some training companies bought homes just to use as test houses. Costs limited the number of scenarios, and standards varied between training companies in different states.
RESNET looked for something that would keep costs low and standards high and consistent without putting homeowners at risk. Written exams fall short on real-world understanding, while a simulation can be controlled, consistent and cheap to repeat. RESNET and Interplay Energy chose to build a serious game that an administrator could set up to show any number of combustion analysis scenarios.
How the simulation worked
Interplay Energy chose Thinking Worlds, a 3D authoring tool, and commissioned Caspian Learning to design the simulation. It takes about one hour and plays out in a two-story house. An administrative control panel changes the test conditions before each sitting, so each candidate meets a different case. RESNET's Technical Committee and Training and Education Committee helped develop it.
Two delivery options were offered. The finished simulation could be downloaded and played on a single PC, or it could run as a web-based simulation from any computer with an Internet connection. Either way, results were recorded centrally. The training providers of RESNET offered the game to candidates.
What is true today
RESNET's website is online. One of its pages, dated April 18, 2012, says RESNET created the Comprehensive Home Energy Rater credential, which requires passing an online multiple-question test and a practical simulation test on the combustion appliance zone (CAZ) and work scope, and that RESNET built the online CAZ and work scope training program and online practical with Interplay Energy. RESNET's standard 802, Combustion Safety Testing, last updated June 29, 2022, requires accredited raters and auditors to follow the carbon monoxide test and the depressurization test for the combustion appliance zone in ANSI/ACCA 12 QH, Appendix A.
The interplayenergy.com address now forwards to the listing page of a domain reseller.
Questions about the simulation
Who built the combustion safety simulation?
Interplay Energy built it for RESNET, using Caspian Learning's Thinking Worlds tool, with input from RESNET's Technical Committee and Training and Education Committee.
How long did the simulation take?
It was designed to take about one hour, set in a two-story house, with test conditions that an administrator could change before each sitting.
Is the Interplay Energy website still online?
No. The interplayenergy.com address now forwards to the page of a domain reseller.