Building Energy Efficient Homes

In the home building industry there are constantly changing trends. Items like the hottest new paint color, flooring material, open concept building and so on. We use the classification of trends because they seem to have a limited lifespan until the next hot thing comes in style. What we are more focused on is the direction of the home building industry, which is going to have more staying power. This is where things like building energy efficient homes come into play. Homes continue to be built to higher and higher efficiency levels. Some of this is directed by local and national codes but it is also driven by consumer demand as buyers become more educated on the efficiency of their homes.

More and more of the nation’s leading builders are now making a commitment to building energy efficient homes through the ENERGY STAR® home program. In order to certify a home as ENERGY STAR® there is a stringent list of requirements the builder must meet. This includes almost every aspect of the building process including things that probably won’t surprise you such as windows, doors, insulation, appliances and the HVAC system. What you might not know is that it also includes items such as the ducting, air filtration and ventilation fans of the home. All of these requirements must be confirmed through an independent rater/inspector for the home to receive the final sign off. This is comforting to the homebuyer, as they will have peace of mind that the home is going to perform as advertised.

So why is this a direction and not just a trend. We will get right to it – money. While there are a lot of extra benefits to using less energy (reducing our carbon footprint, using less resources…), the big one from a homeowner’s standpoint is a reduced utility bill. An energy efficient home can reduce the monthly utility bills considerably. According to ENERGY STAR®, a certified home will use up to 30% more energy than a traditionally built home. To put that in perspective, if your utility bills are $300 a month, a certified home would reduce that to $210. That is a saving of $1,080 per year. According to the Redfin the typical US homeowner stays in their home for about 12 years, meaning a savings of about $13,000. Additionally, the home will have better resale value.

Another aspect of building energy efficient homes is there is a movement that is gaining support that in order to qualify for a FHA mortgage, the home must be ENERGY STAR® certified. ENERGY STAR® already has a program called Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM) that helps homebuyers qualify for purchasing a home as it considers that the monthly cost to maintain the home will be less, allowing more to be used to pay off the loan. While these programs are not yet mandatory, the direction they are going looks as if they will be in the near future. The good news is the major builders are already identifying this and are getting ahead of the game, committing to building certified homes.

To learn more about building trends/directions or other industry news, makes sure to read Air King’s other blog posts. To learn more about Air King’s ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation and fresh air intake solutions and how they can be implemented into building energy efficient homes visit airkinglimited.com

How Does ENERGY STAR® Certified Ventilation Help?

For the most part almost everyone in the United States has at least seen the ENERGY STAR® logo and many understand what it signifies. Many people however only think that certification is for things like TVs, computers and appliances. While they are some of the more “big ticket” items, there are many categories of products that can earn certification including ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation.

So what sets certified ventilation apart from typical products? Here are a few of the main items. ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation must perform at a higher efficiency than standard ventilation solutions. Efficiency is measured by taking the amount of air the unit moves (measured in CFM – cubic feet per minute) and dividing that by the amount of energy (Watts) needed to operate the unit. To put this in perspective a standard low end or entry-level exhaust fan operates at about 1 watt per CFM or worse. In contrast a certified unit has to operate at a minimum of 2.8 CFM per watt with some units exceeding that and operating as high as 19 CFM per watt.

A second way ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation products stand out is they are required to offer a longer warranty. While this might not sound like a big deal, it actually is. With a longer warranty, there is more peace of mind that that product is going to last a lot longer and is constructed of high quality parts. In the case of ventilation products that typically means a better motor.

For units that have a light feature, which include some exhaust fans as well as most range hoods, the light bulb must be included or integrated with the unit and it must be a certified LED bulb. The lighting in these units can sometimes be the biggest energy draw of the unit. For instance changing from a 60-watt incandescent light bulb to an equivalent 8 watt LED is saving approximately 52 watts.

Lastly, and this one might seem a little out of the ordinary is that there are sound restrictions on the units. For most units, they must operate at or below 2 sones. Sones are the unit of measurement for sound in ventilation products. We have explained sones in some of our previous posts but basically 1 sone is the sound your refrigerator makes and 4 sones is about the sound of a typical conversation.

When you put all this together, it is hopefully clear that ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation is going to be a much better product than a standard one. For more information regarding ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation solutions from Air King including exhaust fans, range hoods and fresh air intake, please visit airkinglimited.com. For more information about ENERGY STAR®, please visit energystar.gov.

ENERGY STAR Homes

Have you ever used the phrase: I wish I would have (or as we say in eastern Pennsylvania – I wish I wood-a)? Probably most of us have said this phrase at one point in our lives. Building or doing a major renovation to a home can be a place where this phrase is commonly used. “I wish we would have upgraded to the better cabinets”, “I wish we would have put hardwood floors in”, “I wish we would have made the house more energy efficient” and so on. When building a new home a great place to start is making sure it is an ENERGY STAR home.

As the cost of energy continues to rise, making sure your home is as energy efficient as possible will have life long benefits. To this end, ENERGY STAR has developed the ENERGY STAR Residential New Construction Program. As ENRGY STAR puts it: “To earn the ENERGY STAR, a home or apartment must meet strict program requirements for energy efficiency developed by ENERGY STAR's Residential New Construction program. These program requirements are based on extensive interaction with the nation’s home-building industry, including builders, developers, verification professionals, and building scientists.”

So what does the entail? It starts with the exterior, making sure everything is sealed, proper installation, uses ENERGY STAR windows and so forth. You will hear this referred to as the building envelop or the thermal enclosure. All these elements are designed to prevent drafts and make the house tight. This will greatly reduce the monthly utility bills, as the HVAC system will have to work less. There are some consideration when building a tightly sealed home – make sure to read our blog post on the subject by clicking here.

Next we move to the home's heating and cooling system (HVAC). An ENERGY STAR Home will have a certified heater and/or air conditioner installed as well as special attention given to the ducting to make sure they are sealed and installed as efficiently as possible. A mechanical ventilation system that draws fresh, filtered outdoor air into the house and exhausts stale air from inside the house is also a requirement of an ENERGY STAR home. This is where Air King comes into the equation with the QFAMD and a host of ENERGY STAR certified exhaust fans and kitchen range hoods.

Onto the water management – yes we said water management. We don’t think too many people would think to add this to the check list but as ENERGY STAR states: “ENERGY STAR certified homes include a comprehensive package of water management practices and materials that help to protect your home from water damage and reduce the risk of indoor air quality problems.” These processes include making sure water is directed off the roof, the home, has moisture-resistant barriers and that materials are protected during construction. All of these ensure the home is being built to last.

We finish with the appliances and lighting. These are probably the easiest to understand, as they are typically the most visible ones. They are also ones that can easily be changed in an existing home. Many ENERGY STAR Home builders will utilize an appliance and lighting package of products that carry the ENERGY STAR certification. Items such as the refrigerator, dishwasher, clothes washers, ceiling fans, ventilation fans and so forth should all be ENERGY STAR certified. For lighting, high efficiency LED lamps should be used throughout the entire home.

Building an ENERGY STAR home will have long lasting benefits for your utility bills, your indoor air quality, your piece of mind and for the environment. If you are in the market to build a new home, make sure you talk to your builder about building an ENERGY STAR home. Remember our phrase at the beginning of this blog? Now it will be your friends and family saying, “We wish we would have done what you did.”

To learn more about ENERGY STAR certified kitchen range hoods, exhaust fans and fresh air systems visit www.airkinglimited.com. Also visit the ENERGY STAR Residential New Construction Page on their website.