We are "Energy Efficiency Experts". Our Goal is to help you understand that the "Details" of home construction make a difference. Aspects of construction details of any home (be it new construction, existing homes or multi family) will affect it's overall comfort, it's long term durability, the quality of the indoor air and environment as well as the operation costs. It is not easy to understand what one home offers compared to another or what mysteries reside Behind Those Walls. Here are some tips...
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It is important to remember that home performance is not determined by the individual components put into a home, but by how all those components interact with each other and how well they were all designed and installed. We use the term "The Home as a System" to describe how these components combine to define a home's performance.
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In Home Performance, Details Matter
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Building Code is constantly evolving but we like to describe "Code" as defining The Worst Home you can Legally Build.
There are numerous Nationally Recognized programs that follow specific guidelines and are "Third Party" certified. These programs give an un-biased rating of the various components of a home and their combined performance. |
The most recognized national certification for home is the Energy Star for Homes program. A voluntary program administered by the US EPA, it has rigorous mandatory requirements that were developed by analyzing hundreds of thousands of homes and identifying problems with construction methods and common building failures. The result is a home built to one of the highest standards in the home building industry.
A less recognized program, the HERS or Home Energy Rating System is rapidly becoming the most common voluntary rating for new homes. Having passed two million rated homes, now close to 25% of all new home built in the US are being HERS rated. The HERS is less rigorous than the Energy Star program and simply analyses the energy efficiency of a home as built with out the mandatory requirements the the Energy Star and other Green programs have. The HERS is a numerical score, often compared to the MPG for cars, that represents the relative efficiency of the home. The lower the score, the more efficient the home. The HERS rating is an integral part of the Energy Star certification as well as most Green certifications as well.
Less common but possibly familiar are various Green Build certifications. The National Green Build Standard, LEED for Homes, Enterprise Green Communities, Passive House and other local Green certifications all have mandatory requirements including third party certification.
A less recognized program, the HERS or Home Energy Rating System is rapidly becoming the most common voluntary rating for new homes. Having passed two million rated homes, now close to 25% of all new home built in the US are being HERS rated. The HERS is less rigorous than the Energy Star program and simply analyses the energy efficiency of a home as built with out the mandatory requirements the the Energy Star and other Green programs have. The HERS is a numerical score, often compared to the MPG for cars, that represents the relative efficiency of the home. The lower the score, the more efficient the home. The HERS rating is an integral part of the Energy Star certification as well as most Green certifications as well.
Less common but possibly familiar are various Green Build certifications. The National Green Build Standard, LEED for Homes, Enterprise Green Communities, Passive House and other local Green certifications all have mandatory requirements including third party certification.
