As Fuel Prices Go Up ENERGY STAR Improvements Pay Off
By Carl Johnson

ENERGY STAR! You see this label on most every appliance and electronic item you buy, from refrigerators to computer monitors. Items with this label meet standards for energy efficiency set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

In 1995 the EPA turned their attention to buildings and defined ENERGY STAR stan­dards for homes. An ENERGY STAR-certified home is 30 percent or more efficient than a conventional home. As energy prices climb, homeowners will save more on heating and cooling bills, decrease the amount of pollution released into the environment and place less of a strain on the energy infrastructure.

Calling a home “Energy Efficient” conjures images of homes with contemporary designs with no windows. Not so with the ENERGY STAR concept. The idea behind this program is to take conventional house designs and use software to evaluate the home’s energy efficiency. The builder and energy analyst then make changes to components of the home to make it more energy efficient. Changes include improving the insulation in certain areas of the home, using the right type of insulation for the application, routing the heating and cooling ducts to be more efficient, and so on. These improvements do not change the look of the home but can have huge effects on how efficient the home is to heat and cool. ENERGY STAR certification is a collaboration between the builder, energy analyst, tradesmen, and the homeowner.

Not many builders have adopted the concepts of ENERGY STAR in southern New Hampshire. Over the last four years, demand for new housing has increased dramatically causing the price of land in New Hampshire to increase. During this same period, building costs have increased an average of 10 percent per year. This has forced new home prices to rise. Builders have struggled to keep costs low and build homes faster to keep up with the demand. Taking the time and effort to make the home more energy-efficient has not been high on the list of priorities. According to Horizon Energy, in July 2005 about 200 homes were being built to ENERGY STAR standards out of the over 4,400 new residential homes being built through July.

Not all houses being built are the same. So to meet the energy efficiency standards set by the EPA, each house is evaluated and built a little differently. This takes time and attention to detail. Furthermore, there are few subcon­tractors, such as heating contractors, insulators, and electricians, who are willing to take the time to learn the techniques required to con­tribute to the efficiency of the home. Without, a supply of knowledgeable subcontractors the job of the builder is more difficult.

Making a home energy efficient takes more than adding insulation and installing some EN­ERGY STAR-labeled windows. “You have to evaluate the living space enve­lope as a whole and make construction choices based on proven techniques to control air infil­tration and heat loss. Then it takes attention to the construction details to make it work,” says Wes Riley of Horizon Energy, a Concord firm of­ten hired by Public Service of NH to evaluate and monitor ENERGY STAR construction. “There are builders who are using EN­ERGY STAR labeled windows and calling their home ‘energy efficient,’ but this is misleading. They are not doing the hard work to make the home really perform to high standards of efficiency.” Even minor construction details, like the way electrical wires are run in the walls, can have an impact on the way a home performs. “Caulking holes where the wires enter electri­cal boxes and where wires pass between living spaces affects the performance of the home.” Riley says. “These are details that can not be seen but they contribute to the performance. We try to work with the builder and the home-owner to achieve the efficiency rating required without running up the cost of the home.”

Of course there are homes being built that go to the extremes of energy efficiency by incorpo­rating exotic systems like geothermal heating systems, solar arrays and incorporating high tech materials. But these approaches are be­yond the reach of most homeowners and have very long pay back periods. Riley says, “It’s not about spending lots of money but spending money on the right things.” Builders have not had much demand for en­ergy-efficient housing. Energy prices have been going up and this trend is not expected to change over the long term. In September 2005, the price of home heating oil rose over 65 percent from where it was in 2004. At $2.67per gallon the cost of heating the average home cost about $800 more.

The cost benefits of owning an energy-effi­cient home will increase as fuel prices climb, but there are other benefits to an ENERGY STAR home. These homes maintain a more consistent temperature and have fewer drafts, so they are more comfortable. They use fewer resources and are less of a strain on our en­vironment than conventional homes. This is evidenced by the fact that PSNH supports the ENERGY STAR program with cash rebates and technical support.

Although currently there is not much aware­ness of the difference between a conventional home and an ENERGY STAR home, it will not be long before homes with this rating will fetch a higher price in the housing market, especially if energy prices remain high. The ENERGY STAR program was created by the EPA and heavily promoted by it. It is a pro­gram that is not likely to fade away and so the value it encourages will also last. Look at the impact the program has had on the whole electronic appliance industry. Buy­ers now look for the ENERGY STAR label on the products they buy. So it is likely that a homebuyer a few years from now will also look for that certificate on a home and will pay less if it doesn’t have it.

For more information go to www.EnergyStar.gov.

Carl Johnson is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage., He lives in Milford, NH and serves home buyers and sellers in New Hampshires Souhegan Valley.

http://www.SouheganHomes.com

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Build smart series #2

              Quick post here regarding the difference between comfort and efficiency. To get an idea of what I mean let me show a silly example. A homeowner, Joe, calls his Hvac (heating and cooling) contractor and explains that the cost of heating his home is ridiculous and asks for help. A comfort consultant is scheduled to meet with the Joe. After inspecting the home the consultant proudly smiles and says he can save the homeowner a decent amount of money. Joe starts grinning and says great how?

The answer is easy ” just turn your stat down to 58 degrees”.

Dumb story right? But it does explain that efficiency and comfort are not linked at the hip. Efficiency relates to two things: Load and Delivered efficiency of the fuel to heat/cool  the load. Comfort deals with how that fuel is distributed thoughout the home.

           The standard for efficiency has quickly become the Energy Star rating. While I think Energy star is a fantastic program it doesnt guarantee everything that might be implied. Energy Star does a fantastic job dealing with “load”. Load deals with anything that increases the cost of heating or cooling which I will touch on in later posts. It also regulates the design efficiency of the equipment installed but it doesnt regulate how well that equipment is installed. Poorly installed equipment will never come close to rated efficiency. Energy Star does not have a provision for catching this. Comfort deals with how well an entire system is designed and installed. Designing a system correctly takes a considerable amount of training  and practice, I just designed a house in Munster In that took about four hours. I will explain more of that in later posts.

 Once again I love Energy Star but I don’t believe that a rated home is perfect. 

Build smart series #1

             If you’re getting ready to start, or have already started the process of building your new home, you are probaly finding that there are hundreds of decisions to be made. My goal here is to help with some of the questions you have by providing as much common sense information as I can regarding the comfort and efficiency of a new home.  I sincerely believe that you can do some very easy things to drastically increase your home efficiency.

          Let’s take a second and talk about the different types of homebuilders active in Lake and Porter counties in Northwest Indiana.

• Production builders

             Production builders will generally have fewer options available than custom or semi cuctom builders. This is to be expected given their business model. Successful production builders are so because they have figured out how to build their particular models quickly and efficiently allowing them to be very competitive cost wise. Any options that are not typically handled by their staff can cause delays and cost over runs. If you are working with a production builder and sense they don’t want to deal with a lot of changes, you are probably correct. This is not an indictment of this business model, you are definitely getting the benefit of buying some scale and economies of scale.

• Custom Home Builder

Even in this niche there are numerous customer experience models.  Most of the truly custom home builders are former trades that wanted to build for themselves.  This process will be much more involved in the design and selections.  You are going to get the exact house you want, but you will be paying for one of a kind.  This builder is much more willing to try new types of technologies as long as you’re willing to pay learning curve.

Custom home builders in Northwest Indiana are much more prone to look at zoning, to look at hybrid heat, geothermal, insulation increases for comfort and efficiency.  This isn’t to say that Production home builders won’t allow these types of changes, but they will probably want to use their own existing contractors, some of these contractors may have limited options available.

In general custom homes are going to cost more, but allow a much more intense customer experience. 

• U are the Builder

Lastly, due to increase in home costs, and flexibility of schedules some people will choose to build and contract their own homes.  If you are interested in this kind of process you can hire someone to “consult” with you to get better pricing and plans, but you are the contractor.  You can have anything you want, and the universe of home comfort options is huge, but you pay the learning curve.

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