What materials can we ask our builder to use that will make our home more energy-efficient, but that won’t cost us a lot more money than traditional products?
While building an energy-efficient home may cost more in the beginning, the costs are generally recovered over time by the energy savings. But many of these opportunities have no additional cost.
The most effective energy-saving options occur in the design phase. A high-performance home begins with house placement, house layout and landscaping. Whenever possible, the home should be sited so glass facing the east and west is minimized. Glass in these directions has as much as five times the solar heat gain as those facing north and south.
The house footprint should be minimized to limit overall surface area. Landscaping also is important: Place deciduous trees to shade the west, southwest, east and southeast sides of the home. Plant evergreen trees and shrubs on the north side to act as a wind break.
Once construction begins, there are many other energy-saving opportunities. These include high-performance building materials such as shingles, insulation, windows, doors and major appliances. At minimum, you want to build your home to meet federal Energy Star standards. The use of materials and techniques that are Energy Star-certified will result in a home that uses at least 15 percent less energy than a comparable home built to traditional standards. More details on Energy Star homes can be found at http://www.energystar.gov.
You want to take a whole house approach to making your home a high-performance system. While any one technique or application is a help, it is the incorporation of all the available energy-saving options that will make your house perform at a level rarely achieved on a regular basis in residential construction.
House Helper answers are provided by area professionals and are the opinions of the experts. Triad Homes does not make any representations as to opinions and facts.
Tom Garcia is the owner of Southern Evergreen, Greensboro’s exclusive Southern Living custom homebuilder. He can be reached at 286-3886.
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