Realty Times - Consortiums Work to Significantly Improve Energy Efficiency in American Homes

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Consortiums Work to Significantly Improve Energy Efficiency in American Homes

by Dena Kouremetis

We have come to expect the nightly news and our local papers to report regularly on medical and technological advances that affect our lives on a daily basis. But it's rare that the average consumer knows what technological advances are made in new home building arena that can affect us as well. After all, it's not "hot" news for TV anchors to report on phenomenal energy-efficiency breakthroughs or tell us about new products that save the environment.

Within the building industry, however, hundreds of individuals, companies, trades people, and even governmental agencies are hard at work to improve the American Dream for all of us. In cooperation with the National Association of Home Builders, the Building America program combines the knowledge and resources of industry leaders with the U.S. Department of Energy's technical capabilities to act as a catalyst for change in the home building industry. It is touted as a "private/public partnership that provides energy solutions for production housing," according to program sources.

The Building America approach is one of "systems engineering," which unites segments of the building industry that traditionally work independently of one another. "Teams" of architects, engineers, builders, material suppliers, community planners, mortgage lenders and contractor trades are formed to find solutions and tap on one another's expertise to find solutions to important homebuilding energy efficiency issues.

This systems engineering approach considers all factions of homebuilding and their interplay with one another, realizing that one component of a house can greatly affect others. Items such as the building site, the mechanical systems and structural systems are studied in relation and reference to one another, bringing an integrated approach to energy efficiency formerly considered mutually exclusive in many ways. This enables teams to incorporate energy saving strategies at no additional costs to the end buyer, while working together to effect change.

The team partners are asked to evaluate their design, business and construction practices, to try to identify where costs can be saved, and to re-invest that savings into improved energy performance and product quality, using a design-test-redesign-retest process along the way.

Currently, there are five teams using a total of more than 50 separate companies. They include:

CARB - The Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings begins each project by re-designing a builder's existing plan into a completely new prototype. It begins with architectural solutions to mechanical and structural issues. The CARB team has successfully completed four prototypes using this approach, while attaining energy efficient levels of 20% to 35% over the original design. The program reports that if these prototypes were built on a production scale, cost savings for construction could be achieved.

The Building Science Consortium is a 12-state-wide program that studies energy efficiency in relation to various climate zones within the U.S. Using 4 climate types, the Building Science builder partners have already built over 250 homes using the Building America concepts, with an additional 2,250 homes in 17 communities planned. According to program reports, results from homes tested an entire year at an Illinois new home community showed a marked 50% to 60% energy savings over the regional standard construction practice, at a nominal cost to the participating builders.

Factory-built modular multi-family housing was used by the Hickory Consortium as a test case for energy saving engineering through the program. A 41-unit planned neighborhood in Massachusetts, the Cambridge Cohousing Development, demonstrated energy savings of 50% over the Massachusetts Energy Code (prior to the 1995 Model Energy Code). Another 61-unit high rise apartment complex and two prototype duplex homes have also had engineering and specifications completed recently, with plans underway for more multi-family complexes in Boston in coming months.

Consortiums also in active programs include the Industrialized Housing Partnership, which focuses on balancing costs, design, construction and energy decisions for residential housing industry partners, and IBACOS (Integrated Building and Construction Solutions) with partnerships in 10 states. IBACOS has successfully designed energy-efficient, high quality, affordable single-family homes since its inclusion in the Building America program in 1991. Past performance resulted in up to 60% utility savings to homeowners, with no additional cost to the builders in several of their pilot home projects.

The valuable information provided for the future of homebuilding by the Building America programs and its consortiums says much for the industry's and the government's commitment to increasing the quality and performance of today's homes. By bringing homebuilding experts together to find ways to save energy, we, as consumers, are assured that the brightest and the best share a vision in saving our environment as well as our utility dollars.

Published: June 7, 2000

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home.

Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.

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