High-Performance Home Verifications: Maximizing Savings and Long-term Benefits

Why pay 20-30% more on your energy bills for a home built to minimum legal standards when a verified superior high-performance home can significantly lower your costs and provide a more comfortable and healthier home environment? Minimum code built homes, making up a majority of American homes, are built to the legal standards of the municipality. Unfortunately, city code officials primarily focus on ensuring that building constructions and modifications meet safety and health standards—not energy efficiency.

In Texas, as in some other states, not all municipalities enforce the state’s energy code, or they might apply it with varying degrees of rigor. This can depend on local priorities, resources, and regulations. Additionally, the implementation of energy codes can vary widely between different locales, reflecting local government priorities and capabilities. Thus, it’s important for builders and homeowners to check local codes and standards to understand what is required in their specific area.

The Importance of Energy Certifications in New Home Buying

Historically, homebuyers have focused solely on list price and beauty, often overlooking the long-term energy costs of a home, and, more importantly, the critical issues of home comfort, indoor air quality, and other long-term benefits. This approach can lead to unexpectedly high monthly utility bills and unpredictable results on the home’s comfort, durability, and indoor air quality. High-performance home programs like BUILT TO SAVE® and ENERGY STAR® provide a way to model a home’s plans to evaluate these costs upfront and additionally provide inspections and testing of the home to verify compliance with the strict requirements of these programs in order to qualify for verification of being a high performance home.

What Does a Home Verified as BUILT TO SAVE® Offer?

First, understand that the home builder is the one who is responsible for applying for verification of their home in the BUILT TO SAVE® program. Most critically, the home must be enrolled in the BUILT TO SAVE® program before the drywall is installed. The reason? A licensed third-party Rater must inspect the insulation behind the walls before they are covered. Homes verified by BUILT TO SAVE® might look similar to minimum-code homes, but they boast significant energy savings by employing strict building processes. These homes feature high-efficiency HVAC systems, top-notch insulation, well-sealed constructions, energy efficient appliances, energy-saving windows, and more. Collectively, these features not only reduce energy bills but also enhance indoor air quality and overall comfort.

Ensuring Quality and Performance

Each feature of a BUILT TO SAVE® home is verified by an independent Home Energy Rating System (HERS) provider. Before construction, the HERS Rater uses special software to predict the home’s energy score, and the builder can then make necessary adjustments to improve efficiency, if necessary. The final verification by the HERS Rater includes comprehensive tests such as the Blower Door Test, which checks for air leaks, and the Duct Blaster Test, which ensures that the HVAC system is sealed properly. These certifications guarantee that BUILT TO SAVE® verified homes meet rigorous energy efficiency standards.

Advantages in Resale, Plus Trust

Energy-efficient homes not only offer lower monthly bills; studies have shown that the homes verified as “high-performance” typically demand a higher resale value across the country. This enhanced market value, backed by a measurable HERS score, makes these homes a smart investment. The fact that the home builder was confident enough in his or her work to have their home inspected and tested by a third party to verify compliance with highperformance requirements speaks volumes about that builder’s integrity, and about the trust you can have in their work.

Choosing the Right Builder

Remember that not all builders are members of the BUILT TO SAVE® or ENERGY STAR® programs. Even builders that are members of these programs do not always verify their homes in the programs, even though there are substantial financial incentives paid to the builder by utility companies for verifying a home as high performance. You, the homebuyer, must make the request to the builder for a high performance home verification. Opting for a builder committed to high-performance home program standards ensures that your home will be at the forefront of energy efficiency and provide lasting benefits to you as a homeowner. If you decide to choose a BUILT TO SAVE® builder member, you are assured of quality, performance, and sustainability.