Added Benefit to Owning a High Performance Home

By Jim AdamsPublished: April 28, 2010

THE ONLY BUILDER IN SOUTH GEORGIA BUILDING ABOVE MINIMUM CODE.

While other builders in the Thomasville, Georgia area are still using old building practices and building to bare minimum code simply to avoid breaking the law. CHB Eco Custom Homes are building homes to a higher standard. Are homes are qualified by a third party and it has earned the blue seal by the EPA. High Performance Homes are independently verified to meet strict guidelines for energy efficiency set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These homes save money on utility bills, provide a more comfortable living environment with better indoor air quality and superior materials. Building green is now more than a trend; it is a construction method that has been adopted by many.

You regularly hear a builder marketing his homes as Energy Star certified, Earth Advantage certified, Green built, High Performance, etc. What does this really mean? In fact there is a term, “Greenwashing”, which defines the practice of disingenuously marketing “green”. If you do your homework, you will find most builders are doing the bare minimums to get there certifications. Simply increasing the efficiency of the HVAC system, adding insulation to increase the insulating factor, increasing the efficiency of windows and introducing fresh into the home which is usually by a fan added to a utility room. This of course is a simplified list, but you get the picture.

Unfortunately, what you don’t hear about very often is the testing and third party inspections that go into these homes to get the certifications. I believe that one of the more important benefits of this performance building process is the scrutiny that the homes go through. The level of quality and performance that is demanded to get even the minimum level of certification forces the builder to build a much better built home than a code built home utilizing the municipality inspectors, ie. City, County and State building inspectors.

Again, when you hear a builder talk about their certification, ask questions. What level of certification do they have for their homes and what measures have they taken during construction. But in the end, even at the minimum level of certification, these homes are built to a much higher standard than most code build homes. This will have a lasting effect on the livability and resale over time because of this. All new homes look great when new however, it’s how they stand the test of time that identifies how well built they actually were.

By Tony MarnellaPublished: June 28, 2010