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Home & Garden Articles
Energy Star Certified Home
Wed 14 Feb 2007 - 15:29
Energy Star Certified Home
By Todd Fratzel
I mentioned in an earlier article "Building an Energy Star Qualified Home" that there are many benefits to building an Energy Star certified home (See below for a link to that article). At work we are currently in the process of becoming an Energy Star builder partner. What that boils down to is we can build an Energy Star certified home for people following the governments guidelines for Energy Star. Basically we need to build homes that are 15% more energy efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code (IRC). In order to get a house certified builders must have the performance of the new home tested by a third party certified company.
Today I had the pleasure of watching one of our new homes tested by an Energy Star certified tester. I was really amazed at all the little details that normal construction "lacks" in the sense of air infiltration and poor insulation. In fact, many of the things the tester was explaining to me were not done in my own new home.
My plan is to share many of the things I'm learning about Energy Star homes with my readers in the coming months. One of the biggest things I learned today was most homes in the northeast (or cold climates) are not sufficiently insulated in the basement. Most current guidelines and codes actually require the concrete basement walls to be insulated. The simplest approach is to adhere a rigid Styrofoam insulation to the walls based on the required 'R' factor in your part of the country.
Another great tip I picked up on today was that we should utilize bathroom and kitchen vents to help remove moisture from our homes. More specifically, instead of just turning off the exhaust vent after our shower or after cooking our meal, we should instead leave that fan on for 15 to 20 minutes. By leaving the fans on we can help reduce extra moisture from the house and also help exchange additional fresh air. The best way to effectively do this is to have your electrician install a timer switch. The switch will allow the fan to remain on for the desired time after the switch is shut off.
Todd Fratzel, P.E. is a building superintendent for a construction firm in New Hampshire. In addition to supervising the construction of new homes Todd is a registered professional engineer in the New Hampshire and Massachusetts and has an extensive back ground in building structures. For additional articles like this one see his blog at http://homeconstructionimprovement.blogspot.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Todd_Fratzel
http://EzineArticles.com/?Energy-Star-Certified-Home&id=447751
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