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2004 is Fourth Warmest Year on Record
News and Events
The 2005 International Builders' Show - held in Orlanda, Florida, by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) - concluded on Sunday after exposing builders to the latest in energy efficiency for the home, including three showcases for energy efficiency technologies: the Not So Big Showhouse, the New American Home, and the PATH Tutorial Townhouses.
The 2,900-square-foot Not So Big Showhouse was conceived by architect Sarah Susanka, whose best-selling book "The Not So Big House" introduced a "build better, not bigger" approach to home design. Three of DOE's Building America teams collaborated on the Susanka-designed house using a "building as a system" approach to design, specify, and plan the construction of the home. The walls are made of structural insulated panels (SIPS), which feature a core of foam insulation sandwiched between two oriented strand boards. The tightly sealed building envelope is combined with state-of-the-art cooling and ventilation, and the home also features a solar electric system and a solar hot water system with a tankless water heater as a backup. See the Not So Big Showhouse Web site and the press release from Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (PDF 126 KB).
In contrast to the Not So Big Showhouse, NAHB's New American Home, a two-story Mediterranean design, measures 9,036 square feet. To keep it from being a natural gas guzzler, the Integrated Building and Construction Solutions (IBACOS) Consortium, in partnership with DOE's Building America Program, provided design and engineering support to ensure maximum energy efficiency. The home will be Energy Star rated and will use 47 percent less energy for heating and cooling and 64 percent less energy for water heating than a traditionally constructed house of a similar size in the same climate. Homeowners will be able to control lights and window shades from anywhere in the house. See the NAHB press release, and for additional information, see the Building America brochure (PDF 1.1 MB), the International Builder's Show Web site, and the IBACOS Web site.
Last but not least, the Partnership for Advanced Technology in Housing (PATH) built its two-unit PATH Tutorial Townhouses at the International Builder's Show. The modular townhouses feature such technologies as high-efficiency heat pumps; tankless water heaters; and Energy Star-rated insulation levels, windows, doors, lighting, appliances, and electronic devices. See the PATH announcement.
Twenty-four home builders were recognized at last week's International Builder's Show for their efforts to make homes more energy efficient. The Energy Value Housing Awards went to builders in ten states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The winners built homes using energy-efficient practices such as pre-construction energy analysis, climate-specific selection of equipment and systems, and innovative air sealing and duct practices. The builders' homes also feature high levels of insulation, fluorescent lighting, high-efficiency heating and cooling, and solar hot water heating systems. Winners also built homes that earned outstanding scores from the Home Energy Rating System. The Builder of the Year award went to John Wesley Miller of Tucson, Arizona, who has been a leader in energy-efficient green building, building many solar homes and one "zero energy" home.
The Energy Value Housing Award program is managed by the NAHB Research Center, and operated in partnership with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. See the NAHB Research Center press release and the Energy Value Housing Award Web page.
