If you compare houses to cars, Raleigh’s Scott Shackleton lives in the building version of a Nissan Leaf. We recently helped Scott achieve a HERS rating of 7 — which is about as close as you can get to energy-neutral for a home. In fact, it’s the lowest score SEM has ever rated a house.
For those not familiar with the index, HERS (more…)
Since 2006, builders wanting an Energy Star qualified home have been following a set of rules commonly referred to as “Energy Star 2.0.” This April, Energy Star announced Energy Star 3.0, changes to the qualification process for new construction that had a lot of builders scrambling to figure out exactly what the implications will be. In general, the altered requirements will make for more efficient homes and a higher standard for builders to meet. That may not make some people happy at first, but I think it really protects the Energy Star name and bolsters its reputation for builders who want to distinguish themselves and provide more efficient homes for home buyers. (more…)
