DIY Network

Steps to Building a Better Home: New Technology From "Home IQ" episode DHIQ-126

Figure A

Cranberry Township, where our homeowners (Brad and Lynn Oberg) built their house, inspects the construction to make sure it meets a "minimum standard" of building code, discussed in the first segment. But instead of just meeting the minimum requirements, Brad and Lynn turned to the building scientists and engineers at IBACOS (figure A) in Pittsburgh, where Brad works, to help them achieve a higher level of comfort and energy efficiency in their home.

"IBACOS is researching new and better ways to build houses," Eric Newhouse, systems integration designer for the company, said. "And a lot of that research is being done in cooperation with home builders who are interested as well in delivering better products to their customers." The engineers come up with "new approaches" for the builders to implement in the field.

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A home-energy rating is key to building a house that is energy efficient, more comfortable, has good health and solid safety attributes. This rating is a way to measure the home's energy efficiency. It's a performance assessment that takes insulation levels, energy characteristics, types of windows, heating and cooling system and the air tightness into account.

The evaluation rating is on a scale from 0 to 100, and the score is called the HERS (Home Energy Rating Scale) rating. A "0" means the home uses an infinite amount of energy (not a good thing) and 100 means it uses almost no energy (a great thing), and the average home built to code minimum usually has a rating of 80.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "energy star" program has set an energy performance standard, which is a HERS score of 86. Any home with a score of 86 or higher can be labeled an Energy Star home. For more information on this program and the EPS, see Resources, below, for the link to their website.

Our homeowners want this extra level of home comfort and efficiency, so during every phase of construction they considered new technology, including special waterproofing and insulation (figure B) on the foundation, high-tech spray foam insulation, extra care in sealing the ductwork (figure C) and high-efficiency windows and doors.

Figure B

Figure C

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