Standards for Measuring Green Homes

Energy efficiency and sustainability in residential construction is measured by several industry standards. Some of these standards include the following:

-      LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system developmed by the US Green Building Council, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
-      ENERGY STAR is a rating standard for energy efficient consumer products, developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. The rating helps consumers save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. Devices carrying the Energy Star logo, such as computer products and peripherals, kitchen appliances, buildings and other products, generally use 20%-30% less energy than required by federal standards.
-      The Enterprise Green Communities Criteria was developed by Enterprise and leading green building experts and evaluates affordable construction projects on the basis of integrated design, site / location / neighborhood fabric, site improvements, water conservation, energy efficiency, materials beneficial to the environment, healthy living environment and operations / maintenance,
-      The US Department of Energy’s Builders Challenge Quality Criteria measures not only a home’s energy efficiency but also building durability, indoor air quality, environmental stewardship and occupant health, safety, and comfort.
-      HERS, or Home Energy Rating System, is a quantifiable measurement that rates the relative energy efficiency of a design against a typical modern home as defined by the 2004 International Energy Code Council (IECC). This typical house would receive a score of 100. Houses that are more energy efficient receive a progressively lower score; a one point reduction represents a 1% improvement in the energy efficiency. A perfect score of zero indicates that the home has no net energy consumption, it produces at least as much energy as it uses.

At Make It Right, our benchmark for all our homes is LEED Platinum, the highest designation of sustainability in residential construction. In meeting LEED Platinum, a house also meets several other of the criteria and designations above.

The most important component in achieving LEED Platinum is a home’s HERS score. In fact, almost a third of our LEED points are derived from our HERS score. As described above, a conventional home typically receives a HERS score of 100 and the score is lowered depending on increased energy efficiency in the home. Make It Right homes have typically received scores between 20 and 40 on the HERS scale. This means that our houses are 60% to 80% more efficient than a modern energy code compliant house. In our next blog, we’ll talk about how we achieve that HERS rating.

Permalink   Leave the first comment!

Comments

---