2004 Energy Star Award Winners

"Energy efficiency is just good sense"
- Robbie Roberts, EPA's Region 8 Administrator

"Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others."
- W Churchill

Last month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR Homes Program, in collaboration with E-Star Colorado and Xcel Energy, handed out awards for excellence to Colorado builders of energy-efficient high-performance homes.

Winners of this year's EPA's ENERGY STAR New Millennium Builder Awards faced tougher competition - 17 entrants-during the fourth year of the selection process. The list of nine winners includes a number of new entrants plus several repeaters. Three new categories - Trade Partner, Rising Star, and Super Nova Awards of Distinction - were awarded to these quality building participants.

Homes meeting the EPA's ENERGY STAR criteria must score 86 or higher on the 0-to-100 uniform home energy rating scale. This makes such homes at least 20 percent more efficient than the International Energy Conservation Code. Yet the high-performance home "systems approach" - seeking to enhance health, safety, comfort, durability, affordability and green building was also a key driver among the awards criteria evaluated by the 11-member panel of experts convened at E-Star Colorado's offices. As a result, several very efficient homes built with-out a mechanical ventilation system didn't quite make the cut this year.

Roughly 1,200 homes will be built in Colorado during 2004 that meet the Energy Star performance threshold. What follows is a description of a few details and angles that separated the winners from the rest of the crowd.

A bottom line to remember in this day of very high energy prices: any Energy Star home should cost their buyers a little more in initial purchase price but no more to own. The energy savings offsets the higher first cost to homeowners.

DENVER METRO PRODUCTION BUILDER

In the Denver region, Oakwood Homes received the first "Rising Star" award for excellence in production building. To achieve a high level of performance in all of their new subdivisions, Oakwood installs high-efficiency furnaces, sealed ductwork, year-round fresh air ventilation, low-e windows and a well-insulated shell with careful attention to product installation.

To maintain consistency, the company sent in-house staffer Scott Olson through E-Star's home energy rater training program, then promoted him to High Performance Specialist. He works within Oakwood to ensure that all homes in new developments meet the Energy Star criteria. His work includes pre-dry-wall inspections, 100 percent energy ratings, meetings with trade contractors, plus review and revision of changes in construction specifications to ensure the homes can meet the new performance standards. Fifteen percent of all high-performance homes are also tested and rated by Lightly Treading in order to maintain 3rd-party verification of standards.

On the marketing side, Oakwood created a "talking house tour" in one model home. It features a series of push-button-activated audio recordings that explain several key features, such as their 92 percent efficient furnaces, low-e windows and finger-jointed studs. Oakwood explained, "We see these efforts to educate our buyers as not only helping Oakwood sell homes but also providing leadership within Colorado to shift the market towards a greater understanding of how a house works, not just relying on how it looks." They plan to add a "talking home" model in each new development.

SUPER NOVA AWARD NO. I

During the last 12 months, McStain Neighborhoods built a very impressive 369 homes that met the ENERGY STAR threshold. But in 2004, what bagged them a first-of-its-kind plaque - the Super Nova Award of Distinction - was their innovative research project, the Discovery House. That home earned over 400 points on the Built Green checklist - the most points of any home ever evaluated. It scored 93 points on E-Star's 0-to-100 home energy rating scale, one of the handful of highest scores earned to date.

The Discovery Home included a very extensive list of innovative products and building assemblies: advanced framing, high-performance HVAC, active solar water and space heating, sun-tempered design, use of recycled and sustainably-harvested materials, etc. (For more details on this project, refer to the July 2004 Energy Waves article that featured the Discovery House.)

Equally impressive was McStain's related outreach effort. More than 1,000 people visited the home, seeing and hearing about the many innovative products and building assemblies on display. The company hosted numerous workshops for the public, Realtors and others in the building industry. Just as important, McStain willingly shared their "lessons learned" from the project.

ASPEN HOMES OF COLORADO, INC. - DOUBLE WINNER

Aspen Homes of Colorado, Inc., a repeat winner, won in convincing style in two categories - production builder and affordable builder - among the non-Denver-metro Front Range builders.

In September of 2002, Aspen Homes switched to 100 percent high-performance home building. Today their homes average 89 points on the home energy rating scale, about 40 percent better than the International Energy Conservation Code.

Energy features are impressive: R-20 walls, 92 percent AFUE furnaces, sealed-combustion water heaters, consistently very tight construction, a fresh-air ventilation system in every home and engineered and sealed duct-work, backed up with 100 percent performance testing of every duct system and home. Notable upgrades this year were led by their switch to efficient, tankless water heaters.

Like McStain, Aspen Homes shares their experiences with the building community at large. They also push the renewable energy envelope by seeking out utilities to partner with them in the development of affordable, "zero-energy homes." (This column will cover in the near future the zero-energy - or more accurately "super-low-energy"-home concept.) One such prototype has been built, with a plan for 25 more in the hopper.

The unique aspect that helped Aspen earn an award in the affordable category is their sweat equity program. This allows potential homeowners who are employed or have been employed in a specific construction trade to per-form work on their future home. Pro-gram participants are considered to be sub-contractors and must meet the same qualifications and contractual agreements as other Aspen Homes trade contractors. Compensation for the sweat equity work can be used to purchase additional options, to reduce the size of the final loan or as credit for closing costs.

TRADE PARTNER

Atlantic Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. won the first award for a high-performance-home trade partner. Based in Colorado Springs, Atlantic tests and commissions all the systems they in-stall for Keller Homes, Engle Homes and Campbell Homes, plus some re-models.

Duct blasting performed on their ducted systems assures that, under test conditions, air leakage is no more than 10 percent of the amount of airflow moved by the air handler. This results in ductwork that is over 10 times tighter than an earlier random sample of ductwork in homes along the Front Range.

Atlantic is particularly pleased that their current focus on proper equipment sizing plus good duct design and careful installation has reduced warranty calls for one of their builders by 60 percent.

GREATER COLORADO CUSTOM BUILDER

For the fourth year in a row, Phil Bailey of Balanced Construction Inc. won an EPA Energy Star builder award. From his western-slope base in Montrose, he covers all the key bases, including appropriate sizing and design of the HVAC system, solar-smart design strategies and improved indoor air quality and moisture management strategies.

Bailey's two homes built this year scored 87 and 92 on the HERS scale. He continues to take the systems approach to design and construction. Built Green construction and ENERGY STAR qualification are both standard, backed up by performance testing of each home.

Bailey works hard with partners in the industry-ENERGY STAR, Built Green Colorado, the Colorado Renewable Energy Society, the Energy & Environmental Building Association and most importantly with the local HBA, of which he is currently president. In the world of "market transformation," Bailey is an effective one-man gang with a mission.

HABITAT-METRO DENVER EARNS SUPER NOVA

Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver continues to dominate in this category. If anyone is close to a lock, they're it.

Consider the following: of the roughly 125 homes built by Habitat Metro Denver during the last six years, all have met or exceeded the ENERGY STAR threshold - a performance level that no other builder in the state and few in the country can match.

This year's houses submitted for the award averaged a score of 90 on the home energy rating scale-a difficult feat for a smaller home. (Unfortunately, there is a small bias in the rating system that gives slightly higher scores to large vs. small homes when both are built with identical energy features.)

But what's equally impressive is their outreach effort. Habitat reports that they average a call a week from other affordable-home builders wanting to learn from the Denver chapter's success. This year, they plan to offer training to other affordable-home builders to encourage them to move in the direction of high-performance housing.

COMMUNITY DESIGN/BUILDER

Wonderland Hill Development Company consistently leads the state - perhaps even the nation - in the arena of sustainable community design, especially within the context of co-housing development. This year, a 34-unit development in the Boulder area - the Wild Sage co-housing project - shows off their continued commitment to resource-efficient community design. Nine of the homes tested scored an average of 90, exceeding the ENERGY STAR threshold; all 34 homes are ENERGY STAR compliant.

Environmental and sustainable de-sign and construction are hallmarks that help bring buyers to co-housing projects. Wonderland Hill's energy efficiency plan starts with a well-insulated building envelope: R-22 spray-insulated walls, R-38 ceilings, insulated basements, low-e windows and tight construction. The land plan at Wild Sage enabled windows in nearly all homes to face south or north. That means passive solar energy helps heat those homes during the winter, good day-lighting reduces electrical loads and favorable orientation minimizes or eliminates the need for mechanical cooling.

Use of ENERGY STAR appliances and lights is a strategy recommended to all co-housing buyers. Other no-table areas of focus include outdoor water conservation, simplified efficient outdoor lighting, and integration of transportation reduction tactics.

CUSTOM BUILDER - FRONT RANGE

Pueblo-based Tierra Concrete Homes won this category by building the highest-scoring home - 97 out of 100 - that E-Star has rated in the last five years. Their well-insulated tilt-up concrete homes, when properly oriented on a building site, always score in the low 90s. Adding a solar water heater to their most recent home, built in Coaldale (southeast of Salida), added a nice performance boost. There isn't much room for energy fine-tuning in a high-mass, well-insulated passive solar home like this one. (For more details on this house, see the October 2004 Energy Waves column.)

Steve Andrews consults with builders for E-Star Colorado and writes on energy issues (sbandrews@att.net). E-Star (www.e-star.com), is a nonprofit home energy rating system that works with both new and existing homes statewide.

2008 Built Green Colorado

Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, 9033 E. Easter Place, Suite 200, Centennial, CO 80112
(303) 778-1400 fax: (303) 733-9440  info@builtgreen.org

Last Updated: 10/05/2007