Insulation Institute Blog

A collection of national, state and regional organizations are driving building energy efficiency through advocacy, research, policy analysis and action

There’s no shortage of information on the economic, energy security and environmental benefits of energy efficiency and new statistics emerge every week. But, while information on the myriad advantages of energy efficiency is abundant and accessible, lesser known are the organizations that are quietly taking a leading role in advancing building and home energy efficiency. This week, we highlight just four of the many organizations driving building energy efficiency at the national, state and regional level:

In a blog post last month, we posed the question: do consumers want energy efficiency upgrade options? Since then, we’ve received feedback from high performance building advocates, builders and architects – one in particular who offered guidance on selling energy efficient home options to today’s homebuyers.

Antonio de la Carrera of ADLCL Architecture is a Dallas-area architect with experience in sustainable, energy efficient and Net Zero custom homes in cities including Dallas, Boston, Chicago and Mexico City.  His experience has led him to identify three crucial tips that builders of all types and sizes should use to better sell energy efficiency.

When a new version of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) is completed there can be a good deal of lag time between publication and market impact. This is because states need to adopt the new code, a process which is measured in years, not weeks or months. However, there can be exceptions to this general rule. The 2018 IECC laid out a prescriptive path for the use of buried ducts with fibrous insulation in vented attics, for all climate zones. This new path was approved because it will allow builders to get much of the energy efficiency benefits of an unvented attic with closed cell spray foam by instead doing a traditional vented attic with the ducts buried in fibrous insulation. Data from DOE’s Building America program shows buried ducts can save more energy than a home with vented attics and ccSPF below the roof. In fact, the data from the DOE report excerpted below shows deeply buried ducts are 20-30% more efficient than an unvented attic system[i]. This code change lowers the cost of designing and building higher performance homes, but if it’s in the 2018 IECC, how can it have an impact now?

Are builders missing the mark by not offering upgrade options for HERS-Scored homes?

Homebuyers like choices. Builders, ever eager to meet the desires of their buyers, typically offer a dizzying array of choices in products, finishes and designs to suit a wide variety of styles.  Yet seemingly few builders offer consumers a choice in homes at varying energy efficiency targets. Is this a missed opportunity for builders in meeting the growing energy efficiency desires of buyers — an increasing number of whom self-identify as sustainable consumers? Perhaps.

Research shows that consumers want energy efficiency, but they’re motivated by comfort. As builders pursue energy efficient homes, they may need to shift how they promote the benefits of high performance homes to potential buyers, so that their messages resonate on an emotional level in an area that consumers really care about: comfort.

With a goal of reducing energy use while increasing efficiency and cutting carbon emissions, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in June proposed the first new energy efficiency standards update for manufactured homes in more than 20 years. The changes would cumulatively cut energy use by an estimated 30 percent over a 30 year period compared to the current standard and include a focus on the thermal envelope/insulation as the foundation of energy efficiency.