Things are changing….Passive House, Net Zero…

energy-efficient-buildings-illustration

I just returned from the 10th Annual Passive House (PHIUS) conference in Chicago and am very excited to see the things that are on the horizon in the construction industry. Very efficient building methods in both in design and operation that have a longer life, create a healthier living environment, and look great as well!  There is a movement going on around the world to build environmentally friendly, efficient, and affordable buildings.  It was great to see such a young group of Architects, Engineers, Builders and Consultants that are working to make an impact in their world!

At Tru-Building we are currently building a large, ultra energy efficient home for a client that will operate at a fraction of the cost of a comparable home traditionally built and currently getting ready to begin construction on our first Net Zero Ready home in Derby, Kansas.  This process started in early 2014 to begin training and eventually certification to be able to offer our customers the highest level of energy efficiency whether Commercial or Residential construction.

Sam Rashkin, who is the Chief Architect of the Building Technologies Office at the US Department of Energy presented the closing remarks and eloquently pointed out that as home buyers, we need to look at the full cost of ownership not just the partial cost.  To explain further, we tend to make purchases that seem like the best value at the time.  This may be the most square footage for the dollars spent, not realizing that a poor performing building will actually cost us more in time.  Some of those variances are so great that the period of time that the well performing building cost less overall than the poor performing building is less than 3 years, and it has been argued that a well performing building can actually be built for the same cost as a poor performing building.

 

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