ENERGY STAR for builders

What a builder has to do, in what order, to label a house.

For a builder the ENERGY STAR path has four stages and the first one is the one people get wrong: the modelling happens at design, before the drawings are finished. A house designed to code and then asked to reach ENERGY STAR afterwards is an expensive conversation.

Stage one, design modelling: we model the plans, identify the envelope and mechanical specification needed to reach the target, and give you the cost of each option. Stage two, construction: a mid-construction review while the assemblies are still open, which is when a missed air barrier detail costs nothing to fix. Stage three, testing: a blower door on the finished house, which is the moment of truth. Stage four, certification and label, issued through our Service Organization licence.

For a builder doing volume, the second stage is the one that pays. The first house in a model line tells you what your crews actually build, as opposed to what the drawings say, and every house after it is cheaper.

For builders — the rest of it