Looking At High Performance Homes

A high performance home is a specifically designed and built home by a designer and builder with specific certification and experience with the goal of achieving certain goals such as using less energy. Just the orientation of your home can increase how energy efficient it is and makes it more affordable to run, and a more comfortable place to reside. It is about using a high performance ICF home builder who uses sustainable building materials and where possible local ones, it is about making environmentally friendly decisions each day on-site and using high-quality options whenever possible. That includes things like specific glazing for the windows, specific types of doors and high insulation levels.

Looking more closely at what a high performance home is

In simple terms, a high performance home uses less energy while creating a comfortable and healthy environment for the owners. It includes more insulation, more focus on airtightness and has a HRV for great indoor air quality. A high performance builder uses sustainable materials and is not just thinking about how to make the home more energy efficient but also how to make the process of building the house more efficient and greener in building practices. While you do pay more to build this kind of home, owning a high performance home has a lot of benefits;

• Improved comfort levels living there thanks to the improved insulation, better windows and tighter construction as well as more consistent temperatures it also means it is quieter
• Energy bills for heating, cooling and such are reduced so it saves money plus you are doing your part to help the environment and fight global warming
• Your resale value of the home will be higher
• The home takes less work to maintain, it is more durable and thanks to the tight construction and high-quality materials used it is less prone to the kind of usual maintenance issues other homeowners experience
• The air quality is much better inside these homes and it is healthier and safer for you and your family

High performance homes have a better-sealed building envelope

In order to see the end result of a top high performance house, the process needs to start with the planning and design stage. You want the designer to use energy modelling to see how the home will do when it is built and it is assessed as to whether it meets the higher standards necessary. The high performance ICF home builder uses things like high performance insulation, high quality and better window systems and then important air sealing techniques. This all added together means you do not have the problems of a draft house. People living in those kinds of homes can lose up to 30% of their heat! By addressing the air leaks in the build you fix the heat loss and improve the house’s energy performance. 

Improve the quality of the air indoors

As well as being more energy efficient a home like this has better air quality and is healthier to live in for everyone. When you are building a home to be air tight you need to consider how to cycle fresh air around the home and that is where Heat Recvoery Ventilation comes in. The HRV expells the moist indoor air and adjsuts the outside air to be at the temperature you have in the home. It is not there to replace air conditioning or a furnace it is there to improve the air quality in the home. Just remember to take care when looking for a high performance builder.