We are excited about the progress of our ENERGY STAR Demonstration home. The insulation has been installed!
The type of insulation, and the method of installing insulation are critical steps in building an ENERGY STAR Home. In order to keep your home cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and provide the most energy-efficient home, special attention must be made to insulation.
The insulation must blanket the home, have no gaps or compressions, and be in complete contact with the interior air barrier of the home.During this phase of construction, we also make sure that there are no additional gaps or areas that allow air leakage or drafts. We do this by caulking areas around the floor, and using expandable foam in areas where holes are required to allow pipes or wiring to pass through.
By selecting this method of insulation, properly installing the insulation and ensuring that there are no gaps or holes that allow air seepage, homeowners have lower utility costs and live more comfortably.
Below are some of the main benefits to homeowners listed on Energystar.gov.
• Enhanced Comfort.Properly installed insulation minimizes temperature variability indoors and helps keep rooms warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
• Lower Utility Bills.As much as half of the energy used in your home goes to heating and cooling. By preventing heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer, a properly installed insulation barrier reduces utility bills year round.
• Improved Durability. When insulation is properly installed, the potential for condensation that can lead to decay of building materials is reduced, helping to improve the durability of your home.
• Better Resale Position. The improved comfort, lower utility bills, and improved durability of a properly installed insulation barrier can translate into higher resale value compared to less efficient homes.
Blowing in the Insulation
Areas around windows are also carefully insulated. (Left has been cleaned. Right side has just been blown.)
Blowing in the Insulation.
Caulking to Prevent Drafts and Air Leakage
Expandable Foam Sprayed Around Plumbing to Prevent Air Leakage
To learn more about the benefits of building a Woodland Homes ENERGY STAR home, visit our new home sales professionals at any of our model homes. If you are interested in building an ENERGY STAR home, visit our web site, or contact us by e-mail or contact us by phone at 256.830.9000.
We are making great progress on our ENERGY STAR Demonstration Home in the Shadow Brook community. The windows have now been installed. Windows are critical in the construction of our ENERGY STAR homes. We use ENERGY STAR qualified windows. These windows are double-paned Low-E glass and insulate against heat and cold. The “Low-E” label on the windows stands for “low emissivity,” and means that these windows have been coated with glaze to provide additional protection against UV rays.
On www.bobvila.com, low-e coatings are explained: “Low-e coatings, which are microscopically thin layers of metallic oxide that’s bonded to the surface of a window’s glass, are so thin you can see right through them yet they prevent heat and ultra-violet (UV) rays from passing through glass. The result? A window with low-e glass does a better job keeping heat in during the winter and out during the summer.” Read the rest of this article for more information on the science behind how low-e coated windows work.
Not only do the windows protect you from the harmful rays while still allowing light in your home, they also save you money on utility bills. These double-paned Low-E windows help you keep your home cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. “This is because they can block 70 percent or more of the solar heat gain in the summer and reflect radiant heat indoors during winter,” according to this ENERGY STAR article.
For more information about building an Energy Star Woodland Home visit our new home sales professionals at our model homes, or call 256.830.9000.
More benefits of ENERGY STAR qualified windows are available online at the ENERGY STAR web site.
We are making progress on our ENERGY STAR Demonstration Home in Shadow Brook. The home is framed, and soon we will update you with photos showing the Energy Star process in this phase. Stay tuned to learn how we make sure that the home is tightly sealed to minimize drafts, moisture, pollen and noise.
For more information about our ENERGY STAR homes, visit our New Home Sales Professionals at any of our model homes. For more information about the Shadow Brook community, contact John Steger at 256.990.7783.
Woodland Homes is proud to announce the groundbreaking of our Demonstration ENERGY STAR Home in our Shadow Brook community. We invite you to follow us as we guide you through the process of building an ENERGY STAR home. Learn how an ENERGY STAR home built by Woodland Homes can benefit you.
Here are a few photographs from the groundbreaking ceremony we held last week. If you would like to visit the home site of our ENERGY STAR home or learn more about the Shadow Brook community, contact John Steger at 256.990.7783. For more information on the ENERGY STAR program and building an ENERGY STAR home, visit our New Home Sales Professionals in any of our communities.
Woodland Homes is proud to announce that our first ENERGY STAR home will be built in the Shadow Brook community. Homes in Shadow Brook, located just off of Ford Chapel Road, start in the $230’s. The community offers a cabana, pool, wooded home sites and a walking trail to schools.
We’re inviting you to follow our blog to keep up with the construction of our first ENERGY STAR home. We’ll be posting updates, photos, video and most importantly, a step-by-step description of the process and explanation of why an ENERGY STAR home built by Woodland Homes is right for you.
Please feel free to comment and ask us questions throughout this process. We’d love to hear from you.
Woodland Homes invites you to follow us as we build our first official ENERGY STAR home. We’ll walk you through the process and explain how you, as a homeowner, will benefit from building an ENERGY STAR home with us. You can find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and keep up with our posts here. If you have questions, let us know. We’d love to hear from you throughout this process. We’ll be announcing the community that this home will be constructed in later this week.
Woodland Homes is proud to announce that we are an ENERGY STAR builder! Soon we will be guiding you through the construction of our first official ENERGY STAR home. Before we begin construction, we want to make sure you, our customer, understand what this means.
What It Is…
“Energy Star is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency. The mark identifies new homes, buildings and more than 60 types of products that are energy efficient and offer the features, quality and performance that today’s consumers expect.” In order for a home to receive the energy star symbol, the home must be built to the standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, or the EPA. To find out more about Energy Star, click here.
What It Takes…
These homes must be built to the EPA’s standards, which means that they must be at least 15% more efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code (IRC). Typically, these homes include features that make them 20-30% more efficient than other homes. Specifically, some of the features that must be taken into account when building an Energy Star home are properly-installed insulation, high-performance windows, tighter construction, sealed ducts, efficient heating and cooling and energy efficient appliances. To receive the final confirmation that homes are built to the ENERGY STAR standards, a third party, known as an Independent Home Energy Rater must come into the home and confirm that the home is 15% more efficient than the IRC requires.
Why It Matters To Us…
In order to build a product that exceeds expectations of a more demanding customer, it is critical that we stay up to date with technology and the current trends in the building industry. Energy efficiency has become a heightened concern of today’s home buyer. By incorporating Energy Star standards in all our new homes, we are able to give customers peace of mind that their new home has been built in accordance with this program, independently tested and rated to ensure that their future home is more efficient and has a healthier environment than the average resale or new home!
Why It Matters To You, Our Customers…
As an educated consumer, you are preparing to buy a home, and it is critical that the home you buy is not only a safe place for your family, but that it is also a safe investment. By buying a Woodland home with the Energy Star symbol, you are making a smart investment. These homes will simply perform better. With the Energy Star features, homes are better protected from heat, cold, drafts, moisture, pollution and noise. Cost of utilities is lower than the standard home, saving homeowners from $200 to $400 annually. Not only will these features pay you back, they will also be a benefit when you prepare to sell your home.
For more information on building an ENERGY STAR home with Woodland Homes, call us at 256-830-9000 or visit our new home sales professionals at any of our model homes.
Check back for updates on the construction of Woodland’s First Energy Star Home.
We’ll be releasing the community that our
Energy Star home will be built in next week!
Kiplinger.com, the online magazine for “timely, trusted personal finance and business forecast advice,” recently published the July 2009 issue online. The best cities to live and work in are featured in this issue in a piece titled “The Best Cities in 2009: It’s All About Jobs.”
The subheading of the article reads,“Discover boomtowns offering new, stable careers. Our top choice this year? Huntsville, Ala.”Read the story here.
Huntsville has once again been recognized as one of the best places to live and work by the national media. Woodland Homes is proud to be part of this community, and we look forward to the future of Huntsville. We’ve always known this city was a great place to live, and we’re glad to see that people all over the country are beginning to discover that too.
If you are moving to the area, please take a minute to learn more about us at www.woodlandhomes.com.
Woodland Homes has 10 entries in 9 communities this year. Visit any of our model homes to discuss these buyer’s incentives. For more information on Woodland Homes, visit our web site or call 256.830.9000. Our community map is also available on the web site. We look forward to seeing you soon, and we hope to have you as our neighbor.
