ENERGY STAR^® Qualified Home

What is an ENERGY STAR Qualified Home?

A home that earns the ENERGY STAR is significantly more efficient than a standard home. By purchasing an ENERGY STAR qualified home, you can have all the features you desire in your new home, plus better performance and lower utility bills (Saving typically 20% to 30% per year), all while helping prevent greenhouse gas emissions.

What Makes a Home ENERGY STAR?

THE SUBSTANCE BEHIND ENERGY STAR FEATURES

TIGHT CONSTRUCTION AND DUCTS

Advanced techniques for sealing holes and cracks in the home’s "envelope" and in heating and cooling ducts help reduce drafts, moisture, dust, pollen, pests, and noise. A tightly sealed home improves comfort and indoor air quality while lowering utility and maintenance costs.

EFFECTIVE INSULATION SYSTEMS

Properly installed and inspected insulation in floors, walls, and attics ensures even temperatures throughout the house, while using less energy. The result is lower utility costs and a quieter, more comfortable home.

EFFICIENT HEATING AND COOLING EQUIPMENT

An energy-efficient, properly installed heating and cooling system uses less energy to operate, which reduces your utility bills. This system can also be quieter, reduce indoor humidity, and improve the overall comfort of your home.

HIGH PERFORMANCE WINDOWS

Energy-efficient windows employ advanced technologies, such as protective coatings and improved frame assemblies, to help keep heat in during the winter and out during the summer. These windows also block damaging ultraviolet sunlight that can discolor carpets and furnishings.

EFFICIENT PRODUCTS

Your home may also be equipped with ENERGY STAR qualified products—lighting fixtures, compact fluorescent bulbs, ventilation fans, and appliances—that offer additional energy savings.

INDEPENDENT TESTING

While it's easy to claim that homes are energy efficient, ENERGY STAR builder partners back that up with verification by an independent Home Energy Rater. The Rater conducts onsite inspections and testing to verify the performance of the energy efficiency features in your home.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS FOR HOMEOWNERS

ADDED CONFIDENCE

Home buying is complex enough without having to know all the details of energy-efficient construction. Instead, look for the government-backed ENERGY STAR label to easily identify homes that are truly energy efficient. Find the house of your dreams and enjoy peace of mind knowing that it also meets strict energy efficiency guidelines.

LOWER OWNERSHIP COST

Compared with standard homes, ENERGY STAR qualified homes use substantially less energy for heating, cooling, and water heating-delivering $200 to $400 in annual savings. Over the average 7 to 8 years you may live in your home, this adds up to thousands of dollars saved on utility bills. Additional savings on maintenance can also be substantial. Financing your home purchase using an energy efficient mortgage can also lead to savings.

BETTER PERFORMANCE

Properly installed energy-efficient improvements deliver better protection against cold, heat, drafts, moisture, pollution, and noise. An energy-efficient home helps ensure consistent temperatures between and across rooms, improved indoor air quality, and greater durability.

SMART INVESTMENT

To date, more than 6,500 home builders have partnered with EPA to construct nearly 940,000 ENERGY STAR qualified homes. The trend is clear. By choosing a home with the ENERGY STAR label, you can be confident that it will have an increasingly valued feature when the time comes to sell.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Did you know that your home can be a greater source of pollution than your car? In fact, 16 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are generated from the energy used in houses nationwide

Energy used in our homes often comes from the burning of fossil fuels at power plants, which contributes to smog, acid rain, and global warming. Simply put, the less energy we use in our homes, the less air pollution we generate.

NAHB Green Certification

Through the National Green Building Program, the National Association of Home Builders is helping its members move the practice of green building into the mainstream. Energy efficiency, water and resource conservation, sustainable or recycled products, and indoor air quality are increasingly incorporated into the everyday process of home building and are consistent with Effect Energy's sensible and cost effective approach to building science.

The National Green Building Program offers several resources and tools to help builders, re-modelers, home building associations, and homeowners learn how to build green, and the benefits of doing so. Specific program components can be viewed on their web page where you will find an on-line scoring tool and a wealth of educational tools and resources for home builders and home buyers.

LEED for Homes

Like NAHB Green certification, LEED for Homes is a rating system that promotes the design and construction of high-performance green homes. LEED for Homes is designed to provide national consistency in defining the features of a green home and represents a consensus standard for green home building developed and refined by a diverse group of national experts and experienced green builders.

Due to the intensive nature of the LEED For Homes certification process, it may or may not be the ideal certification for a particular new home. It is intended to be the "gold standard" of green certifications, and because of this, can be more expensive than other certifications like ENERGY STAR and NAHB green certification.