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The U.S. Department of Energy is challenging home builders across the country to build 220,000 homes that use 30% less energy than typical homes by 2012. U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman issued this challenge to U.S. home builders and other design professionals on Green Day, the second day of the 2008 International Builders’ Show in Orlando, FL. He urged them to build these “new high-performance homes” by 2012 as part of the Builders’ Challenge, a new national energy savings program from the DOE.

Under the new program’s terms a high-performance home is one using at least 30% less energy overall than a typical new home meeting the criteria of the latest model building codes, Bodman explained to the crowd gathered just outside in the Show Village at the 2008 International Builders’ Show in Orlando, FL. Thirty-eight home builders already accepted the challenge. Twenty-two were honored following his announcement.

“We expect these partners will build at least 6,000 homes across the country this year. As the challenge expands and more builders sign on, we hope to spur the construction of 1.3 million high-energy performance homes by 2030. If we reach that level, [then] we will have helped Americans achieve cumulative savings of $1.7 million in energy costs and have taken the carbon equivalent of 600,000 cars off the road,” said Bodman.

“These new energy-efficient homes will have to meet DOE’s Building America Program performance criteria for comfort, health and quality. And they will all be rated according to the DOE’s new Energy Smart Home Scale, or E Scale. The E Scale will help consumers make better informed, more energy-efficient choices when buying a new home.”

Homes today typically average 100 on this scale. Builders in this challenge will build homes rating 70 or lower, making them approximately 30% more efficient, Bodman added. (To hear more of what Bodman said, click here.)

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U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman issues the Builders’ Challenge at the 2008 IBS in Orlando, FL.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Barbara Capella Loehr, Design Trends, Green Design, Housing Market, International Builders' Show 2008, Podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.