IBACOS Sponsors Tours of Energy-Efficient Homes

April 2003

On February 12, IBACOS (Integrated Building And Construction Solutions) welcomed members of the Department of Energy, Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development, ICF Consulting, and Washington Homes (a division of K. Hovnanian^®) to a pilot home for the first tour in a series focused on building an energy-efficient, high performance home. Ed Pollock of the Department of Energy, Brad Oberg, John Broniek, and Stacy Hunt of IBACOS, and Chip Merlin of Washington Homes spoke about the Building America program, the building practices it advocates and specific strategies used to improve energy efficiency and home performance in this specific pilot home.

The pilot home is a two-story model with a full basement and is being designed to obtain a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) score of 90. To achieve this energy efficiency goal, IBACOS's systems engineering design focuses on an improved building envelope, high efficiency mechanical equipment, building airtightness, and an engineered duct layout design. Key performance features of the pilot home include:

• One high-efficiency, direct-vent furnace (instead of two mid-efficiency units) that is optimally sized. B-venting is eliminated with the use of this unit. Hot water tank is power vented. Condensing unit is 12 SEER.
• Ductwork is minimized through the use of a central return system. The return system is fully ducted. All ductwork is within conditioned space and is sealed in order to improve duct airtightness.
• Increased airtightness of the building shell through draftstopping and sealing of penetrations.
• High performance windows, with low-emissivity coating and argon fill, to reduce heating and cooling loads.
• Drainage plane for exterior walls. Building paper is used behind brick clad walls and horizontal and vertical joints of the exterior thin structural sheathing are lapped.
• Interior basement foundation walls insulated with a blanket batt insulation system with a perforated facing (R-10).
• More effective flashing practices at windows and doors.
• A single-speed, continuous running, exhaust fan for the mechanical ventilation.

The goal of these tours is to illustrate how IBACOS uses pilot home projects to further its research into building high performance homes. IBACOS will use this as an opportunity to discuss research objectives of the program and the connection of these objectives to real-world design and construction environments. The first tour was held at the pre-drywall construction phase, when framing is complete and mechanicals are installed. The second tour will be held when the home is complete, and will demonstrate the final condition of the home, with respect to meeting energy efficiency and durability goals, just before being turned over to the homeowner. Lessons learned and recommendations for future improvements will be discussed, and the builder will be presented with an ENERGY STAR^TM certificate certifying the home's performance.

Washington Homes, a division of K. Hovnanian, is the builder of this pilot home. Washington Homes is the largest production home builder in Northern Virginia, building approximately 1,000 homes annually. This pilot home is the first IBACOS will be working on with Washington Homes. They will use this pilot home to test and illustrate approaches to research issues that focus on achieving very high performance levels with a production builder.

K. Hovnanian^® Companies is a builder of fine homes in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and California. As one of the nation's leading homebuilders, K. Hovnanian^® has earned a solid reputation for integrity, dependability and quality.

What began as the vision of Kevork Hovnanian in 1959 has become one of the leading homebuilding companies in the nation. K. Hovnanian^® Companies designs and builds a variety of homes to meet the ever-changing needs of today's home buyer. In 1997, the Company was awarded the prestigious National Housing Quality Award and is proud of its reputation for building homes of superior value and quality. In 1999, K. Hovnanian^® celebrated 40 years of building better and today, is proud to say over 145,000 families are enjoying a better lifestyle in their K. Hovnanian^® home.

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