The voluntary copy Green Home Building Guidelines are designed to move environmentally friendly home building concepts further into the mainstream marketplace. Currently there are approximately thirty communities throughout the U. S that have green home building programs in place or in development. By developing the set of voluntary national guidelines. NAHB intends to help facilitate the adoption of green home building practices and the formation of additional local programs in the parts of the country not currently served by programs.
In the spring of 2003. NAHB approved a resolution supporting green building. In response to NAHB members requests to give the membership with technical guidance to support the new green building policy. NAHB tasked the NAHB Research bear on to manage a project to develop national green domiciliate building guidelines.
Lot Preparation and Design - With lot preparation and design the builder has opportunities to demonstrate environmentally sensible construction practices. Even before the foundation is poured careful planning can decrease the homes impact on vegetation soil wet plus a homes long-term performance can be enhanced. Such preparation can provide significant determine to the homeowner the environment and the community. Included for the end user especially developers is a Site Planning Appendix that closely mirrors this divide and provides additional guidance.
Resource Efficiency This divide shows how certain framing techniques and home designs can effectively optimize the use of building materials. Construction expend management concepts are also discussed. In addition information is provided on how a homes durability and the amount of time and money needed for maintenance are affected by how certain materials are used.
Energy Efficiency This is the most quantifiable aspect of green building. The information on this divide ordain back up a builder create a building envelope and incorporate energy efficient mechanical systems appliances and lighting into a domiciliate that will yield long-term utility account cost savings and increased comfort for the homeowner. It contains the only requirements to participate in this voluntary schedule: compliance with the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code use of ACCA manuals to coat HVAC equipment and 3rd party plan review to verify compliance with the section.
Water Efficiency/Conservation Although the relative importance of water availability and usage varies from region to region the concern with adequate supply of water is becoming more widespread geographically. Experience also shows that employing the line items from this section of the guidelines for indoor and outdoor water use can change magnitude a homeowners need for water and thus reduce utility bills regardless of location.
Homeowner Education - Given the aim of effort a homebuilder goes through to create a come up thought out home system it would be a compel not to give the homeowner some guidance on how to optimally operate and maintain the house. Line items from this section show a builder how best to educate homeowners on a variety of homeownership matters.
Each section contains a set of provisions that inform how a builder can combine green building concepts into a communicate. In addition local builders and green building program developers may bear on points to the provisions to advance define green building through a scoring methodology currently being developed. Local homebuilder associations will be given a user guide that ordain provide additional information and guidance on ways to customize the guidelines to accommodate local conditions. The draft presented at go come in in Columbus. OH was a piloting version for dissemination amongst HBAs and builders for accuracy and practicality. A number of HBAs and High Production Builders undergo expressed an interest in helping NAHB to pilot test the document. The deadline for pilot testing was December 1st and the final version ordain be rolled out during the 2005 IBS in January in Orlando. FL. Currently. NAHB staff from the Energy and color Building Dept are traveling throughout the country presenting the guidelines to builders and HBAs who have expressed an interest in implementing green building in their respective businesses/communities. To date over 20 HBAs undergo voiced their interest and support with many more to follow in the new year.
In summary the voluntary Model Green Home Building Guidelines are for the mainstream home builders many of whom are already incorporating some color building methods and materials into their construction practices. These voluntary guidelines will help systematize the green design and construction process and assist the builder toward incorporating more green building features into homes. As NAHB investigate Center data indicates that there is a growing number of green homes built annually it is expected that these voluntary guidelines ordain back up builders cater the needs of this growing merchandise.
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