3 Benefits of Installing Home Energy Monitoring Systems

Part of establishing a more energy-efficient household is understanding what goes into your energy use and what it costs. You can analyze your electricity bill, but it may not be detailed enough for you to make effective changes to reduce your energy costs. You could take a peek at the energy meter that sends information to your power company, but these meters are designed to be read by utility workers and experts, not homeowners, so they are often inconveniently placed and only give basic information.

If you are interested in a more detailed look at your home energy use, you should look into installing home energy monitoring systems that will provide the information you want to you directly.

Locate Areas for Improvement

Within your home, there are spaces that require more energy than others: maybe you have more devices and appliances plugged in around the kitchen than elsewhere in the house, or perhaps members of your household spend more time and energy in offices or entertainment rooms. Energy use also varies by time: certain months of the year require more heating or air conditioning due to the weather and the changing seasons, and more energy is used during certain times of day when you and your family are at home, awake and active.

Installing home energy monitoring systems will allow you to collect data and identify excessive energy use in particular locations or times. You can then address or improve in these areas according to your needs and preferences.

Understand Unique Patterns

Most measures of energy-efficient homes are calculated based on the standard energy usage of homes with the same size and basic design as yours. However, energy consumption varies quite a bit by household, even in the same home style and geographic area. These standard models are good indicators of how various energy-saving features work in general, but in order to understand how and how much these features will actually benefit you, you first need to understand the patterns of energy use that are unique to your household. If you are considering custom green home building in Scottsdale, you need to build a picture of your household’s actual energy use. The data produced by an energy monitoring system can help to visualize your energy consumption trends in terms of months or seasons, times of day and locations within the house.

Plan for Your Future

When you have a detailed understanding of your energy use as it is at present, you can begin to look to the future. In addition to determining your future energy costs and use patterns, this can be a valuable tool in planning ahead. Your regular energy consumption factors into what sort of generator you might use to make up for power outages; it can also be used to project how much a set of solar panels or a wind turbine might offset your energy costs as well as what kind of generation system would be most cost effective for your household. If you already have a green generation system, you can measure its efficiency, judge how much it allows you to save and factor this into your decisions moving forward.

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Contact the green home building experts at Peak One Builders & Restoration to learn more about custom cutting-edge energy efficient home construction. Request a free estimate or call 480-378-0611 now!

Read related articles:

• 3 Types of Net-Zero Energy Efficient Building Envelopes


• Using Energy and Cost Modeling for Net-Zero Energy Homes


• Green Home Building: Passive vs LEED vs Net-Zero Energy

3 Benefits of Installing Home Energy Monitoring Systems

3 Types of Net-Zero Energy Efficient Building Envelopes

The building envelope is everything between the inside of your home and the world outside. It includes doors and windows, insulation and exterior walls, the foundation, and the roof. Net-Zero Energy efficient building envelopes are a huge factor in keeping energy costs down by limiting the amount of air and heat that is lost through leakage: a house that is properly and thoroughly sealed keeps the air and heat inside for longer, which means that your heating and cooling systems don’t need to work as hard to keep your home comfortable. For specific solutions for your home, you can consult a Net-Zero Energy home building company in Scottsdale, but for your convenience, here are the three basic components of an energy-saving building envelope.

Managing Moisture

In addition to causing problems with mold and water damage, the passage of water and water vapor through to the interior of the envelope structure is a significant factor in the leakage of thermal energy. Damp building materials allow for the transfer of heat into the house much more quickly, but it also works the other way around; the cool air inside an air-conditioned home draws humidity to condense onto walls, frames or insulating material.

Water vapor control depends on managing the routes by which moisture enters a home: as vapor carried along with air movements, which can be addressed along with airflow and diffusion through permeable building materials, particularly foundations and walls that regularly encounter groundwater or standing rainwater. Especially during rainy winters, it is important to maintain elements of the building that direct rainwater away from the house or prevent it seeping through cracks, including gutters, spouts, caulk and weather-stripping.

Adjusting Airflow

Air flow control includes not only attention to the air quality and ventilation of your home, but also to boost your energy efficiency, especially during seasons that require more heating and cooling. A great deal of the loss of cool air during the summer is due to drafts and air leaks through cracks and other small passages.

This can be a problem in places where parts of the envelope are joined, such as the point where the wall meets the roof or where the edges of doors and windows meet the floor, but it can also appear through the surface of aging or damaged building materials. Attention to and maintenance of the building takes care of the latter, but the former is best addressed by a professional with experience in sealing building envelopes for your local climate.

Controlling Heat Flow

You probably have an intuitive understanding of how heat moves from place to place. A seatbelt buckle sitting in the sun will be heated by the sunlight, the hot air above the stove rises while the cold air from your refrigerator flows down when you open the door, and a fork or a spoon left in a hot dish can transfer that heat from the dish right up to your fingers. The same principles are at work in controlling the movement of heat through a house, but here they work in reverse to prevent the transfer of heat. Reflective materials in the form of radiant barriers are designed prevent heat from radiating from a sun-heated roof to the upper spaces of the house.

Heat transfer through hot or cold air is typically solved by managing air flow. The ideal insulation to install is composed of materials that are poor conductors of heat, so in the winter the warmth will stay inside and in the summer the heat will stay outside instead of passing through your walls, roof and floors into your house. Together these barriers form the thermal envelope, a part of the building envelope that is dedicated to heat flow control and usually concentrated in the upper parts of a house.

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Contact the Net-Zero Energy home builders at Peak One Builders & Restoration to learn more about creating a custom cutting-edge green home. Request a free estimate or call 480-378-0611 now!

Read related articles:

• Using Energy and Cost Modeling for Net-Zero Energy Homes


• Green Home Building: Passive vs LEED vs Net-Zero Energy


• Designing Net-Zero Energy House Plans [Cheat Sheet]

3 Types of Net-Zero Energy Efficient Building Envelopes

Using Energy and Cost Modeling for Net Zero Energy Homes

A Net-Zero Energy home is a building designed or retrofitted to be as efficient as possible so that it consumes no more energy than it produces. This allows for huge reductions in gas and electric bills, and makes your home much more valuable, but it can be difficult to know where to start. Whether you are starting from scratch or redesigning an existing house in search of a truly green home, begin by having a Scottsdale Net-Zero Energy home builder walk you through the process of energy and cost modeling.

Determine Most Cost Effective Energy Saving Solutions

Taking advantage of energy and cost modeling early in the process of designing or redesigning your home helps determine the most cost effective energy saving features. Depending on the location of your home, both in your climate region and in the specific local and seasonal conditions of the site, it may be more efficient to focus on particular systems to maximize your energy savings. A model that takes into account the specifics of your building or site, your heating and lighting preferences, and your use of electronics and appliances will highlight which areas of the design need adjustment or attention.

Compare and Choose Designs

Once you and your designer have identified the areas of heaviest energy use and the constraints of your location, you will find that there are quite a few different ways to move forward in the design process. You can try various combinations of design features and model their effects in order to select those that balance comfort with energy efficiency, all before you start to build or rebuild your home.

Continuing to use energy modeling throughout the process helps you compare the energy impact of the various tweaks and changes on different Net-Zero Energy designs, allowing you to make further adjustments to the design plans that take into account the decisions you have already made. The model addresses both the energy impact and the cost-effectiveness of changes and features, it can help you reach your goals for home energy impact at the least possible expense.

Generate HERS and EPS Ratings

There are quite a few systems of analyzing the energy efficiency of a building, but two of the most significant are your HERS (Home Energy Rating System) and EPS (Energy Performance Score). The HERS index is a system that combines real-world measurements with modeled ones; it requires inspection of the building envelope, the air ducts, conditioned and unconditioned areas, air and water heating and cooling systems, ceiling and wall insulation, doors, windows, and a handful of other variables.

This information is compared to a modeled home with the same dimensions as your completed home and assigned a score that shows your home’s efficiency as compared to a standard new home of its type. Simply put, a lower HERS score means a more energy-efficient home, and a score of zero certifies your house as a Net-Zero Energy home. The EPS score is a newer and slightly more complex system: a lower score here also indicates greater efficiency, but this measure also allows you to compare your home to similar existing homes and offers information on carbon emissions. These scales examine all the same variables that went into the energy model during the design process, and they are the standard measures to determine whether a completed home is a Net-Zero Energy home.

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Contact the Net-Zero Energy building experts at Peak One Builders & Restoration to learn more about building a custom cutting-edge energy efficient home. Request a free estimate or call 480-378-0611 now!

Read related articles:

• Green Home Building: Passive vs LEED vs Net-Zero Energy


• Designing Net-Zero Energy House Plans [Cheat Sheet]


• 3 Amazing Benefits of Building a Zero-Net Energy Home

Using Energy and Cost Modeling for Net Zero Energy Homes

Green Home Building: Passive vs LEED vs Net-Zero Energy

Many people are starting to take back their lives and the life of this planet through greener lifestyles. Through modern technology, there are ways we can reverse our own harmful effects on the earth and live happier and more earth-friendly lives. Learn from green home builders in Scottsdale what types of efficient homes are available, their differences, and how you can contribute to saving the planet with your own green home. Use this article to truly understand green home building: Passive vs LEED vs Net-Zero Energy.

Passive Homes

Passive house standards are the most demanding yet most energy efficient living standards for green homes. Compared to non-green, code buildings, passive homes consume 60-80 percent less energy. In a passive house modeled home, average day to day energy consumption will be lowered while maintaining the same home temperature year round in order to achieve maximum energy efficiency. With its primary focus on energy efficiency, building a green home modeled on passive house standards is always based on these principles: sunlight usage, value of insulation and airtight infrastructure.

These principles used in passive building are designed to maximize your gains and minimize your losses. Solar gain is employed to use the sun’s energy for heating in the cooler seasons and minimizes it in the warmer seasons. Continuous insulation and high-performance windows and doors are incorporated without the use of thermal bridging. The building is also created to be extremely airtight, stopping any air infiltration from the outside and preventing air leakage from the inside. Passive building principles can be applied to all types of building structures, including single family and multifamily homes.

In order to achieve the goals of passive house standards, installing fiberglass windows is very important. Fiberglass windows add to each technique of Passive House energy efficiency in different ways. One way these windows work within a passive home is that they can increase the passive solar gain and limit temperature cooling if necessary when combined with low insulating values. Find out how Peak One Builders can help turn your dream home into a green home with these passive house standards.

LEED Homes

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design , is a rating system aimed at increasing the number of sustainable buildings in the US. LEED measures the environmental impact of buildings and homes through a points system. LEED does not focus on final energy performance, but instead the materials and techniques used in construction with points rewarded for each green addition. The amount of points given to a home or building determines what LEED category it is placed in; Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

The benefits of owning a LEED home are not only for the homeowner but for the environment as well. Each and every part of a LEED home is tightly sealed and insulated, preventing air leakage and lowering heating and cooling costs. Lower water bills and usage is possible due to the use of low-flow faucets, toilets and showerheads. LEED homes also have superior air quality and produce less waste into the environment because no toxic chemicals are used within the home. LEED homes also have a much higher resale value, making it an ideal home in every sense.

LEED homes ensure the use of safe building materials for quality, comfortable living and clean indoor air. Aimed at healthy and affordable living, LEED standards call for less water and energy usage for lower utility bills. LEED standards can be used for: single family homes, 1-3 story low-rise multifamily homes and 4-6 story midrise multifamily homes. Improve your standard of living with a new house design with Peak One Builders.

Net-Zero Energy Homes 

A Net-Zero home produces as much energy as it consumes in one year. This green home plan aims to lower overall energy used by using a sustainable infrastructure and energy efficient products, and meets remaining needs through renewable energy systems. Net-Zero energy homes produce comparably less greenhouse emissions than non-green homes. Although a net-zero home is still connected to the grid for backup, it is mostly reliant on the energy produced through solar and other renewable sources.

A critical way for creating a completely net-zero and self-sustainable home is through solar energy. Without it, it would be impossible to build a home even close to a 0 rating. Other ways to improve efficiency and lower net rating include advanced framing techniques, sophisticated insulation and pre-built trusses.

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Contact the green home building experts at Peak One Builders & Restoration to learn more about building a custom cutting-edge energy efficient home. Request a free estimate or call 480-378-0611 now!

Read related articles:

• Designing Net-Zero Energy House Plans [Cheat Sheet]


• 3 Amazing Benefits of Building a Zero-Net Energy Home


• Scottsdale Custom Home Builder Trends Are Going Green

Green Home Building: Passive vs LEED vs Net-Zero Energy