Are There Net-Zero Energy Building Restrictions in Arizona?

Building a green home is one of the best investments you could make as an environmentally conscious homeowner. Built to produce roughly as much energy as they consume, net-zero energy homes can drastically cut down on the high per capita energy consumption in the US. However, not just anyone can decide to build a net-zero home. Certain conditions and regulations must be met to break ground on a new green construction, and if you are not working with the right builders, you may quickly run afoul of some common net-zero energy building restrictions.

Before starting to build a new green home, you should keep the following points in mind to guide you. You should specifically do your best to satisfy each of these requirements well before you break ground on the project. Additionally, Arizona residents with further questions might want to get in touch with green home building contractors in Phoenix for more information.

Does the Land Need Rezoning?

Maintaining proper zoning is crucial to urban development. As cities expand out into the countryside, and population density continues to skyrocket, zoning helps local governments keep order over the land as well as effectively plan future developments. As a result, changing how a given plot of land is zoned is not always the easiest task.

Usually, this means contacting a local government developer’s office and filling out a lot of local, legal paperwork that you will probably have a hard enough time understanding. You might even need to pay certain fees. Then you have to wait to hear if the rezoning actually got approved. Of course, by not following this protocol, your green home could be shut down before you even turn on the lights, so be mindful of the land.

Are You Using Certified Net-Zero Builders?

Net-zero homes are great investments with plenty of associated benefits, though not just anyone can handle net-zero home constructions. Put simply, if you are not using a certified builder, you will likely get duped. The problem here is that many construction companies will claim to specialize in green homes when in fact they just happen to use recycled materials or can recommend efficient appliances.

Real certified builders come with official credentials and the work to back them up. Never be too shy to ask a home builder to see their certifications. If anything, this means that you are serious and committed to the project. The alternative is an overpriced home that accomplishes none of the eco-friendly tasks you set out for.

Do You Have the Required Building Permits?

Much like with zoning, obtaining the necessary permits actually to start construction on a new green home can be a downright chore. In addition to visiting some regional office and filling out page after page of illegible and incomprehensible paperwork, you will likely have to pay some fees and wait for what seems an eternity before hearing back on whether or not your permits were actually approved. Permits are then usually only issued after government inspectors have carefully reviewed your building plans to see that they are up to local code.

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Contact the Net-Zero Energy home building experts 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!

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Are There Net-Zero Energy Building Restrictions in Arizona?

Guide to Green Home Energy Efficient Door Installation

It is important today more than ever to invest in energy efficient homes, especially considering that residential electricity use accounts for quite a bit of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world. There are also so many different ways to reduce your carbon footprint that taking steps yourself is pretty easy. A particularly good way to make your home more eco-friendly is by looking into a green home energy efficient door installation.

Energy efficient doors can go a long way in curbing your electricity usage, and they are not as difficult to install as you might think. You can use this simple guide to help learn more.

Find a Suitable R-Value Door

You will ultimately want a door that can best keep your space insulated. The r-value of the door is the specific measurement of how well it insulates and refers to the door’s level of thermal resistance. The higher the r-value of your door, the more energy efficient that door will be. For example, many simple wood doors might have an r-value between two to four while a reinforced or fiberglass door will have an r-value of about ten or twelve.

When you are deciding on a new door in your home, you should keep its r-value in mind and only invest in a door with a high one. You should specifically look for a door with an Energy Star rating from the US Department of Energy.

Choose the Best Placement for Your Door

Where you decide to place the door will have an effect on how energy efficient it is. For example, an exterior door will require a different level of insulation due to outside influences such as wind and rain. On the other hand, you will need a specialty door to handle interior air pressures, including from HVAC systems.

Seal Properly Around the Door

Having selected a door with a high r-value rating and Energy Star label, and having carefully selected where your new door will be placed, you then have to deal with the actual installation process. This is when it becomes critically important to have a Phoenix Arizona Net-Zero home building specialists on your side, because if the door and its materials are not sealed properly, the r-value and placement will not matter.

Learn More About Net-Zero Energy Homes

Installing an energy efficient door is only a part of a larger plan to make your home eco-friendlier. The fight, however, does not end there. You can look to invest in energy efficient windows as well as potential solar power systems. The ultimate goal is to eliminate your negative impacts on the environment while making your home self-sustaining.

A local professional will be able to help you achieve the energy efficiency you are looking for with your home. With years of knowledge and experience, they will guide you towards purchasing the perfect doors for your house.

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Contact the Net-Zero Energy home building experts 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!

 

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Guide to Green Home Energy Efficient Door Installation

What Is the Cost of Building a Net-Zero Home in Arizona?

There are many ways most Americans incorporate energy efficiency into their daily lives. For lots of us, turning off the faucet and separating our recyclables has become second nature. However, some take it even further, incorporating net-zero building technologies into their home design so that their homes’ annual energy consumption is completely offset by their renewable energy systems.

Many families could benefit from building net-zero energy homes, but what do they entail? You may be curious about building an energy-efficient property when it’s time to move to a new home, but perhaps you need to educate yourself on the process first. The cost of building a Net-Zero home in Arizona depends on a variety of factors. Read on for more information provided by Peak One Builders, a Net-Zero home building company in Scottsdale.

What Goes Into Building a Net-Zero Home?

There are many different design factors that go into building a net-zero home. Most, if not all, energy efficient homes run on solar power, so you will have to purchase solar panels for your home’s roof. Doors and windows must be highly insulated—even fiberglass shades that insulate windows will save a ton on energy costs. There are a few different air filtration systems to choose from that are more energy efficient than the traditional filtration systems on the market. Net-Zero homes also incorporate energy efficient appliances, which are easy to research as they generally receive good Energy Star ratings. Even using energy efficient light bulbs (such as LEDs) will help lower your home’s energy consumption.

There are far too many factors that go into building a home of any kind to list all of them here, let alone a net zero home. Hiring the right contractor is key to getting the most out of your net zero home; they will have every single detail planned to make sure your home is just the way you want it.

Renewable Energy Savings

While a net-zero energy home may have significant upfront costs due to the installation of a renewable energy system, it will save you as a homeowner so much in energy costs in the long run that these costs are completely offset. These homes are also highly sustainable, as the energy systems don’t depend on anything but the land they sit on—they will last much longer than even your lifetime, so your energy efficient home will have a very high resale value.

Costs Depend on Customizations

Cost, of course, varies depending on features. The more truly net zero you build your custom home to be, the more you’ll spend on upfront costs. For example, energy-efficient air filtration systems are significantly more expensive than standard ones. However, the more you spend on energy efficiency at the outset, the more you will save on energy costs in the long run—all the while reducing your carbon footprint.

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Contact the Net-Zero Energy home building experts 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!

 

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What Is the Cost of Building a Net-Zero Home in Arizona?

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


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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:

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