Builders, real estate professionals, code officials, and home rating professionals recently convened in Orlando for the first live demonstration of the HERS H2O Index rating process. Held as part of the 2018 RESNET Building Performance Conference, the demonstration was hosted by KB Home and HERS rater TopBuild. Audience members also heard a briefing about the development of the HERS H2O rating system, then watched a HERS H2O rater perform the testing.
In many parts of the country, water is fast becoming an increasingly expensive commodity, with national water and sewer rates rising faster than energy costs. The new index from RESNET will provide home buyers with efficiency ratings of new homes. Similar to the HERS Index Score, RESNET’s energy efficiency standard, the new water index will rate the indoor and outdoor water usage of a home including the bathroom and kitchen, clothes washer, pools, and irrigation, while also accounting for leaks, excess pressure, and waste to derive a HERS H2O score. The score is derived by comparing the rated home to a reference home, which is typical of construction practices in 2006.
The HERS H2O Index also provides an opportunity for home builders to monetize the water efficiency of their homes in the same fashion that the HERS Index does for energy efficiency, according to RESNET.
