The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the Builders Challenge, a voluntary national energy savings program that charges home builders in the United States to build 220,000 high-performance, energy-efficient homes by 2012. According to the DOE, a high-performance home uses at least 30 percent less energy than a typical new home built to meet the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code’s criteria.
To meet the requirements of the Builders Challenge, a home must score a 70 or lower on DOE’s EnergySmart Home Scale (E-Scale), which rates a home’s performance based on how much energy it consumes, how it compares to a code-compliant home, and how closely it ranks to a net zero-energy home (a zero on the E-Scale).
A typical new home averages a score of 100 on the E-Scale. Builders participating in the initiative will post an E-Scale label on each home’s electrical panel, providing the home’s E-Scale rating and identifying it as a Builders Challenge home. Homes must also meet the comfort, quality, durability, and healthy indoor environment criteria of the DOE’s Building America performance guidelines.
Currently, 38 home builders have agreed to build approximately 6,000 high-performance homes as part of the initiative. “The Challenge expands public-private sector cooperation to propel the market toward building and selling homes that produce at least as much energy as they consume, and furthers the president’s call to change how we power our homes and businesses by utilizing cutting-edge technologies that increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions,” said DOE secretary Samuel W. Bodman in a press release announcing the program.
The Builders Challenge is open to any home builder in the U.S., including all single-family and low-rise multifamily residences. For more details, visit www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/challenge/.
