Building an Energy Efficient Home
Building an Energy Efficient Home
January 16, 2017 | No Comments
Better insulation
Quieter home
Better indoor air quality
These are just some of the features Grayson Homes puts into our homes to be a little bit above our competition.
Homeowners tend to ask, “Is energy efficiency important when building and why?”
Some customers have researched enough about energy efficiency to know they want spray foam insulation.
Be cautious hiring a builder who doesn’t explicitly build with energy efficiency in mind.
One customer had interviewed a builder who doesn’t normally do spray foam insulation in his houses. That builder said he would do it for them. However, they choose Grayson Homes instead. They felt more comfortable using a builder who understands and uses spray foam insulation all the time in every home because they know how to do it “the right way.”
If energy efficiency is important to you, hire a builder with experience building with it. Home builders inexperienced in energy efficiency may know how to install spray foam but might not know to install a dehumidifier. The result would be an uncomfortable home, meaning you will probably be turning the air conditioning down a lot more during the summertime.
Homes built “tighter,” such as a spray foam house, tend to maintain and hold moisture. The builder needs to temperate that home differently than a regular, traditionally built home.
Grayson Home’ secret to temperate, or condition, a house is to install a whole house dehumidifier and mechanical ventilation system.
By allowing any builder to use spray foam insulation without proper ventilation, your home will be “tighter,” meaning has no fresh air circulating; which will cause it to have a “stuffy,” uncomfortable feeling. Fresh air is important to your quality of living in your home.
Imagine you have a room with no windows and the door is kept closed all day. Let’s say you have a garbage can with yesterday’s dinner sitting in there. All day the room sat closed off with no air being circulated. You walk into that room after work, how do you think that room will feel? Sure, you will be able to smell the garbage, but it will also have a “stuffy” feeling to it, maybe a little extra humidity because of the food lying around. That’s what makes a “tight” home feel uncomfortable.
Many homes today are built to be sealed up tighter than they were years ago. You need air circulation and fresh air brought into the home daily. In the old days, homes just leaked. We had drafts everywhere – cracks around windows and doors. Remember your mom rolling up a towel to put at the bottom of a door? Drafts also make a home uncomfortable.
As a “green builder,” Grayson Homes has one box that performs dehumidification and mechanical ventilation. Periodically throughout the day, outside fresh air is cycled throughout the house through a filter and the humidity level is continuously monitored.
If you want to learn more about Grayson Homes’ energy efficient building methods, contact us or give us a call today.