Benefits of Building an Eco-Friendly Custom Home
Building an eco-friendly, energy-efficient custom home has a variety of benefits for homeowners and is a common point of interest for our clients. Especially with large footprint, custom luxury homes, homeowners are often concerned with energy consumption. At Pineapple, we help educate our clients about eco-friendly construction materials and building techniques that will deliver a custom home that performs at the highest level.
The team at Pineapple is especially proud of being able to design and build large footprint, luxury custom homes for our clients that achieve the ENERGY STAR Florida Program Version 3 certification. The larger a home is, the more challenging it becomes to achieve this rating. However, our team understands what it takes to overcome these obstacles and provide our clients with the energy-efficient custom luxury home of their dreams.
1. Save on Energy and Water Bills
Choosing to build an eco-friendly custom home is an investment that pays off. Year by year, homeowners have seen energy prices gradually increase. The demand and costs for energy will only continue to increase as the population, especially in Florida, continues to grow. Custom builders who specialize in eco-friendly home construction use a variety of sustainable materials and energy-efficient systems created to reduce overall resource consumption, resulting in households that will have lower energy and water costs.
Did you know, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, that heat gain and heat loss through a home’s windows are responsible for approximately 25%-30% of heating and cooling energy use? Homeowners who install energy-efficient windows will come to discover that these sustainable solutions significantly decrease the need for heating and cooling in their living spaces. Additional selections such as low-flow toilets, programmable thermostats, ENERGY STAR appliances, non-VOC paints, radiant barriers, and LED lighting fixtures can increase your home’s sustainability and long-term energy performance.
2. Boost Your Home’s Value
Being able to offer a considerable amount of energy savings makes eco-friendly custom homes even more desirable for homebuyers. Since green building has been on the rise in the world of residential construction, a number of studies have found that homes with green labels have sold at higher prices than their standard home equivalents. ENERGY STAR is a popular example of a green label for custom homes, one that requires that the construction must meet an extensive set of eco-friendly standards.
The ENERGY STAR Florida Program Version 3 certification means that on a scale of 1-100, the home must have a score of 75 or higher from a third-party verification by an ENERGY STAR company. Other requirements include having ENERGY STAR-rated ceiling fans, dishwashers and refrigerators, light bulbs that are located in a Qualified Light Fixture Location as established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) and ensuring that all supply ducts and air handlers are modeled in a conditioned space.
3. Maintain a Healthy Indoor Environment
Did you know that incorporating eco-friendly materials in your home can also have a beneficial impact on your health? According to the EPA, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted by thousands of standard household products and construction materials currently on the market. We already mentioned low-VOC paint – but there are many more selections a homeowner may request such as formaldehyde-free insulation, low-VOC or completely VOC-free flooring material, and low-VOC sealants and adhesives. With the proliferation of green or eco-friendly building materials, there is no need to compromise. Pineapple can design your custom home with better design and construction to ensure peace of mind.
4. Enjoy Less Maintenance
The goal of eco-friendly construction is to have a home that is built to last and has minimal effects on the surrounding environment. Eco-friendly products and materials are known to be much more durable than their standard counterparts, requiring less maintenance over time. If you are looking to build a beautiful custom home to cherish for years to come while also saving money on costly repairs, then eco-friendly construction may be best choice for you.
5. Contribute to a Better Environment
At the end of the day, solutions that are designed to reduce carbon footprint are always worth taking into consideration. There is no better time than the present to begin taking the necessary steps to help sustain the environment for generations to come. Our team can help you look at the best ways to choose better, healthy materials for your new custom home.
