Green Washing in New Homes

Posted by admin | June 1st, 2010
ENERGY STAR certified home, ENERGY STAR certified homes, ENERGY STAR home, ENERGY STAR homes, green homes, Green washing, New Homes Ottawa, new-homes | 1 Comment »

Has your new home really been built to ENERGY STAR standards?

Hi!  Seb Lessard here, (CEO of New Home Alert.ca) writing about an interesting subject that recently caught my attention:  ‘green washing’ in new homes.  The ENERGY STAR certification logo has become one of the most recognized symbols today.  Most of our household appliances like the hot water tank, the furnace and windows have the ENERGY STAR logo and the same can now be said with many new homes built in the greater Ottawa region. Some home builders will offer the ENERGY STAR certified home as a standard feature and others will sell this feature as an upgrade. But what does it really mean to buy an ENERGY STAR certified home and are you always getting what you paid for?

The quick and dirty goes as follows:  your new home is built with materials and standards to minimize the loss/infiltration of hot or cold air in the house and use products that consume less energy to heat and cool the home.  The major differences between a home built to the Ontario Building Code Standards (OBCS) and the ENERGY STAR Building Code Standards are:

·         Exterior wall insulation has an R-22 factor vs. the standard R-19 factor

·         Basement wall insulation is full height vs. the standard 2’ below grade

·         Installed furnace has a 90% AFUE vs. the 88% AFUE standard requirement

·         The duct work joints are all sealed vs. not being mandatory in the OBCS

·         All windows need to be ENERGY STAR certified vs. not being mandatory in the OBCS

·         Fully ducted HRV vs. the standard 50 CFM bath fan

The one thing in common for all home builders is that it costs them more to build ENERGY STAR certified homes, which is why some choose to offer this feature as an upgrade, leaving the buyer to determine if they want their home certified or not.

So what is ‘green washing’?

Here is where the problem lies.  Some builders are ENERGY STAR Certified (i.e. have taken the course), but are not delivering each new home owner an individually ENERGY STAR certified home. This is called “green washing”, and you could be a victim of it!

A lot of the features that must be included in the build are hidden behind the closed walls and ceiling. It’s almost impossible for the average new home owner to know if the proper materials or techniques were used to build an ENERGY STAR certified home. To check that your new home was in fact inspected, you need to look on your electrical panel to see the ENERGY STAR registration number for your home.  Some builders will even hand you a Natural Resources Canada Certificate confirming that your home was inspected and that it met the ENERGY STAR Building Code Standards.

If you haven’t received this certificate or you can’t find the ENERGY STAR registration number on your electrical panel, give your builder a call to make sure your home was inspected and registered with Natural Resources Canada.  After all, kudos to you for having made a conscious effort to become more energy efficient, and shame on your builder for ‘green washing’ your home.

Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for video blog on the ENERGY STAR certification in new homes. We’re meeting a nationally recognized ENERGY STAR builder with multiple awards under his belt, and he’ll actually show us the components that go into building to ENERGY STAR certified home.

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