Building a Certified High Performance (CHiP) Home - Part 2

In Part 1 of this article we covered some basics of building/remodeling a home to a green certification program. We looked at making the commitment to build green, why certification is important and things to consider when choosing a green program.

Once you've done all of this, you need to know what it takes to actually build/remodel in a program. Well, here you go:

4. So how do you build/remodel in a program? When you build or remodel to a program, there’s a couple of things you have to do:

a. Hire a rater to work on each home – You have to have a third party rater to model the home before it is built and to test your home using the blower door test and other scientific calculations during and after construction. The rater will also work with your HVAC Contractor to get the system matched with the higher performance features you are installing. This is the same no matter which program you build to. Again, there are plenty of raters around. Find one that you like, and that can give you the best price and/or service.

b. Have the house verified to that program – When you build to a program, the certifying body need to be sure that you’re doing what the program says or they can’t certify the home. In many cases, the rater you hired to test your house is also the program verifier. However, the rater and verifier can be different people. When you’re shopping for a rater, ask if they can also verify in the program you want to build to… it will save you time and money if they can. In the CHiP Home Program, any verifier approved by NAHB or the USGBC LEED for Homes program is qualifed to be your verifier.

c. Build the home to the program – Your rater has worked with you to site the home properly, get the glazing correct and all of the other groundwork has been laid out. You’ve gone through the program and you know how to get the points needed for certification. Now…go build that house. Make sure your trade partners know that they’re building to a green program and what that means to them and their job. If the trade partner has never worked on such a house, make sure you or your rater/verifier explains anything they have to do differently to keep this house on track for certification. If one trade misses the mark, it could lose the certification for the whole house. The learning curve here is steep for your first green house or two, but you and your trade partners will get the hang of it.

d. Testing and verification – During construction, your rater/verifier will have to visit the home to do their thing. The verifier will visually inspect the home during the rough-in stage (before everything gets covered up), and keep an eye on the products/materials you’re using. You will have to keep records of all this stuff so you can get the certification, too. Again, the learning curve is steep on your first home or two, but you’ll get it. The verifier throughout construction will check everything the program deems mandatory, and items that you opt to do. Your rater will come in at the end and test the home with the blower door and other tests. This is where you find out the all-important HERS Rating of the home… the lower, the better.

e. Certification – Once all of the data is compiled and the house and accompanying paperwork is complete, you (the builder/remodeler) will send the required paperwork and fees to the certifier (USGBC, NAHB or the HBA of Greater Columbia in this case). They will review this information, deposit the check, and issue the certification for that home. Certification of a house in the CHiP Home Program is only $50. It is at least $150 per house for LEED-H and $200 per house in the NAHB Green program. Plus, we offer discounts to volume builders with a 12-month commitment.

Now you can market this home as being Certified Green in the program you chose (Check any guidelines or restrictions the program may have). Under our program, each home will be listed at www.columbiagreenbuilders.com and be searchable on an interactive map. LEED for Homes and NAHB Green do not offer this with their certifications.

Make sure the MLS Listing for the home shows that the home is certified. There are checkboxes for this in the bottom, right of the Columbia (SC) MLS form.

There you have it. We hope to have taken some of the mystery out of what you as a builder or remodeler has to do in order to build a certified green home. If you're in the Midlands of South Carolina, please contact us to start building to the CHiP Home Program today!

Building a Certified High Performance (CHiP) Home - Part 1

In an effort to help our members build green homes, we are now offering the Certified High Performance (CHiP) Home Program. This program is based on the 2008 National Green Building Standard(TM) and the HBA of Greater Columbia is the certifying body. This series of articles is intended to give builders more information on certifying in general and on our program. More information is at www.columbiagreenbuilders.com.

1. Make the commitment to build green. Regulations and codes are getting tougher every year. The 2006 IECC was adopted for South Carolina a couple of years ago, and we’re about to move to the 2009 IECC. Rest assured that we will one day go to the 2012 IECC and beyond. Deciding to build more energy efficient and High Performance homes now will save you and your trade partners a lot of time and effort when these practices become mandatory.

2. Why Certify? Building to a program – whether it’s the USGBC LEED for Homes, NAHB Green, EarthCraft House or our CHiP Home Program – takes a little extra effort on the part of the builder to accomplish. But having your home certified by a third party gives you credibility and your buyer peace of mind. Any one can say that their house is built a certain way, but with a certification, someone else is saying you built it that way. Liability is also a good reason for certifying your homes in a third party program. Misrepresentation of items in a home is easy to do, and can get you in a lot of trouble. Certifying in a program helps take away any questions as to how the home was built and what it contains. Get ahead of the mandates and start building better homes NOW.

3. Choosing a program. As we just mentioned, there are a lot of third-party green certification programs out there for you to choose from… and that’s a good thing! It means you can shop around and find the one that is best for you. But, to help you out some… when it comes to building to the program, they are all about the same. However, they are different when it comes to the fees charged to have access to the program and on a per-house basis. This is the reason we have developed our own, local program… we want our members to build green and spend the least amount of money doing so. Our program, the Certified High Performance (CHiP) Home Program beats the USGBC and NAHB per home certification fees by more than half.

The next article will lay out the five main points to building/remodeling green in a certification program.

BPI classes at a greatly reduced price

In partnership with the SC Energy Office - Midlands Technical College will offer Building Performance Institute [BPI] Weatherization/Energy Efficiency classes at a reduced price for a limited time.

They will be offering BPI Building Analyst classes in January 2012 at a per student costs of $500/student. List price for the class is $1620/student so this is an extremely good deal, but it is currently only available for the classes listed below. Funding is limited so registrations will be on a first come first serve basis. Please enroll today to reserve your seat.

· BPI Building Analyst class, January 9 – 15, 12 students max
Course number: CEWEZ-506-28

· BPI Building Analyst class, January 16 - 22, 12 students max
Course number: CEWEZ-506-29

· BPI Building Analyst class, January 23 - 29, 12 students max
Course number: CEWEZ-506-30

All classes will be held at the Airport campus in the RSC Building. Classes will begin promptly at 8 AM – 5 PM M-F. You must also complete your 2 hour “one on one field exam” either in the evening or on Saturday/Sunday/or the following Monday.

You can enroll online here or by calling MTC Registration Dept. at 803-732-0432.

If you have any questions, please call John Leighty on at 803-466-4055 [c].

H.R. 2454 Cap and Trade Energy Bill explained

We had a question come in from a real estate agent about H.R. 2454 and how it requires a home seller to get their home up to the latest energy and water regulations before it can be sold. It seems that this information has been circulating the internet and e-mail lists for a couple of years now, and we wanted to set the record straight.

H.R. 2454 DOES NOT mandate the retrofiting of older homes to the latest energy or water standards. The Bill, which has not yet passed both houses yet, does have language about providing incentives to homeowners who choose to make these repairs.

See this Snopes.com page to learn more about this Bill and what it really says.


The second part of the question asked of us was whether or not we had HERS raters in the Columbia area that could help homeowners make these repairs. The answer is YES.

It is the suggestion of the HBA Green Building Council that, if a homeowner wishes to reduce their energy bill through home repairs or remodeling, they contact one of these professionals to find the best and most cost effective ways of doing so. Taking a "shotgun approach" to fixing these problems my result in spending remodeling dollars on the wrong items and not reducing energy costs whatsoever. A simple home energy audit performed by SCE&G (or other power company/co-op) or using an independant HERS rater can pinpoint the exact cause(s) of energy leakage in a particular home thus making repairs more effective in reducing energy loss.

Learn more at www.columbiagreenbuilders.com or contact us to find a HERS rater in our area.

SCE&G 2012 ENERGY STAR® New Homes Program

SCE&G has announced its 2012 ENERGY STAR New Homes Program. SCE&G will be offering financial, marketing, and training incentives to participating home builders that construct ENERGY STAR qualified homes in its electric service area.

If you are interested in learning more about this program, a Program Information meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 16 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the SCE&G Lake Murray Training Center. Please e-mail Brad McCoy at BMccoy@icfi.com by Nov. 11 to secure seating for this session.