Building America

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy02osti/30858.pdf

The Building America Partner Program's mission is to work with the residential building industry to produce communities of homes that use 30% to 50% less energy than the average community of residences. In addition to reducing consumer energy bills, Building America helps home builders reduce construction time and waste by as much as 50%. By using a “systems engineering” approach to design and construct homes, Building America implements innovative energy- and material-saving technologies that save homeowners and builders millions of dollars in energy and construction costs, as well as provide a safe, comfortable environment in the home.

Building America conducts systems engineering research to do the following:

* Produce homes on a community scale that use on average 30% to 90% less energy

* Integrate onsite power systems leading to "zero-energy" (ZEH) homes that will ultimately produce as much energy as they use by 2020 (PDF 852 KB) Download Acrobat Reader.

* Help home builders reduce construction time and waste

* Improve builder productivity

* Provide new product opportunities to manufacturers and suppliers

* Implement innovative energy- and material-saving technologies.