(From the summer 2024 print newsletter) Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity recently celebrated a milestone in our ongoing efforts to make our homes more energy-efficient and cost-effective for homeowners: receiving certification through the Energy Star Residential New Construction program.
“Since we are all electric, and we are and have been building our houses so tightly and in compliance with, or even beyond, the international energy conservation codes, we checked to see if we could get our Energy Star rating,” explains Eric Wells, construction superintendent. “We were practically doing 95% of what we needed to do.”
One change we did have to make, he says, was upgrading bathroom fans and other appliances to Energy Star-rated models. Another adjustment was adding foam board to the insulation already installed in truss heels—the space in the attic where the roof meets the walls—to ensure air can’t pass between the interior and outdoors.
While our homes aren’t yet net-zero—meaning they would produce as much as energy as they consume,
or even more—we’re working toward this goal. Transitioning from natural gas to all-electric homes, a process we began in 2022 and completed in increments, has positive environmental impacts and also has lowered homeowners’ utility costs.
“We can generate electricity, and so our goal with going all electric with our houses is just one more step towards the net-zero,” Wells explains. “We also removed gas because no matter how much you use…you still have this basic charge for the meter itself every month.”
He says making the switch involved some risks but has proven worthwhile. We’ve replaced forced-air natural-gas units with hybrid water heaters, and natural-gas furnaces with mini-split heat pump systems. Pikes Peak Habitat staff served as guinea pigs, trying out a water heater at the business office and a mini-split system in the construction trailer.
“We did test it out on ourselves first, and we were fairly confident it would work,” Wells says. “It worked even better than we could have hoped for.”
Beyond eliminating natural gas, another reason for installing the mini-split systems is because they provide air conditioning as well as heating.
“Here in Colorado, and everywhere else, summers are getting warmer and warmer,” he notes. “After that winter and the following summer, where [the homeowners] were able to utilize the AC, which previous homeowners weren’t able to, it worked exactly as we had hoped it would.”
Wells continues to explore options for keeping utility and insurance costs down for homeowners while
making homes increasingly energy-efficient.
“What I like about what we’re doing here at Habitat is that we can be the cutting edge of experimenting with different technologies,” he says. “We’ll be able to find out what works for us as a builder, what works for homeowners for the long term, and the lessons we learn here are lessons that builders who aren’t nonprofit would be able to take from us and use in their own builds. We can show the rebates that we’re able to get to recoup some of these costs. We can show that the technology works and that people are wanting it; it’s a benefit, and we can show that we can do it cost-effectively.”
He concludes, “Our homes are some of the highest quality. I’ve built homes across the United States, and I’m really, really proud of what we’re building here.”
