The world of modern construction is always changing, with new tools and terms showing up every year. Even for people in the industry, it can be hard to keep up with the constant influx of high-tech solutions for the age-old issues in home building. With Ed’s background in civil engineering and building science, at EKA Build we have no problem staying on top of these developments and best practices.

One term that keeps popping up is the “high performance home.” We’ve all heard of high performance cars, or tools, or computers, but what does it mean for a home to fit this description? Does it refer to operating efficiency? Or maybe durability? Or comfort? What it means is that the builder creates a home that has these qualities as a result of being built right with the most up to date technologies and strategies. 

Built with science and modern strategies

As a homeowner, you’ve surely thought about the energy efficiency of your home once or twice, probably while looking at your monthly utility bill. Those charges can probably tell a story throughout the year with gas heating prices skyrocketing in the winter and electricity rates jumping in the summer. Despite the money you’re pouring into your energy companies, you still might be left complaining about drafts when it’s cold or hot zones in your house during the summer months. 

A high performance home seeks to remedy these types of problems, while bringing your bills down and improving the overall comfort of your home. Modern building science gives builders a vast toolset to create homes that do more than just outperform energy efficiency standards. Well informed builders bring a physics-based understanding to how buildings function with regards to heat, airflow, and moisture, and how these elements interact with the structure.

This modern approach to home building isn’t just about going “green” or reducing carbon footprint, though a high performance build will significantly reduce your reliance on fossil fuels and environmental impact. It accomplishes these things as part of a holistic approach builders bring to the design of these new homes, with the beautiful part being that this is just the right way to build.

Better than the best energy efficiency

Our top goal in any build is the comfort of the client. Luckily, one of the most impactful and measurable byproducts of building for comfort is an overall increase in energy efficiency. One of the largest operating costs of any building is the utilities you use to heat and cool your air and water. Many strategies are available to modern builders to keep that energy from going out the window. Our goal at EKA Build is to always craft a “tight” building that doesn’t throw away your energy. 

The building envelope is an extremely important element in new constructions. This is essentially the continuous barrier built around your entire living space, separating you from the outside. With expert knowledge in airflow and heightened attention to detail during construction, an airtight pocket can be crafted around your living space, ensuring reduced loss of conditioned air to the outside throughout the year. Properly sealed windows, doors, and ducts are also key to preventing this unwanted airflow.

A tight envelope, paired with excellent insulation will drastically reduce the heat loss or gain through your walls and roof. This allows air transfer with the outside to only occur where you want it to and where it can be controlled. We use a combination of Zip insulated wall panels,spray foam insulation and air sealing techniques (liquid flashing, tapes and caulking) to seal up your home and make sure there is no unwanted airflow.  Creating a high performance home takes incremental steps along the home build process, from the framers, to the insulators to the painters and great supervision to orchestrate a tight envelope and a job well done.

At the heart of your efficient home is a tailor made HVAC system that fits your living space. It should be sized appropriately to your home and installed with intense attention to detail, making sure that all ductwork is correctly placed and sealed. Newer air sourced heat pumps are becoming more available on the market and are far outperforming even Energy Star Certified electric and gas furnaces. With all of these considerations made, your house will be running smoothly, with as little impact as possible on you and your surroundings.

Aside from the greatly improved living conditions and drastic cut to your energy bill, the best part about building a tight home is that you can test it. We always perform a blower door test on our builds to check the quality of our work. This test essentially pressurizes your house to measure how much unwanted airflow you are getting. It gives a quantifiable rating to your building envelope so we can know if any more needs to be done. 

A comfortable way to live

The strategies used to keep your house efficient will also mean a comfortable living environment all year round. With a high functioning heating and cooling system, your house will have consistent temperatures in every room, year round. The only drafts you’ll experience is if you decide to open a window or leave the door open too long.

Forcing all of your air exchange through designated ventilation rather than allowing it to flow through the structure also means that fresh air coming into your house will all run through a filtration system. Your fresh air will not only be conditioned right away, but come in clean, so you are always breathing the highest quality air.

EKA build uses new, low emission windows to improve both the efficiency and comfort of homes all around the country. Reflecting solar radiation will keep your house cooler during the summer and keep you from choosing between losing your beautiful natural light and baking in the sun. Stopping UV rays from entering your home will also slow down the degradation of sensitive materials in your house like paint and textiles.

A comfortable home is a healthy home

Living in a high performance home will give you peace of mind from the various environmental factors that face many older homes. Your house should be a place where you feel safe and secure. In conventional builds, residents have to worry about air quality, allergens, mold, leakages of dangerous gasses, and various other unwanted particles. With a new home built the right way, these problems are all taken care of.

The airtight envelope plays a big role in preventing airborne contaminants. Without a sealed pocket around your living space, moisture can accumulate in the walls and crawl spaces and result in mold. The free flowing air can then carry spores into your living space along with other allergens, dust, radon, and volatile compounds picked up from the space between your walls or even from outside. Forcing all of the air through a filtration system will keep you safe from these harmful elements, an especially important factor for those with allergies or respiratory issues.

Modern building practices in the high efficiency world make use of building materials that contain less amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOC). These can be chemicals used throughout the building process in adhesives, paints, treatments, or other elements that have a tendency to leech into the air and cause respiratory problems. Without VOC in the construction, the list of possible contaminants in your home shrinks significantly.

Improperly sealed ductwork can also pose a significant threat to the safety of your home. The more obvious problem with leaky ducts is that conditioned air won’t make it to the correct places, wasting energy in locations outside of your living space. A more serious result is the transportation of dangerous gasses, such as carbon monoxide from your furnace to parts of your home where you could breathe it. With a new, high performance home, you will be able to rest easy knowing that you are always breathing safely.

All that and it lasts longer!

Unlike high performance tools or cars, a high performance home will be more durable and cost you significantly less in maintenance over the years, while only being moderately more expensive to install. One of the goals of modern homes is to give you less to repair, less to replace, and overall just less to worry about. 

The airtight envelope once again saves you a lot of headaches and keeps you comfy in your home. By creating airtight structures, modern builders ensure that no moisture will penetrate your walls, leading to mold, rot, and eventual structural failing. It will also keep pests out, not only keeping you safe and comfortable, but preventing any damage to the interior of your home.