Blu Homes

I heard this story on public radio on my commute this morning… it’s a story about how hard it is for us all to quantify our home energy savings and understand the balance between the up-front investment for energy efficiency and the average monthly costs of the home (in terms of energy use, mortgage, taxes, insurance, etc.). The quick example on NPR was compact florescent lights (CFLs,) which cost a little more up front, but DO save money in the medium- and long-term. Beyond that, this challenge of knowing whether certain things like spray foam insulation, low-E argon filled windows, efficient HVAC, etc., are cost effective is something faced by most owners, and something that is becoming more and more important with energy prices rising.

We are providing data on energy costs for each of our home designs that is tailored by home design, region where you live and local utility rates, and position of the house relative to the sun. Our feeling is that this should be free data that is included when anyone buys a home – a sort of “nutritional label” for the house.

We are focused on these numbers to ensure that the energy savings from our homes are quantifiable and prove to you that it makes sense financially to invest in efficiency gains (not to mention all the other benefits that those gains will bring besides financial!)

We will be posting some of our homes’ energy use and carbon emissions vs. “average” homes numbers soon, on our website. It’s really exciting stuff, more to come soon~